H.A.L.O-Ballooning

• Royale wrote on 2011-06-19 20:15
  [FONT="System"]Welcome to the High Altitude Low Opening hot air ballooning training program, throughout the course this program you will familiarize yourself with an unique hot air ballooning technique and learn how to successfully utilize such technique when the need arises.
  
  As stated, H.A.L.O stands for High Altitude Low Opening, meaning you are going to be operating at very high altitudes , and the chance of you getting hit is rather low, leading to less casualty rate , which is ideal for low health characters. Halo technique is best utilized by projectile attacks, i.e. range attack, Magnum, throwing attack.
  Halo can be in theory done in any place with wyverns; however, there is one spot that maximize its efficiency.
  
  

  [Image: http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/1662/32c.png]

  
  
  This spot is chosen because wyverns are gathered in close proximity, making them easier to pick off from high up, and also because of a special effect that occur here, which will be discussed later.
  To begin, simply launch off the cliff, then go to the highest altitude possible (usually around 115m) and move toward the wyvern gathering point, once you stopped moving, proceed to pick off the wyverns form the safety and comfort of your balloon.
  
  Wyvern loopingâ„¢
  The mentioned special effect above is called Wyvern looping™, it happens when the wyvern dies but still keep the aggro, because Wyverns respawn almost instantly, they will come straight at you, but cannot attack you until they reach the same altitude, which allows you enough time to eliminate it. Wyvern looping™ doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens enough to make halo superior than conventional ballooning.
  Shown below is a video demonstration of how halo and Wyvern loopingâ„¢ works:
  [video=youtube;-ejzBtQLCz4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ejzBtQLCz4[/video]
  
  And this concludes the training program, good luck and happy hunting.
  
  
  additional notes:
  Only ice Wyverns loop.
  
  ts a good idea to not balloon on the same channel for too long, as Wyverns can become too dispersed and making it harder to get stars.
  
  It also seems that Wyvern can respawn at any gathering points, you could be killing one here and it would respawn on the other side of the map(needs more testing)
  [/FONT]
• Royale wrote on 2011-06-19 20:18
  reserved in case something catastrophic happens.
  this is my first guide, please be gentle
• Kyreffer wrote on 2011-06-19 20:35
  That's pretty cool, wish I saw this earlier this morning when I got 30 stars for a friend doing g8...
• cupid wrote on 2011-06-19 20:56
  Very neat. This will come in handy! :D
  
  Btw, second paragraph, first sentence. Spelling mistake. "yand".
• Royale wrote on 2011-06-19 21:01
  ah thanks, that whole sentence got a bit messed up....
  @Kyreffer the guide woulda been up faster if the video haven't took 5 hours to upload :T_T:
• Navy wrote on 2011-06-19 22:54
  your base dex, bow, upgrade and enchant info pl0x
  dowant.
• Fabian wrote on 2011-06-19 23:07
  Thanks for the guide! ^^
  
  About the looping, I've seen somewhere that titled wyverns are the ones that "loop". Not sure though.
• newpants wrote on 2011-06-20 03:25
  It's nice to see a guide like this. I switched over from rafting to this about a couple months ago (been hunting for hawk/viscount lol). Don't think I'll go back to rafting for exploration exp.
  
  
  I actually launch my balloon right after that cliff, though I don't think it makes much of a difference. I just get my balloon to 100m.
  
  They don't quite "loop".
  
  What happens is you kill one and then the next one that immediately spawns auto-aggros you. You can easily find the one that auto targets you by either looking and seeing which one is making a beeline for you or sometimes your target automatically passes onto targeting the next spawn. This can either repeat, the spawn has spawned far enough to not target you at all, or the wyvern has spawned into a lightning wyvern.
  
  As for dex/dmg, I ohko wyverns with 340ish max and r1 mag. I do use a few fire elementals equips though (been using them also for TMs in avon). In the off chance that you do get hurt (it seems to range from probably 40-160ish dmg), there's mana shield if you should run out of hp/pots. The only real issues are lag and desyncs causing misses and sometimes I notice that I can't get my character to target a wyvern unless I move the camera around to a different angle.
  
  Making use of a wing after you get 10 big + 1 little stars while on the balloon greatly reduces the time to start up another balloon. Though if a wyvern has "looped", it will continue flying all the way up to your altitude to where you were, so watch out for that when you return.
  
  I think I make a round trip every 3-4 minutes on average. Sometimes 2 and a half minutes if I don't miss. No need for flints unless you get terribly unlucky with shots.
  
  As for wyverns getting too dispersed, it just means they've all spawned a lil more to the west on the map. So, they can be brought back a lil if you just move your balloon to bring those wyverns back into your screen. Though, if that still doesn't help, yeah change channels.
  
  In the end, it's 1650~ gold per 4200 exploration exp (wing + balloon).
• Royale wrote on 2011-06-20 03:49
  @naked
  my stats are really nothing special:XD:
  
  @Fabian
  i believe only wyverns with the titles will keep the aggro and fly at you , how ever its possible for a untitled wyvern to die and spawn in to a titled one and fly at you, it really depends on luck; some runs can loop till i get 10 big stars and some run they don't loop at all.
  
  @newpants
  loops the best word i can think of :glasses: and i did mention how they work in the guide. Launching off cliff gives you about 10m of lavage which can save you a tiny bit of time, also i think sometimes the game won't let you aim if your stand directly above an object, like the gushers in the hot springs, so moving your balloon a bit might help.
• BizarreJuju wrote on 2011-06-20 06:58
  also if you want to make your trip shorter, bring goddess wings to go back to camp \o/ Also Lightning wyverns will be the most annoying in that area, sometimes they fly over your balloon, so you need to point your camera as high as you can to see where the sneaky L.Wyvern is bolting you. But I only fly up to 40-50m in the air, rarely find some above 100m. or actually how does the spawn work when it comes to height? do some randomly spawn over 100m after being killed around 30m area?
  
  I end up getting over 51+ star between 2-3 min
• Royale wrote on 2011-06-20 07:53

  Quote from BizarreJuju;482317:

  also if you want to make your trip shorter, bring goddess wings to go back to camp \o/ Also Lightning wyverns will be the most annoying in that area, sometimes they fly over your balloon, so you need to point your camera as high as you can to see where the sneaky L.Wyvern is bolting you. But I only fly up to 40-50m in the air, rarely find some above 100m. or actually how does the spawn work when it comes to height? do some randomly spawn over 100m after being killed around 30m area?
  
  I end up getting over 51+ star between 2-3 min

  
  this method only works with ranged attacks, magic doesn't really work with it at all since it won't let you hit them from that high. and i don't think Wyverns spawn higher than 80m
• Xemnas wrote on 2011-06-20 13:55
  Tried this, got sniped flying up and died.
• arklian wrote on 2011-06-20 19:43

  Quote from Xemnas;482447:

  Tried this, got sniped flying up and died.

  
  
  Get up to 100 m before you go over the wyverns.... There should be none near the cliff the op said.
• Aubog007 wrote on 2011-06-21 09:27

  Quote from Royale;481807:

  
  It also seems that Wyvern can respawn at any gathering points, you could be killing one here and it would respawn on the other side of the map(needs more testing)
  

  
  
  
  Good guide. But this general statement you made applies to all maps and places (can give general specifics later)
• Accoustic wrote on 2011-06-21 19:09
  Can't wait to try this out when throw attack time is decreased :)