Rafting with thunder!

[Arty]

Thunder Rafting

This guide is for those who want to try out rafting but don't know what to do or where to start.
There are two main skills used in rafting. Thunder and Crash shot. You can also use beginner magic (icebolt, lighningbolt, firebolt), ranged attack, or demigod, but none of those are practical for real rafting.

This guide is about thunder.

The rafting experience
If you've never rafted before, then read this. Rafting is a "mini game" in which you raft down a river collecting stars, passing 2 stop points where you can exchange the stars you earned for rewards.

While rafting, hobgoblins (mages, archers, and warriors) will attack the raft from either side of the river. To earn stars, you must kill them. One kill = one star. If more than one person is on board, the stars are split between all the party members. So in a party with 3 people, 1 kill = 1/3 star. Because of this, I generally prefer to raft alone.

By the way, hobgoblin warriors jump onto your raft to attack you, while the others attack you from land with range or magic. So be sure to have decent melee skills if you want to counter the hobgoblins, otherwise bring a teammate to ward them off while you continue killing them with your thunder.

The three stop points are crucial if you want to exchange your stars for rewards. You may skip them if you failed to earn enough stars for the reward you want. You can also use the stop points to take items out of your pets, since you cannot use pets on the raft.

Here's a general guide to the locations of hobgoblins as you travel down the river:
Start
Right
Left
Fork - Turn left. Don't go right, that will lead you down a waterfall (although no steering is necessary to take the left path. you have to actually steer right in order to go down the waterfall)
Right
Right
First stop
Left
Right
Second stop
Both
Both
Both
End

When you have reached the end of the raft, exchange your stars. Then get back on the raft and wait. When the raft disappears, you will be taken with it and teleport back to starting raft area.



Using Thunder

Thunder costs the same amount of MP no matter what rank you are, therefore you must always keep a decent supply of MP potions.
Buy some mana herbs or MP pots from someone to get started if you don't have any. Rafting should keep you supplied with mana potions.

Your thunder should be at least rank B. At rank B, load time decreases to 5 seconds and hits 2 enemies per charge rather than 1. This makes it optimal for rafting.

At rank 9, the load time further decreases. And at rank 6, thunder receives a further boost and an even faster load time decrease.




Don't charge thunder 5 times while waiting for the mob. That's a rookie mistake. It wastes MP and isn't necessary. You can expect all monsters (except for the warriors) to die in one hit from thunder.

Another rookie mistake is moving too close to the monsters. Don't do that. Keep close enough to hit them but far enough to not get hit. Thunder has a huge range.

Collecting Stars

Remember, while rafting, one kill = one star. If more than one person is on board, the stars are split between all the party members. So in a party with 3 people, 1 kill = 1/3 star. Because of this, I generally prefer to raft alone.

It is equally important to not collect too many stars. A beginner's mistake is to overkill and get more stars than they need.

Look at this chart:

The bolded items are rewards that are guaranteed for that amount of stars. So, optimally, 28-30 stars = guaranteed 10 mana herbs. This is great, just don't go over 30 stars.

I usually kill to get 28 stars, then ride the rest of the way to the stop to exchange them for rewards. Because I have 28 and not 30, if a hobgoblin warrior or two jump on board, I'll have enough leeway to kill it without going over 30. Though nowadays, I just play dead as soon as I get enough stars and wait until I reach a stoppoint.

If you can't reach 28-30 stars, aim for atleast 19 stars. That way, you'll still get 5 MP 50 potions.

19 stars = 3 big stars, 4 little stars.
28 stars = 5 big stars, 3 little stars.

With the mana herbs, use them in potion making to create MP 100 potions. If you can't, find someone who will do it for you.
By the way, ch4... join / make a production party. This will increase your success rate. If it is under 50%, don't bother. Make MP 50s with them instead.

With r9 thunder and 125 int, I can get at least 2 stacks of mana herbs and 2 tipping suits (46k shop value) per run, while only using 4-6 MP 100 potions (1-2 if I trans).

References:
http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/index.php?title=Rafting

[Snowknight]

Nice guide. You can also included the spirit weapon talk option, I.e: Person talks to native finds that there is only mana and cancles taling, talks to ego then talks to native and he is able to get mana herbs and tipping suit. You can use the tipping suit to pay for the ride or mana pots 23k NPC good money. :)

Side note: It does'nt always work in one try of talking to ego then native.

[Arty]

Nice guide. You can also included the spirit weapon talk option, I.e: Person talks to native finds that there is only mana and cancles taling, talks to ego then talks to native and he is able to get mana herbs and tipping suit. You can use the tipping suit to pay for the ride or mana pots 23k NPC good money. :)

Side note: It does'nt always work in one try of talking to ego then native.

O_O I didn't know about that. Wow. I'm going to try it.

[Snowknight]

O_O I didn't know about that. Wow. I'm going to try it.

lol, yeah it's really useful.

[Arty]

Yep. It works. talking to ego switches the rewards. (tweeks it so I get tipping suit and stiff bastard sword every time)

[Crimmy]

Nice guide. I was thinking about ranking Thunder a little to raft more efficiently. Though I do wonder what the minimum rank and INT requirement would be for one-shotting Warriors?

Should be noted you don't have to steer the raft at all to avoid the waterfall. It automatically goes left.

[Cynic]

A few general fixes;

"Your thunder should be at least rank C. At rank C, load time decreases to 5 seconds and hits 2 enemies per charge rather than 1. This makes it optimal for rafting."
It changes to 2 enemies at rB, not rC.

"Thunder costs the same amount of AP no matter what rank you are, therefore you must always keep a decent supply of MP potions."
I assume you mean MP? =P


Otherwise, amazing guide. <3 I was actually trying to find out the minimum recommended rank for Thunder when rafting.

[Chihaya]

Do note that switching rewards are fixed after G13S2.

[Arty]

A few general fixes;

"Your thunder should be at least rank C. At rank C, load time decreases to 5 seconds and hits 2 enemies per charge rather than 1. This makes it optimal for rafting."
It changes to 2 enemies at rB, not rC.

"Thunder costs the same amount of AP no matter what rank you are, therefore you must always keep a decent supply of MP potions."
I assume you mean MP? =P


Otherwise, amazing guide. <3 I was actually trying to find out the minimum recommended rank for Thunder when rafting.

Thanks. Fixed ^^

[Yanm]

One thing you should change is that you CAN use pets on the raft. However, the only pet you can use are the Imps. They're able to be summoned on the raft and hot-air balloon. They're helpful because they can cast all 4 of the magic shields, so that can take away the stun and reduce some of the damage you take from an attack. Enjoy changing rewards while you can, as it's fixed in g13s2, so after they do an update to s2 and we get stuff like bow mastery, xbow mastery etc, you'll no longer be able to change it.