[Image: http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss178/MrRime/titleballoonsmall.png]
[SIZE="4"] Hot-Air Ballooning? What's that?[/SIZE]
This little mini-game is required for completing the Generation 8 Mainstream quest chain, but it's always available for anyone to do, anytime, so long as they are in Zardine. The name of the game is hunting. You will need to use a hot-air balloon to gun down Zardine's indigenous wyverns. Each kill earns the you a set number of stars, which can be turned in for prizes through Kelpie.
[SIZE="4"]Starting up![/SIZE]
If it's a commonly belief followed rule that you should never go into a dungeon unprepared, then there should be UN mandates against sending youngsters to fly unprepared through swarms of aggressive wyverns (silly Belita). There sadly isn't a ruling body in Zardine or at least one that concerns itself with human life, but luckily for you, knowing the right provisions is as simple as 1, 2, and 3.
[Image: http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss178/MrRime/Supplies.png]
Hot-Air Balloon Kit
Balloon kits come in two versions: a small and a large version. Both are sold in Keplie's shop. The small kit is cheaper at 650 gold, but can only support two players and the balloon itself will lack ballistae. A large kit will cost you 3420 gold. It can support up to 8 riders and has a larger platform which makes it easier for your characters to move about. In addition to the higher capacity, the large kit includes four ballistae which can be used if you have ballista bolts. To set up your balloon, simply right click it from your inventory and select use.
Each balloon comes with an HP and fuel bar. The fuel bar may be replenished with use of flints, but is it impossible to restore any lost HP to the balloon's HP bar. When either bar depletes, the balloon will crash and then disappear (players will sustain no damage from this of course). There is no difference between the HP and fuel bar either type of balloon.
An important rule to remember is that once you've exited a balloon basket, your stars will disappear once you log out, change channels or re-enter a balloon basket.
Flints
Flints are the fuel for your balloon. You are given a full fuel bar when you first set up your balloon kit, but it will slowly deplete as time passes. Again, the balloon will crash and disappear once your fuel bar is completely empty. You may prevent crashing as your are able to refill the bar by picking up flints from your inventory and dragging it into the balloon's burner any time before the balloon begins to crash. Once your balloon begins crashing from lack of fuel, it will be impossible to replenish the fuel bar.
It should be noted that, by refueling at the very last second possible, you will obtain the "Daring Hot-Air Balloon Pilot" title.
[Image: http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss178/MrRime/refueling.png]
One flint will fill roughly 1/3 of the fuel bar. You will want to bring them in excess quantity since you may never know how long you will want to stay up.
Flints are sold sold for 5260 gold for a stack of 5 in Kelpie's shop. If you're not willing to shell out the money, you may use a pickaxe to harvest them from the molten boulders lining the base of Raspa Volcano during rainy weather.
[Image: http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss178/MrRime/flintminingsmall.png]
And just to reiterate, you may only mine flints during the rain as it cools these otherwise unapproachable boulders.
Elemental Equipment Sets
If you are unfamiliar with elementals refer to this guide: Elementals
Buy the cheapest, but highest durability clothes, shoes, hat and gloves you can get your hands on and two accessories. Enchant them all with the elemental of the wyverns you're planning to hunt. Hide whatever ugly mess that results under a robe, and equip two weapons or a weapon and shield (cooking pot/table works fine). Enchant those with your chosen elements and you should have a total of nine element enchanted items. By doing this, you will have gained near invincibility against your winged foes.
Now, why is this? Wearing nine pieces of equipment enchanted with a specific element will reduce the damage from that element to 1. For example, someone wearing nine ice enchanted items will only receive 1 damage from ice wyverns. This near invincibility is not only important for keeping your character alive, but also for keeping your balloon aloft, because your balloon is damaged in proportion to the amount of damage you receive! Remember, your balloon will crash once it's HP bar is empty.
Note: Magical robes (Fleta-repair only) cannot be enchanted with elementals. Light armors and heavy armors will not work, since two equiped accessories are required for full elemental protection.
Ballista Bolts (Optional, not recommended)
Ballista Bolts are used with the ballistae included with large balloon kits. Normal bolts are fairly cheap, at 120 gold per stack of 30. Their damage output is decent, but there are better methods of attack, namely magic, and they require you to empty your hands (loss of 2 items towards your elemental set).
[Image: http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss178/MrRime/Ballista.png]
Wings of Goddess (recommended)(Thanks UnNormal)
Wings of Goddess allow you to instantly warp back to Calida Base Camp. They can be used any time while flying, so if you have them, use them before the balloon lands to avoid pesky landing glitch.
Important: Make Sure to Bring Whatever it is You Need in Your Inventory!
You cannot summon a pet inside the balloon, and you must leave the balloon basket in order to retrieve items. Once exited, all stars must be turned into Kelpie, or else they will disappear once you re-enter the balloon.
[SIZE="5"]Magic![/SIZE]
[Image: http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss178/MrRime/Magic.png]
If you haven't already guessed it, this guide will teach you how to efficiently shoot down wyverns with your magical bolts. But the skies are archer territory you say? While it's true that archers have the advantage of further attack range and higher damage per second, magical bolts have the advantage of dealing damage independent to your elementally enchanted equipment. You can tank ice wyverns with ice enchanted equips, and retaliate without the trouble of having your damage reduced as you would by using archery!
Unlike archery, there is much more diversity to magic and one spell won't work for just any situation. Before you mages jump out of your seat, make sure you're able to tally your skills with the ones listed below.
Firebolt
Recommended rank: at least 5, casting time reduction + enough power to produce one-hit kills
Strong against: Ice, lightning Wyverns
Weak against: Fire Wyverns
A fully charged rank 5 firebolt is capable of killing a regular ice wyvern in one shot, and is the preferred spell when hunting them. Needless to say, this spell will provide the meat of your kills, and chaincasting capabilities make short work of ice wyverns.
Icebolt
Recommended rank: 9, casting time reduction
Strong against: Fire, lightning wyverns
Weak against: Ice wyverns
Icebolt bolt can repeatedly damage wyverns, but they will most likely fly away before a significant amount damage is inflicted. Multiple bolts from a fully charged icebolt, however, may be useful for finishing off one or more wyverns at very low hp, or those that have squeezed by your firebolt attacks in deadly mode.
Lightningbolt
Recommended rank: 5, casting time reduction
Strong against: Ice, Fire wyverns
Weak against: Lightning wyverns
Lightning has high single charge damage and faster casting time than firebolt. It may be useful for finishing off a wyvern that's hanging on with a respectable chunk of hp.
The reason I mentioned Icebolt and Lightningbolt in addition to Firebolt is because their shorter charge time and potentially lower mp cost make them efficient for picking off weakened wyverns. Firebolt has the killing power needed for hot-air ballooning, but it's slow and is straining on the mp supply; it should not be used in situations where the other two would suffice.
Advance magics will not work in the air, so don't waste your precious mp trying to use them.
Wands & Wand upgrades(recommended)
Equipping a wand will increase the damage and range of a bolt of the same element, giving you just enough range to beat the wyverns' breath attacks. Upgraded wands may be modded for chaincasting or decreased casting time, both of which reduce the preparation time necessary for multiple-casted bolt assaults. For firebolt spammers, a +2 or +4 chaincast wand would be ideal for wyvern hunting.
Equipment-wise, wands may be worn with a shield, cooking pot or cooking table. Whichever you decide to use, make certain to element enchant them so that they may contribute to your nine-piece elemental equipment set.
[SIZE="4"]
MP Conservation[/SIZE]
Since you'll be playing with magic, you may feel the need to juggle around with your mp supply in order to save money on those expensive mp potions. Worry not! There are a few tricks you can use to keep your ballooning excursions easy on your wallet.
Mana Tunnels
[Image: http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss178/MrRime/manatunnel-1.png]
The poor man's mp potion! Between runs, you can replenish your mp standing near the conveniently placed mana tunnel slightly west of Calida Base Camp. The larger the MP pool, the greater the benefit of the free mana recovery. Inexpensive will-o-wisp enchants are an effective way to increase your max mana, and thus, your exploitation these mana tunnels.
Mana tunnels are only active from 6am to 6 pm, so plan your balloon trips accordingly.
Transformation
When night falls and the tunnels deactivate, rely on your transformation to recover mp if it isn't needed for other activities.
MP as a Reward
The prize set for 41-45 stars always include the option of 10 mp 50 potions, which may last quite a few runs. Should you run low of MP, this is the prize to aim for.
Meditation
The increased mana recovery rate from activating meditation will yield significant amounts of mp in the the long run.
MP-Use Reduction Set
Having 10 or more points in "Reduced Mana Consumption" bonus from equipment sets will save you 10% of your total mp expenses, and 10% adds up in the long-run.
The prize set for 35-40 stars may reward you with a "Mana Witch" enchant which adds up between 1-3 points to the aforementioned bonus. Ixion and Balrogs (ground enemies) that reside near the base of Pera Volcano drop "Mana Summoner" outfits what can give up to 4 points if your lightning bolt rank is high enough.
For more information on enchants and items that carry points in mana reduction, click here.
[SIZE="4"]
Taking to the Air[/SIZE]
Now that you're prepared, you're probably asking, "Where do I go?" To the air of course, but more specifically, to go in pursuit of your prized, airborne game. But the skies are dangerous territory, and what goes up must always come down, one way or the other. Make sure to read over the tips below so that your balloon basket doesn't come down as your balloon casket.
Steering the Balloon
Clicking on the steering wheel brings up the steering menu. You will lose stamina at a constant rate while steering, but you can steer even when your stamina is at 0.
[Image: http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss178/MrRime/steering.png]
Altitude can be adjusted using the Up and Down arrows and you may set routes for your balloon using shift+click on the map. Landing is only possible when your current altitude is 40 meters or below.
Knowing your wyverns
There exist three types of wyverns: ice, fire, and lightning. Their stats can be found here:Wyverns
Recommended Wyverns
Ice wyverns are worth 3 stars each, lightning wyverns yield 4 stars a kill, and fire wyverns a whopping 5 stars. Wyverns with titles are twice as hard to kill, but will reward twice the amount of stars as their untitled counterpart. Because fire wyverns resist firebolt, your main killing attack, and because lightning wyverns spawn alongside fire element one, I recommend hunting ice wyverns while wearing ice elements to protect yourself. Whatever your preference, it is unwise to do battle with wyverns of an element you are not protected against.
Ice wyverns spawn southwest of Calida base camp, flying above volcano wolves. To the west are their lightning based cousins, and their distant fire-based cousins prefer to reside near Raspa and Pera Volcano. I suggest taking off in your balloon near the desired spawn areas to conserve flints.
Wyvern Attack and Movement Patterns
Each of the three wyverns use breath attacks which act like slow moving bolt spells with an small AOE. Ice wyverns have a chance at freezing players with their breath attacks, but this effect can be negated using the ice element magic shield.
The Wyvern's Maneuvers
Wyverns have two methods of assault. They will either use hit and run AI or they may hover around your balloon. When using the hit and run AI, a wyvern will distance from the balloon and then make a U-turn to attack with a single breath. It will then proceed to once again distance itself to repeat the cycle of attacking and running. During hit and run, you are only allowed a small window on opportunity for attack just before it breaths on you. Do your best to have a retaliatory firebolt ready by then. When a wyvern decides to switch to hovering, it will remain in range of your bolt spells and breath three to four breath attacks before switching AIs.
Titled Wyverns
Both titled wyverns and untitled ones will follow the same attack patterns, but the titled ones spawn at a higher altitude than the untitled ones. Untitled wyverns will always adjust their altitude in order to mount attacks, however, titled ones will not, making them difficult to attack at default altitude of 30 meters. I suggest raising the balloon altitude to roughly ~39 meters after liftoff to get them into your attack range.
Precautionary advice
All wyverns have fairly a large aggro range, so it is easy to find yourself in a situation where you've more them on your tail than you can handle. Full elemental sets will potentially save you by reducing elemental damage to 1, but repeatedly absorbing hits means that your equipment durability will suffer. Ice wyvern, with their notorious ability for freezing, will make it extremely difficult for players to prepare spells once many of them accumulate, and thereby increasing the occurrence of their freezing effect. Do your best to maneuver around large flocks and to only aggro a manageable amount of wyverns.
[SIZE="4"]Prize Sets[/SIZE]
Once you've amassed a desired amount of stars, you can head back to Kelpie to receive a reward for your troubles.
[Image: http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss178/MrRime/prizes1.png]
A list of prizes can be found here cause I'm too lazy to type them out.
The above link contains a general guide to ballooning, which may be helpful for those who lack the skills required by this guide.
[SIZE="4"]Example Run[/SIZE]
If my guide was tl;dr then maybe a video may adequately summarize all of its information.
~t's not done yet though, nye~ :P
I may take the time to make it once I get the built-in recorder to work for my computer. If anyone wants to donate a video of themselves ballooning, I'll be more than happy to post it.
[SIZE="4"]Ending Comments[/SIZE]
And there you have it, hot-air ballooning made easy for one of the most difficult play-types in mabi. Grab your friends, or even go it alone-just don't pass up this rewarding, yet surprisingly simple mini-game.
I pulled a lot of information from the mabinogiworld wiki, and even linked to it ^^;
Thanks to the players who've contributed to this repository of constructive knowledge and information.