rangifer’s diary: The greatest hits
Essays
Game-analytical
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| An all too brief polemic against the post-Big-Bangification of nominally “pre-Big-Bang” MapleStory | cx | The closest that I will ever get to articulating a thorough analysis of the (unnecessarily) rotten core of MapleStory private servers. | |
| Is Zakum the tree, or the statue? | cxii | A thorough analysis of all cultural, historic, æsthetic, & philological sources used in the creation of MapleStory’s most iconic boss (& first expedition boss). | |
| On odd jobs | cxv | A condensation of all my thoughts on the subject of odd jobs. Also provides strongly-argued motivation for why almost any Mapler can benefit from playing an odd-jobbed character. | |
| Insurance against the explosion of the Earth | cxxii | A companion essay to “An all too brief polemic” that clarifies the relation of game balance to the game. | |
| Unlocking the mystery of LPQ’s 8th stage | cix | In-depth analysis of optimising LPQ’s 8th stage as far as possible, from a theoretical computer science perspective. | |
| Heal | cviii | Even experienced cleric players have little idea of what the Heal skill does & what its implications are. This essay drills to the core of how the Heal skill works, & what it means for MapleStory as a whole. | |
| On the way around the hypercube | cv | Unlocking the secrets of OPQ’s ⟨On the Way Up⟩ stage via Gray codes or probabilistic methods. | |
| Cool grades | ciii | A careful dissection of (non-)monotonicity in character progression, leading to the notions of “relative non-monotonicity” & “🆒 grades”. | |
| Is Amoria part of the Victorian Archipelago? | ci | A thorough review of the evidence for, against, & ambiguously related to this question. | |
| The unforgivably ugly | xcix | A very brief clarification of character class design, & polemic against MapleLegends’s (& many others’) approach. Can be thought of as a companion essay to “An all too brief polemic against the post-Big-Bangification of nominally ‘pre-Big-Bang’ MapleStory”. | |
| Zerk + SE = ??? | ci | An instructive introduction to MapleStory damage calculation: do dark knights benefit unusually greatly from SE; if so, why? | |
| By my hands cleft | cxiii | Important — yet obscure — information about DPM optimisation for buccaneer players, as well as some technical wisdom about MapleStory combat in general. | |
| Fatigue & loathing in MapleLegends events: A savage journey to the heart of the treadmill | cxiii | A polemic against MapleLegends-style seasonal events. Written in response to this earlier essay of mine: “Miscellaneous thoughts on event-exclusive PQs (‘A festive retrospective’)”. | |
| The STR–DEX–LUK continuum | cvi | Taking MapleStory stats seriously — for what they actually do, rather than how most people use them — leads to a more expansive & interesting perspective on character builds & equipment. | |
| The blood cleric | cxii | The most comprehensive single review of historic attestations of the so-called “blood cleric” character build, with a concluding analysis. | |
| Marooned on the island of Victoria, with nothing but a janitor’s mop | xcii | Is it possible to “balance” classic permabeginner-only weapons like the Sake Bottle & Maroon Mop in a way that satisfies both interclass & intraclass balance? This relatively thorough analysis says “yes”. | |
| Miss me with that shit | cvii | A careful breakdown of how skills like Shadow Shifter & Guardian work. | |
| Geography | c | A primer on the early geography of the Victorian Archipelago. | |
| Footnote for “Wooza”: #2 | xciv | Brief thoughts on the role of bishops in servers like MapleLegends: why is bishop (roughly) the most popular class, & yet there are no bishops to do game-content with? | |
| Stage 3 theory | cix | Thorough statistical analysis of all possible shortest times taken to complete stage 3 of the Butler Party Quest. | |
| Pointz | cix | Analysis of the probability distribution of Pumpkin Coins spent to craft a single perfect (+3) Zombie Army Ring in the 2023 Hallowe’en event. | |
| Une randonnée à Monaco | xcviii | Attempting to use a simple model, amenable to Monte Carlo methods, to calculate the difference in market value between a cape with good WAtk & four slots vs. a cape with even better WAtk & zero slots. Involves a small amount of computer code, but no programming experience is expected. | |
| Vicloc endgame balance | xciii | Is Vicloc “more balanced” than the base game (MapleLegends)? What would that even mean? A quite primitive — yet somehow more advanced than you’ll see anywhere else — attempt at modelling these kinds of questions. | |
| Dodging snails, avoiding mushrooms | lxxvii | What does avoidability mean for an islander? | |
| Behold: The claw archer! | cxxi | What is a “claw archer”, & wherefore? | |
| Footnote for “capreolina takes a vacation in Victoria Island”: #2 | lxviii | What exactly is there, on the (pre-BB) continent of Ossyria? |
Natural-historic
| date | title(s) & hyperlink(s) | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| O, Masteria! | cxii | A thorough natural-historic analysis of the Crimsonwood Mountains region & its immediate surroundings. | |
| Castles made of sand; A mushroom coral hill to die on | cxii | Small natural-historic selection from the Upper Aqua Road. | |
| Тайга́ | cxiii | Brief natural-historic analysis of the snowy El Nath mountainsides as a taiga biome. |
Linguistic
| date | title(s) & hyperlink(s) | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| *El Nath | liii | Whence El Nath? Is it Spanish? Arabic?? What does it mean??? How do I pronounce it???? | |
| Basic colour words | cviii | A clarifying essay: laying waste to the Berlin–Kay programme, “scientific” quasi-racism, & the myth of the “unga bunga man”. | |
| resurrection. | cxiii | Thorough linguistic analysis of one of my favourite map names: The Crown-Flyer. | |
| Footnote for “Vow of demolition”: #2 | cvi | The true etymology of Iruvata/Eruwater. | |
| Footnotes for “شَهرزَاد”: #2; #3; #6; #8; #10; #19; #21; #24 | cxii | Linguistic notes on & analyses of important names related to the Nihal Desert. | |
| 日菜祭り | cviii | An investigation of the etymology of the English-localised map name Hinamatsuri. |
|
| Το Ορβις, ο Αννατχ, κι ο Ύδατος Δρόμος; Footnote for “Down the rabbit-hole”: #17 | cvii | Etymology of Orbis, from a translation of a French Wikipedia article; further deep-dive into Xavier Delamarre’s proposed further etymology. | |
| Blue in tooth & fin | cxii | Linguistic assessment of the confusion caused by Korean lacking any equivalent of */f/, especially in Poopa/Pooper. | |
| Mps | cii | What is the meaning of “Mps” on the Malaysian roadsigns? | |
| Footnotes for “A grasp nullary”: #1; #2 | cviii | Lessons in Romanisation: Yāosēng; Rāvaṇa. | |
| Footnotes for “Down the rabbit-hole”: #1; #2; #4; #15; #25; #29; #47 | cvii | Assorted etymological studies: Mu Lung; Guon; Old Orgel; the “Charms of the Undead” found on Zombie Mushrooms, Faust, &c.; Luinel/Lucida; Scadur; Cerebes; Zeta Leticulan. | |
| Footnote for « La dragonne sombre »: #11 | cviii | Etymology of Hugin & Munin. | |
| Youkai?; Footnotes for “Hime”: #1; #2; #3 | xcii | Etymologies of Kappa, *Hadong; yōkai; Hime; Black Crow, Tengu, utengu. | |
| MeipelEstori | cxiii | Brief glossing of some in-game Malaysia signage. |
Technical
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| scroll_strategist finally gets lots of much-needed love | cxii | Introduction of a new & valuable version of scroll_strategist (for generating provably-optimal scrolling strategies). Includes a layperson-level explanation, simple examples, as well as a detailed technical section asking deeper questions about the inner optimisation logic. | |
| What’s our level range, again? | xci | Attempting to answer an interesting probability-theoretic question related to MapleLegends’s event mechanics. Requires a solid grasp of discrete mathematics, asymptotic analysis, computer programming, & a decent bit of probability theory. | |
| Bringing the Maple World into bed with me | cxiii | Getting MapleLegends to run on my (now defunct) elderly laptop, on Linux. | |
| Every day is leg day for Horntail | cxii | Investigating WZ data in order to calculate exact damage numbers taken by a player (me) from a monster (HT). |
Just for fun
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| MapleStory job instructor tier list | cxiii |
Musical
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| alces’s Theme | xcvi | The writing of alces’s Theme, which I wrote for my character alces. Fractals, the mathematics of doubling, drums, rhythms, pitch-class sets, & more. | |
| rusa’s Theme | cii | Analytical walkthrough of rusa’s Theme, which I wrote for my character rusa. Suitable for readers with entry-level musicological knowledge. | |
| tarandus’s Theme | xcix | Analytical walkthrough of tarandus’s Theme, which I wrote for my character tarandus. Involves some advanced techniques, but may be suitable for venturesome readers with entry-level musicological knowledge (no superstandard analytical frameworks are used). | |
| cervine’s Theme | lxxx | Monograph written in the process of writing cervine’s Theme, which I wrote for my character cervine. Requires a solid grasp of musicology, linear algebra, basic abstract algebra, probability theory, & discrete mathematics. Not for the faint of heart. |
Other
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Well, I mean… it feels good…? | xcix | Dismantling homophobia regularly witnessed in-game. | |
| No physician can cure this ailment | xcviii | Diagnosing overwhelmingly unhealthy sexual outlooks found in-game, via two small anecdotes. | |
| But first, a little history… | xcv | The history of roleplaying games (RPGs), from their very beginnings, through to MapleStory. | |
| Are you a robot? | cviii | A polemic against the unnecessary use of the ineffective & actively harmful technology known as CAPTCHAs. |
Stream of consciousness
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simply inexplicable | c | Character creation. | |
| I am hopelessly obsessed with Victoria Island. | cxix | ||
| Ill | cxviii | A troubled story of Maple. | |
| Pixelation | cxxiii | Pixel embodiment. |
Poetry
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ever still to haunt my house | cix | Narrative poem dedicated to a hybrid of the Haunted House & Haunted Mansion questlines, featuring axisaxis. | |
| Cervidae | cviii | cervid does some Masteria quests. | |
| 頂上を目指して〈第よん段階〉 | cxvi | A haiku (& a half). |
Gameplay series
Bossin’ Wif rusa™
| date | title(s) & hyperlink(s) | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| The epitome of faba; the quintessential legume; the very pink of beans | cxiv | Pink Bean shenanigans. | |
| alfredi | cxiii | rusa’s first six-Mapler Horntail run(!), lots of other HTs as both sed target & otherwise, PB shenanigans, & even more rusa-based tomfoolery. | |
| The orange bitch | cxii | DPM testing Bergamot, soloing the third body, analysis of a funny way I died as sed target in HT, bossing shenanigans with Taima & Lvl1Crook, obtaining my quite good Timeless Pendant, & a reflexion upon the experience of playing the dragon/dark knight role in PB (or in any other challenging content). | |
| R. timorensis | cxi | Dying to NMM, a little Burger Mothing & PBing, & reflexions on the anxieties of being a fresh face in high-level content. | |
| ˈʁuzə | cx | Lots of HT, some NMM, and a little PB & Nib. | |
| Accipiter | cix | Ravpap with the gang, NT touring with Harlez (incl. a disastrous bug), an interesting run-in with HT’s tail, PB, PB training, & dying to yet another nasty bug in a duo Zakum run. | |
| El haba rosada | cviii | rusa’s first Pink Bean! Begins with an explanation of the PB process, strategies, & some details of the fight itself. Followed by a discussion of my first impressions. | |
| La dragonne sombre | cviii | Trying out the new versions of Dunas II & Dunas I. A little Aufheben, a little Nib. Getting spicy-seduced by HT, & breaking HT entirely! A little bit of Shaolin. | |
| Oiseau orange | cvii | Berga with Beotch & Harlez; HT DPM test; 5-Mapler Zak. | |
| あしゅれい | cvi | Getting seduced by HT; getting my second Aufheben clear & completing the NT2 questline; hitting level 183. | |
| Gazing back into the eye of the beholder | cv | HTing with Funk; the new version of Aufheben; discovering HotB. | |
| rſa | civ | Lots of NMM, DPM testing, HT mishaps, trying to duo Core Blaze. | |
| ˈɹ̠ʷuː.sə | ciii | Berga shenanigans, getting the Bergamot chair, hitting level 182, obtaining poverty from NMM, & getting seduced by HT. | |
| शम्बर | cii | Video clips & discussion of getting seduced by HT. Some non-sed HT. Bergamot, soloing Grog, NMM, NTPQ. T10 get!! | |
| Seduce me ❤️🔥; The Spiciest Of All Time™; アキラ | ci | A whirlwind tour of getting seduced incessantly; perhaps the greatest video clip I’ve ever clipped; fighting 2nas for the first time, learning how to solo the Core Blaze JQ, NMM. | |
| rusasasasasasa; Horn? Tailed.; Auf; Footgun; Berga-flipping; 181; Tōkyō is ever new; ✨Moar✨ fun HT clips! | c | Dying to active Zerk & then CWKPQing; playing sed target whilst people notice that stuff just “MISS”es me; my first Aufheben!!!; dying again; Berga with Danger; hitting level 181; more NT; more fun HT clips! | |
| rusa is a big girl now. | xcix | rusa solos every fking boss ever (well, almost…), complete with footage on YouTube™, & an incredible animated portrait by Slime!! | |
| Woodwasp | xcix | A whole lotta gettin’ seduced by HT. | |
| Seduce me if you dare | xcviii | Tier list of my favourite bosses, meeting Danger & proteccing him in HT, goofy HTs with Funk, & an in-depth discussion of playing DK sed target. | |
| it me wuza! | xcviii | Monster Magnet moments, duoing Zak(!!) with xBowtjuhNL, duoing NMM with xBowtjuhNL, duo Nib with Harlez, & the seemingly neverending hardship of duo 2nas. | |
| Torn hail | xcvii | A bit of sed target EXP. | |
| ruser action | xcvii | Hitting level 178 in Zak; Krexing with Level1Crook; DPM tests; being lonely on Zak’s right-hand side; shocked reactions to my hyperzerking & Monster Magneting; JC; NMM; Core Blaze; Black Crow with MiIf, inject, & daggerknight; Scarga with Funk; duo Scarlion with xBowtjuhNL. | |
| Spiky coda | xcvi | My first HT run with Diggy, in response to a smega R>sed target! | |
| rusʹ | xcvi | Hyperzerking in JC; my Zak strategy; my first entrance into Aufheben’s lair. | |
| roosypants | xcv | Helping inhale get a BF toe; trying (& failing) to simultaneously dual-attack on rusa & capre; Samu & Crow with Harlez; duo D’una with Harlez; trio Berga with Harlez & xBowtjuhNL; hyperzerk reactions. | |
| Wooza | xciv | HTing with Funk, Core Blaze with xBowtjuhNL & Soblet, DPM tests, many Burger Moths, NMM. | |
| Unicolor | xciii | CBPQ & getting permayote. My first BGA/BGB/The Boss run!! | |
| Wǔlín Yāosēng; Tokyo (NEW!); Toadeating | xcii | Appling & hitting level 174 in JC; lots of NT, incl. Core Blazes & a wayward 2nas; running Castellan Toad for the first (& probably last) time, marred by technical issues. | |
| What hath Dunas wrought!; A squamate appears | xci | Berga & Dunas with Pebbytan & xBowtjuhNL, duoing Berga with xBowtjuhNL, trio Nib with xBowtjuhNL (who fell asleep) & Harlez; one of my greatest embarrassments, viz. d/cing due to technical issues & thus failing to keep my party alive. | |
| Berserkr; 未来トウキョウ; O, Horntail…!; 未来トウキョウ第二部 | xc | My introduction to the revamped Berserk skill; NT1 shenanigans; plenty of HT, including ruminations on failure, & my first experiences as sed target; my first experiences with NT2, incl. Core Blaze & 2nas. | |
| Horntail et plūs ultra | lxxxix | Horntail with Funk, Berga, CWKPQ. | |
| Neuromancien; Lézard terrible | lxxxviii | NT1; HT. | |
| Poverty dragon; Gently embossed | lxxxvii | Very wacky HT shenanigans indeed!; Pianus, JC, BF, & Berga with friends, rusa hits 30k maxHP with HB. | |
トウキョウ（未来）; Scarlion.tar.ga; Siricidae; Seed ubble euch ayyy peak you |
lxxxvi | rusa’s first-ever NT bossing! Berga with Sagie & Harlez, NTPQ, & Dunas!! Trying to solo Dunas like an idiot & running out of ACPs!!! Nib prequests; Scargaing; very many HT shenanigans; CWKPQ. | |
| Moloch horridus; Hittin’ big bad guys with a stick | lxxxv | Early HTing & a description of my approach/strategy at this time; Zak & JC. | |
| Horned Tail; Embossed | lxxxiv | Soloing Levi, and plenty of goofy HT runs where we struggle to clear & encounter many a bug along the way; JCing (& sometimes failing), soloing the warrior room, cleaving CWKPQ & looting a MoN, getting the Seruf chair, Zakking with absolutely zero ranged attackers. | |
| woosers; My very first Horntail runs!!!!! | lxxxiii | Level 154, T3, DPM tests @ Krex, Zakking, level 155~!, JC, level 156, Pianus, Zakking with Bipp & Harlez; my first-ever Horntail runs!! | |
| Big boss; Smol boss | lxxxii | Scar, rangeless Zak, naptime tree, JC; Samu, Ravpap (a wild capreolina appears!), Pianus. | |
| rusa vs. even moar bosses | lxxxi | Crow, sleepytime tree, Targa, Stonetooth get, Anego, Zak grows wings & learns to fly, more Japanese area-bosses, level 152~! | |
| Visiting Neo Tokyo for the first time; Scarlion & Targa, sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G | lxxx | Peeking into 2100 Odaiba for the first time; lots of Scar, Tar, & my first-ever Scarga. | |
| Bossy; Zakky | lxxviii | Pap, Krex; Zak. | |
| Horntail (1st-)prehead run!!; My first-ever CWKPQ~! | lxxvii | Trying out HT’s first prehead alongside Gruzz, xBowtjuhNL, Harlez, Bipp, & ItsPav!; my first-ever CWKPQ run!! | |
| Avenging myself against Krexel; Zakum~ | lxxvi | Enacting avengeance; getting used to Zakking, & obtaining a shiny new Sky Ski! | |
| Fighting Zakum for the first time in my Maple career!!!; Trying Krexel for the first time…‽ | lxxv | ||
| A lil bossin’ | lxxii | rusa steps up to the plate & does a bit of Zerking against the almightly Papulatus‽ | |
| Oversized villains | lxix | Fighting Black Crow & Pianus for the first time in my Maple career, passing Berserk 30, more Pianus. |
Questin’ With tara™
| date | title(s) & hyperlink(s) | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| BRAND-NEW Questin’ With tara™! (Wow!) | cxx | tara takes on the new Ellin Forest questline. | |
| Santa Claus’s favourite R. tarandus | cxi | Maplemas questing. | |
| Gobble gobble, motherfuckers; And from my neck ſo free / the Albatroſs fell off, and ſank / like lead into the ſea | cx | Thanksgiving 2023 questing; tier II of the HP Challenges. | |
| The mystery of the Prendergast Mansion; Ex mātrimōniō; Top secret military operation: “Nurture cute baby bird”; Health point challenges; Ellinia’s guarded forest | cix | Traditional Haunted House questline; post-marriage quests; Timer questline; tier I of the HP Challenges; finally doing Sabitrama’s JQ quests. | |
| A grasp nullary | cviii | Mawwiage~ 💒 | |
| You’d see me face down; beneath the silt & sands; buried by my thoughts | cvii | Hunting for the Iruvata Transmitter, complete with a mathematical analysis of hunting for rare drops; completing the Krexel questline. | |
| Vow of demolition | cvi | Making progress on NT & HT quests. | |
| In Scythia there is a beast called tarandus, which chaungeth likewise colour as the chamæleon | ciii | NT questline progress. | |
| And, weaponless herself, made arms ridiculous | cii | Progress on the ToT & NT questlines. | |
| VVicche o’ þͤ emty nief | ci | Buddha beads, ToT quest progress with inject, Jiaoceng prequests. | |
| Le chapeau de « l’érudit champignon orange »; Questin’ With tara™ | xcix | The beta version of the HP Challenges; 4th-job questing. | |
| Aquatic questation | xcviii | Carta the Sea Witch. | |
| tarantulus | xcvii | Eliminating King Sage Cat; Eliza; El Nath Mountains questing; “The Soul Collector”; Umi’s quests; Sabitrama’s high-level quests; BMM; “Mayor’s Request”; Leafre quests; Scarga prequests; Pap prequests; OSS-locked Pap runs; CDs; more China questing; “Blocked Path of the Ocean”; Snowman; levelling up; doing CWKPQ’s pirate room; ToT questing with inject; moar Leafre questing; getting a Scar hat; “Storming the Castle”; “Nanuke’s Ingredients”; “Destroying the Power of Evil”; Appling BF; Krex prequests; Monster Eraser quests; SoS quest; soloing Dodo; getting a MoN; more levelling. | |
| tarananana | xcvi | Taipei questing; PPQ quests; getting a BF toe; numerous other Masteria quests. | |
| tarandus the pugilist | xcv | Magatia quests; progress on the Dep Star questline; Rāv questline; Deep Lūdi; CWM; MPQ & moar Magatia quests; PPQ quests; finishing my Horus’ Eye. | |
| तारा | xciv | Golden Temple, low-level Phantom Forest/Haunted House, finishing the Dyle questline, Magatia, soloing Capt. Latanica to hit level 70!, 3rd-job advancement!, getting a mount, Legends of Hometown, The Messenger of the Toy Palace, “Eliminate the Tauromacis”, “Ito’s Request”, An Old Code, low-level Malaysia quests, Tae Roon questline, more MLG. | |
| Between Cassiopeia & Camelopardalis | xciii | Sleepywood 999-kill quests; Kerning JQs; Excavation Site; more Perion quests (incl. Stumpy); T1 get!; Jane the Alchemist; Faust questline; Sleepywood JQs; Rowen the Fairy and the Cursed Dolls; most of the Eliminating the […] questline; King Clang questline; Kerning swamp questing; A Spell That Seals Up a Critical Danger; Zeno questline; Scadur; many MLG quests. | |
| R. t. tarandus | xci | Capt. Latanica prequests; my first attempt at soloing the Captain; “No Gong’s Teaching”; “POLLUTED! ⟨1—Evil Eye⟩ (Part 2)” with VigiI. | |
| tara tara! | xc | Finishing The Chaos Behind Alfonse Green and the Nependeath Juice, Papa Pixie questline, one (1) OPQ run — with kookietann & Battlesage — for the aforementioned questline, “Alcaster’s Cape”, “Porter’s Challenge”, “The Tree Cutter’s Test”, “Fuel for MT-09”, continuing the Ariant questline, Magatia quests, El Nath, “Tiger-Hunting”, low-level Amoria quests, continuing Coke Town, In Search of the Book of Ancient, “The Fox Hunt”, Taiwan questing, soloing Snack Bar as a level 58 pugilist(!!), Thailand questing, low-level Singapore questing, beginning the Capt. Lat questline, low-level Malaysia quests, Mason the Collector, beginning Protect Ludibrium, Goblin at Black Mountain, “Alcaster and the Dark Crystal”, Scadur’s New Fur Coat, Hanako’s Foxtail Wardrobe, much more Zipangu questing, Umi’s Ambition, “Free Spirit”, “The Missing Mechanical Parts” on livestream(!), killing a Mushmom for “Movie Star”, Ninja Castle, Shànghǎi, defeating the Giant Centipede! | |
| Τάρανδος | lxxxix | Nependeaths, Richard’s Letter, beginning the Ariant questline, Zakum prequests, Zhelm get, Ellin questline, some KFT quests, The Chaos Behind Alfonse Green and the Nependeath Juice, Bob the Snail. | |
| tara taran’ it up | lxxxviii | Kenta’s Research, El Nath, low-level KFT questing, Lūdi questing, 1.5k Mateon’s Tentacles, more Omega Sector, trying “The Missing Mechanical Parts” for the first time & failing, Nemi, Karl, POLLUTED! ⟨2—Curse Eye⟩ with VigiI, Pet-Walking, more Órbis. | |
| Caribou | lxxxvii | The Sakura Garden, Huckle, Hughes, Moppie, The View of the Ocean, Kenta’s Research, “Tae Gong’s Love for His Wife”. | |
| R. tarandus | lxxxvi | A little Coke Town, “The Large Pearl”, Órbis. | |
| Meet tara | lxxxv | The journey begins. |
Bossin’ With tara™
| date | title(s) & hyperlink(s) | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ᚼᚱᛅᛁᚿᛑᚤᚱᛁ | cxxi | Passing my first Ephenia orb, hitting level 167, getting 5⧸5 Ephenia, learning what a touch-attack is, Gregzelling, turning purple, bossing with Gock & Harlez at the same time, standing on cabinets, witnessing JC’s kill move, a li’l BF action, & a brand-new Zhelm! | |
| Cheiromancy | cxiv | tara vs. Horntail, Zaqqūm, & — of course — Rāvaṇa. | |
| tarawrndus xD | cxiii | tara’s first Horntail, first Nibelung, plenty of other bosses, & even a wee bit of card-hunting-disguised-as-event-questing along the way. | |
| Suboptimal does Zak now‽ | cxii | The Suboptimal alliance has its first series of Zakum experiences! | |
| Volar | cxii | Bossing shenanigans — including Yāosēng & Scarlion! — alongside Taima, Harlez, Lvl1Crook, BuccjuhNL, Danger, xRook, akiwi, & others. | |
| Boss toss | cxi | Zak, Krex, Ravpap, & a particularly unfortunate encounter with a random. | |
| Borssing; Who died and made you boss? | cx | tara’s first entry into Core Blaze; Zak, Krex, Ravpap, & JC with friends. | |
| In quest impressed, & all the rest; ˈbɔsɪŋ; Puckishness | cix | Bigfoot with Taima & Lvl1Crook, making a little bit of NT progress, and some Zak & JC. | |
| A grasp nullary | cviii | Ravpap, Krex, BF, Pianus, Himes(??), APQ, Zak, tara’s first Scarga, tara’s first JC, BPQ, &c., &c.. | |
| You’d see me face down; beneath the silt & sands; buried by my thoughts | cvii | Krex, Ravpap, BF, & Pianus. | |
| Vow of demolition | cvi | Ravpap, the Phantom Forest, Pianus, & tara’s first Zak. | |
| In Scythia there is a beast called tarandus, which chaungeth likewise colour as the chamæleon | ciii | Baby bucc tara absolutely carrying in Ravpap/BF. | |
| And, weaponless herself, made arms ridiculous | cii | Cancel carp, Lilynouch, punching Rav, Pappin’. | |
| VVicche o’ þͤ emty nief | ci | Trying really hard to kill Rāvaṇa (& Pap). | |
| Bossin’ With tara™ | c | The official first episode. Appling in Ravpap, soloing Pap 2nd body, big parties. Finally scrolling a 32-stat STR RBD. | |
| Cancel Carp | xcviii | Pianusing with SwordFurbs & daggerknight. |
Card-huntin’ With alces™
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pierre qui roule n’amasse pas « moose » | cxvi | Card-hunting the Ellin Forest, beginning Perion’s Excavation Site, & some levelups. | |
| Dually doubled, twice betwixt, & twain yet againe | cxiv | Finishing up Malaysia, doing the Ulu City questline, getting some Shaolin Temple cards, & a little bossing. | |
| Sleeping like the (un)dead | cxiii | Miscellaneous card-sets whilst eventing (incl. a linguistic analysis of one of my favourite maps), card-hunting the Omega Sector, the El Nath Mountains (incl. a natural-historic analysis thereof), beginning card-hunting in Malaysia (incl. some linguistic analysis of the use of Malay), & attaining T9. | |
| 速 makes waste | cxii | Sleepy alces. Lūdibrium questing, Masteria card-hunting (incl. an extremely in-depth natural-historic analysis), Aqua Road card-hunting (incl. more natural-historic & some linguistic analysis), attaining T8, & duoing Skeles with AppleBasket. | |
| Moose xing | cx | Gryphons, MesoGears, the Haunted House, Leprechauns, & the beginning of Lūdi questing. | |
| Looseleaf macrofiches | cvii | Finishing up Shànghǎi, Singapore, Órbis. Beginning Masteria. T7 get! | |
| Card wish | cvi | Up the Eos Tower, duoing Lioner/Grupin/Cellion with Lvl1Crook, the Upper Lūdi Clocktower, Mu Lung, KFT, attaining T6, more KFT, & Shànghǎi. | |
| alx | civ | Duoing some Singaporean card-sets with inject & PriestjuhNL. Unlocking the Taunt skill, and investigating its properties & utility. Duoing Malaysia sets with inject. | |
| Lady palmation | ciii | alces’s card-hunting journey begins in earnest. Florina Beach, Magatia, & the Órbis Tower. T4 get! And arriving at the bottom of the Eos Tower. | |
| all says | xcvii | The precursor to Card-huntin’ With alces™: getting a HTP, doing lots of 4th-job questing, & the beginning of alces’s card-hunting journey, featuring inject — & a little game of “name that item”. | |
| Stab, stab. | lxiv | Questing: A Spell that Seals Up a Critical Danger, BPQ, T1 ring, Eliza questline, Fairy’s Horn Flute, lots of El Nath quests & Aqua Road cards, Ghosthunter Bob, Zeno questline, KFT quests, “Lost in the Ocean”, Tae Roon & King Sage Cat questlines, Magatia questing. |
Vicloc adventures
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| H34r me! d34r me!! | cxxi | Grogging & Puffing. | |
| Dee thirty-four are | cx | d34r tries out the new APQ, does some FoGging with Boymoder, & hits level 102. | |
| Islandry | cix | Hallowe’en 2023 event, incl. chairs, pendants, & earrings. d34r levels from 99 to 101. | |
| Resignèdly beneath the sky / The melancholy waters lie | cviii | d34r hits level 98, various GM events; summer event 2023. | |
| So the landscape returned to me; so I saw the fields rolling in waves of colour beneath me, but now with this difference; I saw but was not seen | cvii | d34r hits level 97; d33r wins every GM event in existence. | |
| What a rich, lucky island are we! Our enemies quail, for they know they will fail, against people so reverent & free | cvi | d33r scrolls Tangy Earrings & turns in some SoSes. d34r hits level 96. | |
| Siȝe eyot | cv | GM events. d34r hits level 95~! | |
| 1118 | civ | d34r duos FoG; d33r duos L1A4, hitting level 1118 in the process (thus maxing HA). | |
| And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands | ciii | d34r duos FoG with Furbs; d00r does some EPH testing. | |
| Victor India Charlie Lima Oscar Charlie Kilo | cii | Fitness, duo FoG, OSS-locked APQ, d33r hits level 72, d34r hits level 94. | |
| Archipelago | ci | Duoing FoG with BlackDow; attending the wedding of j0hnny & Yatta; OSS-locked APQ; duoing FoG with Wavedashing. | |
| Big-dooria Eye-lint | c | SoSing, scrolling an epic 13 INT cape, scrolling a crazy earring that actually has stats, FoGing, APQing, & scrolling The Greatest Gloves Of All Time™. | |
| Uictoria Ylelond | xcix | OSS-locked APQing, d34r levels from 90 to 92, Fitnessing, comical FoG mishaps, secret love letters, d33r easily conquers APQ, SoSing, & blurry Sauna Robes. | |
| Wiktowia Aiwand… | xcviii | d34r, xXCrookXx, & bak2monke take on many Jrogs, SoSing, & OSS-locked APQing. | |
| Viquloque | xcvii | OSS-locked APQing, plenty of duo FoG, the first appearance of a snowball GM event, big Vicloc party where d34r hits level 90 & d33r hits level 70, d33r × VigiI get married, d33r APQs for the first time, portrait of d34r by PrismIridescent, & the Deep Forest of Patience with Thinks. | |
| That island | xcvi | APQ with friends, d34r solos Grog first body & duos the rest with a bishop; funky round of Russian Roulette; trio Fog & hitting level 89; my first OSS-locked APQ. | |
| « Victoria » y triunfo | xcv | APQ Rombots; d34r hits level 88; d33r hits level 69. | |
| Viccy loccy | xciv | d33r wins Russian Roulette, takes on Commander Skeletons, Crocos, & Dyle, & duos CoEEII with VigiI; OSS-locked APQ; d34r scrolls a legendary 15-stat cape!!! | |
| Vicky Island | xcii | d33r does some adventuring & grinding with pilk & VigiI, levelling from 66 to 68 in the process; d34r hits level 87. | |
| Foggers | xc | d34r hits level 86. | |
| Níkē Island | lxxxix | KPQing with Viclockers on my SGQ/KPQ mule kinds, d33r card-hunting & Camp grinding with illadvised & LawdHeComin. | |
| Victoria Island (not to be confused with the island of Tasmania, which merely happens to be off the coast of Victoria) | lxxxviii | APQ with the gang, d34r hits level 85, illadvised doing ill-advised things, lineart drawing of d34r by Baboom. | |
| Victorious Island | lxxxvi | d34r gets stuck in the APQ entrance, d33r joins the worst Fitness event of all time, d34r hits level 84, Ola Ola, d33r uses two different kinds of claws to do the King Clang questline, APQing, moar questing, d34r makes the most epic shield of all time!! | |
| The meteoric rise of one “d33r” | lxxxv | Countless d33r shenanigans, mishaps, falls from great heights, quest completions, & levelups! | |
| Moar viclockin’ | lxxxv | illadvised scrolls 10 WAtk gloves, d34r accidentally commits manslaughter, my first Bomberman event, duo FoG with Thinks, farming Faust for scrolls. | |
| Vicloc: The second coming | lxxxiv | A new wave of Viclockers; my first Vicloc Fitness; grinding with deerhunter; KPQing with Viclockers on kinds; grinding with many friends; d33r hits level 60, d34r hits level 83; photoshoot; Jrog-hunting; scrolling my shield. | |
| Viclocked | lxxxiii | Grinding with pilk, the birth of Kelsey Meba, special event equips, d34r hits level 80 & 81 & 82, d33r solos ZMM, Jrog mocks me. | |
| Victoria-Island-locked | lxxxi | Lots of napkin-slaying alongside AppleBasket & Lanius, Shumi’s JQs, APQ. | |
| Victoria-Island-locked | lxxx | d34r hits level 78, Χmas raffling, d33r hits level 55 & tries Wraiths for the first time, d33r hits level 56. | |
| Doing my first-ever couples-only APQ! | lxxvi | d34r × xXCrookXx do a couples-only APQ with kookiechan × Permanovice & TerakadoTsuu × FatherSteaks. | |
| Vicloc status update | lxxv | Epic cape scrolling, d34r hits level 77. | |
| Vicloc questing with d33r | lxxi | d33r does The Alligators at the Swamp & the Faust questline. | |
| Just a lil bit o’ viclockin’ | lxix | APQing on d34r, d34r hits level 76, scrolling a really nice pair of WAcc Mithril Brists! | |
| Adventures on Victoria Island | lxvii | Helm HP 10%s, overall INT 60%s, cape INT 60%s, & Magik Fierry Bs. | |
| d34rventures | lxvi | APQ, FoG, & summer event BPQ! | |
| A lil viclockin’ | lxv | Breaking the 1M EPH mark, d34r’s Etc inventory, d33r gets better at the B2 JQ, moar napkin-slaying. | |
| Ape-y queue; d33r lays waste to thousands, nay millions, of napkins | lxiv | Post-mawwiage quests, learning how to fall off of PWF1, APQing for the first time in my Maple career!; d33r begins her B2 grindventures. | |
| Vic island questing w/ d34r; d34r & xXCrookXx leave Victoria Island in search of better PQs; d33r is stronk!!!; Getting that T2 before the big day; My first mushroom marriage; Hunting Jrog w/ KaleBeer | lxiii | d34r does A Spell That Seals Up a Critical Danger, “Luke the Security Man's Wish to Travel”(!), & Mrs. Ming Ming’s Second Worry; eloping to Ossyria; d34r scrolls the first Vicloc 10+ WAtk glove, a little cape, & finally finds a Golden River!! Plus GM buffs; d34r maxes her Monster Book Ring; my first-ever Maple marriage (d34r × xXCrookXx), Jrog hunting. | |
| d34r hits level 70!!! | lxii | Jrogging with xXCrookXx, being the first Viclocker to level ≥70(!!), & failing my only shield STR scroll so far… | |
| foggers; d34r, questing; Balrog, Junior; Icarus teaches d33r how to fly | lxi | Receiving an Actually Good Serpent’s Coil™ from xXCrookXx, duo FoG with Thinks, & finding a Hwabi; Dyle questline & Muirhat questing; epic Jrog adventures!; d33r hits level 42 & finishes the Icarus Cape questline. | |
| foggers; d34r, questing; Balrog, Junior; Icarus teaches d33r how to fly | lxi | Receiving an Actually Good Serpent’s Coil™ from xXCrookXx, duo FoG with Thinks, & finding a Hwabi; Dyle questline & Muirhat questing; epic Jrog adventures!; d33r hits level 42 & finishes the Icarus Cape questline. | |
| You hear a growl… an evil creature begins to appear; Firey feather; GM boofs on the island; The hunt for YWG; Jay queues; Cardz; Tablecloth ghosts; The serpents and arrows of outrageous fortune: The Serpent’s Coil | lx | The tale of the arduous first-ever Vicloc Jrog kill; Red Drakes & suffering; GM boof; a detailed look at the speedrunventures of d33rYWGslut; suffering at the hands of JQs upon the altar of questing; d34r does a li’l card-hunting; d33r desperately claws her way to level 40 & the Yellow Umbrella, & tries grinding Jr. Wraiths for the first time; the lengthy & mildly-traumatising saga of Serpent’s Coil grinding… | |
| The adventures of d34r; The adventures of d33r | lix | d34r hits level 50, meets a version of herself from an alternative universe, does Jane the Alchemist — incl. slaying the almighty Mushroom Mother, is hunted, does “Building a New House For Blackbull”, A Spell That Seals Up a Critical Danger, the Dyle questline, & gets the T1 ring, tries out FoG for the first time, and does the Faust & Casey questlines; d33r slays Stumpy, does “Icarus and the Balloon”, some Florina questing, & some scrolling. | |
| d33r; d34r | lviii | d33r duos Stumpy with SeaThief, kills moar area bosses, some JQing, scrolls a cape, & finds herself in HPQ; the O.G. adventures of d34r all in one big image featuring KPQ, 2nd job adv., JQing, Evil Eyes, cards, her first shield, the first Vicloc ZMM kill(!!), scrolling, testing HPQ’s bonus stage, epic boss-slaying, identity crises, & more!! | |
| d33r prepares to take on KPQ anew; d33r does KPQ; Questing with d33r; Meet d34r | lvii | d33r miserygrinding at CFD; d33r KPQing for real this time; d33r takes 2nd job adv. & does some questing with Sabitrama; d34r is born. | |
| Meet d33r | lvi | The humble beginnings of Vicloc, & the birth of d33r. |
d00r’s colourful journey to HS-mulehood
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behind closed d00rs | cxii | d00r lives up to her name, takes on some Magatia quests, begins & completes her MPQ journey, & ultimately hits the terminal level 81. | |
| The ascensi0n of d00r | cxi | Grinding to level 70 & then 3rd-job-advancing. | |
| A world t00r with d00r | cx | Grinding in every undead map, levelling from 57 to 67 along the way. | |
| Hysteria in the area of Masteria | cviii | Doing Masteria quests with GiIf! | |
| p0rtal | cvii | Omega Sector quests & Zakum prequests with GiIf! | |
| @ ur cervice | cvi | The definitive adventures of d00r: origins, & adventuring with GiIf & Skjal. Complete with an afterword & a portrait drawn by lesley (GiIf) herself. |
Other
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keming | cviii | KPQing on my SGQ/KPQ mule kinds; selling suī generis KPQ service to Danger! Complete with an analysis of the process, the economics of it, & some bonus footnotes. | |
| Oddjobs KILLS DEAD the Ravana‽‽‽; First-ever Oddjobs SPQ! | lxxix | The first successful all-odd Rāvaṇa!; Oddjobs does SGQ! | |
| Weal & woe, friend & foe, Suboptimal & Zakky | cxxi | A descent into madness in one part, feat. Suboptimal krew attempting a singular Zaqqūm run. | |
| All-odd bossing! | lxxvi | All-odd-jobbed boss runs in big parties: Lat & HH. | |
| Suboptibossing | xcix | Bossin’ with Suboptimal crew. | |
| A soulless pilot; a stolen clock; a stubborn fish; a Sanskrit villain; a stone edifice. | xcii | Bossing with friends! | |
| A clock; a cursèd tree; a cryptid; a character of evil; a captain. | xci | More bossing with friends! | |
| Bazen | xc | Yet more bossing with friends! | |
| Þͤ byſhop vvades in-to battel | lxxxix | Epic cervid bossing! | |
| rusa × Harlez | lxxxiv | rusa × Harlez wedding. | |
| Level1Crook × cervine; cervid × Taima | lxxix | Weddings! | |
| Bosslike | lxxx | Bossin’ wif fwiends, on many a character. | |
| GPQing for the first time ever! | lxxiii | SGQing for the first time in my Maple life, on my OPQ mule sets, with the GangGang guild! | |
| The final instalment of “card-hunting with capre” | lxix | My first-ever tier 10 Monster Book Ring. | |
| cervid gets Genesis | lvii | The deergenesis of legend. |
Other
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| The actual jump quest itself | cviii | A reasonably thorough breakdown of, & guide to, the Hinamatsuri JQ. | |
| Cookin’ Wif deer | cxiv | Cooking recipes that are actually cheap, easy, & written generically (substitutions abound!). |
(…cnvpstdf…)
cnvpstdf
| date | title & hyperlink | pt. |
|---|---|---|
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cxxi | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cxvi | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cxiv | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cxiii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cxii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cxi | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cx | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cix | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cviii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cvii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cvi | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cv | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | ciii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | cii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | ci | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | c | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xcix | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xcviii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xcvii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xcvi | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xcv | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xciv | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xciii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xcii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xci | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | xc | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxxix | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxxviii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxxvii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxxvi | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxxv | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxxiv | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxxiii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxxii | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxxi | |
| (…cnvpstdf…) | lxxx | |
| (…concluding nonverbal postscript to diurnal fragments…) | lxxix |