Runescape: You Can have 2 Baby Jads!

 

2 Baby Jads!

Runescape: How To Get Baby TzRek-Jad: And Yes, You Can have 2 Baby Jads!

TzRek-Jad.  Baby Jad.  By now, if you've read nearly ANY of my posts since the original announcement of baby Jad, you know I'm sort of attached to him.  Strike that... better description... I'm sort of obsessed with him.  Long story, been told multiple times, but the short of it is, I really have an odd obsession about TzRek-Jad.

That said, went through some crazy effort, wound up getting him about 3 weeks after his release.

Okay, so all's cool, I'm pleased as punch with him, and life is good.  But, I've had the intent of someday going back to Soul Wars, and getting 100 more Zeal.. for a Baby Jad in the house menagerie.  Yes, I know that's a bit crazy.  Like I said...

Up until Thursday, I had no intention of pursuing it any time soon.  I really hated Soul Wars.  But this week was Jagex's vaunted Bot-Nuking Extravaganza.  Aside from dealing the bots a crippling blow, they released several bonus events in celebration.  One of those events... triple experience for a full day in Soul Wars.

 Knowing this in advance, I figured to do what I could Thursday evening.  However much it turned into would be that much closer to Jad number 2.  About 9:30 in the evening my time, after the daily update, Monique and I both sat down to score some Zeal.  Triple points?  Usually you get 1 point for losing, 2 for a draw, and 3 to win.  With the bonus, it's 3 points to lose, 6 for a draw, and 9 to win.  This adds up amazingly fast.

As much as I really hate playing Soul Wars, I got wrapped up in the intensity, and watching those points add up.  Friday was already booked solid, so I knew this was my only chance to take advantage of the triple Zeal points.  At some time early in the morning hours, I decided I was still wired, and had amazingly garnered 70 points already... so pushed until it was done.  By 6:00 this morning, I had Baby Jad number 2!!

That gives about an hour and a half to sleep before work.  But I don't regret it.  Drank some extra coffee, plowed through work, I can sleep some other time.

 Now Jad Junior's in the house.  And in the bank.  One for the menagerie, and one to hang out with me while I play.  I know.  Strange goal, insane effort, but it meant something to me, and I'm very very satisfied to have 2 baby TzRek-Jads.  I've done some Google and Youtube searches, and as far as I can tell, I'm the only one so far to have 2 of them.

Who knew?  Jad's a Dad... and it's twins!

Runescape: TzRek Jad (or "How to Raise Your Own Baby Jad")

A Boy and his Jad

     Okay, I'm going to have a 'me' moment today.  I've been working and obsessing like a mad fool to get TzRek-Jad, the baby version of TzTok-Jad.  Since the day they announced it, I've been working to get Baby Jad.  My first blog post about him was August the 3rd, he was released August 23rd, and today is September 17th.  So roughly a month and a half. 

     The requirements are steep.  99 Summoning.  99 Slayer.  A Fire Cape.  100 Zeal from Soul Wars.

      You buy him as a reward from the Soul Wars minigame.  When you pay up, it takes your Firecape, and tells you Baby Jad ate the Fire Cape!

      Lucky for me, the requirements weren't too far away.  Already had 99 Summoning and a Fire Cape.  My Slayer skill was 93.  Doing Nomad's Requiem gave me a bonus of 70 Zeal, which I never used.  So, 7 Slayer levels, 30 Zeal, and it's a done deal.  Sounded easy.  Until you start grinding away for a 99.  At least Slayer is a fun skill.  I did everything I could to speed it up.  Cannon, Steel Titan, potions…  and it still took a long time.

     Ancient Effigies really helped.  I had no idea how many get dropped when you power slay.  They're rare drops, but if all you're doing is killing things as fast as possible, and not stopping to pick things up (except effigies, dark bows, whips, and so on) then they show up reasonably often.  To be specific, on a good trip, I'd get 2 effigies.  One single day I had 3 assignments that netted 2 effigies each trip!  That was six right there!  A normal day would usually give me 2 or 3 effigies at a rate of one every other task or so. 

By the time it was finished, those effigies added up to over 800k of exp.  I had planned on selling my Slayer Points too, but never bothered.  Even after getting 99 Slayer, I cashed in 2 more effigies, and have 4 left in the bank. 

     Jad and I have a history, which I've already detailed previously.  For now, lets just say that I used to be able to beat him using Ancient Curses / Deflects.  Then Jagex changed the rules, and that doesn't work any more.  I'm still trying to learn how to beat him again.  So during my Slayer training, when Kuradal offered a Tzhaar task, and an upgrade to Jad, I always took it.  Since it was a chance to practice for Jad, and still make some exp, it was win-win, even if I got killed.

     Still working on Jad.  Might actually focus on it, now that I've finished this goal.  But with all of the history, I felt a strong connection when Runescape released Baby Jad.  Besides, I've already got a houseful of Baby Dragons, which used to be the coolest pet in Runescape until TzRek-Jad.  I love the cool pets.  I got so carried away with the baby dragons, that I collected 1 green, 1 red, 2 blue, and 5 Blacks, all in the menagerie.  I'd love to have at least one Jad in the house menagerie, maybe more.  I've got a spare Fire Cape, but getting all that Zeal is very off-putting.

 To the side is a quick shot of my menagerie.  The pets tend to wander around and spread out very quickly, so it's hard to get a good shot of all of them.

      Of course, a side benefit is the 99 Slayer.  I wasn't even planning to go for that yet, but it worked out well.  One of the first things I did after getting Baby Jad was to get the Slayer Cape.  It's a highly respected cape, and looks pretty cool.  The cape emote is pretty lame though.  Big bad Slayer gets attacked by this spindly little 3-legged monster, throws monster to ground, stomps monster flat.  I feel kind of bad for the monster.  It may not be practical, but for an impressive Slayer emote, the monster should be bigger than the player character. 

     I love the fact the Baby Jad is maintenance free.  No feeding, and he never runs away.  That's very nice.  I'm immensely curious whether he stays on death or not.  But not enough to get killed just to see.  You do it.  Not me.  He was too hard to get, for taking chances like that.  I'm also pleased that TzRek-Jad can go into your Player Owned House Menagerie.  He fit right in with my dragons.  Since I've only got 1 baby red dragon,  his Jad's red color provides a nice counter-balance to the baby black dragons.  But now I'm in a quandary.  I really hated doing Soul Wars.  Was very lucky to already have most of the Zeal points from a quest.  But if I want to put him in my menagerie, I'm going to have to play Soul Wars again.  A lot.  I've still got 2 more Fire Capes.  If I keep one, and cash in the other, I can have a Jad in the house, and one to follow me around Runescape.  But that's for the far future.  For now, I'm on Soul Wars retirement. 

Sit boy... Good boy!

     I'm thrilled to finally have him.  I wonder how many are out there?  I've only ever seen one before mine.  And yes, I know he's functionally useless.  No help fighting or carrying.  Doesn't boost any skills.  But he's just plain cool.  Plus, as Monique pointed out, having Jad is like bragging rights.  If he's following me, people automatically know I've got those 2 99's and have beaten Big Jad in the fight cave.  If I wear any other skillcape at the same time, that's bragging even more.  If I do the Taskmaster Emote at the same time, that's just too much showing off … hmmm, maybe I could do it just a couple of times?

Okay, so I'm proud of him.  But even more, I'm happy to have him, because I've wanted, and worked hard, to own my very own TzRek-Jad.  Not sure what I'll work on next.  But I know it's going to be fun!

Runescape Bunus Exp Weekend Over and Gone

So, the Runescape Bonus Experience weekend is over now.  How'd you do?

My 1 level raised over the Bonus Exp Weekend...

Let's start off by saying Monique smoked me.  She left skid marks on the road, and me standing in a cloud of dust.  Early Friday morning, I was aware she had just gotten 97 in Herblore.  A short while later, she sent me an email.  All it said was "98".  By the time I got home she was nearing 99, and had her skill cape in no time flat.  I asked how she was screaming through it so fast, she said she was making overloads from scratch.  Sounds expensive, but she'll use them on Slayer and make it back.
In the meantime, she moved over to Crafting, and gained a few levels in that.  Then she jumped to Fletching, which is where she spent the rest of the weekend.  Her goal was to get at least 93 Fletching, in order to be able to do all levels of Effigies for Fletching/Woodcutting.  Neither of us has that at the moment.  Or, we didn't.
We'll get back to the effigies in a moment...

In the meantime, I started bonus exp weekend having just barely begun Slayer level 97.  I use Super Sets (Strength and Attack), Turmoil, Soul Split, Cannonballs, whatever I can to speed it up.  I don't pick up any drops unless they're especially good... like Effigies.  No extremes, though.  My herblore's only 89, which limits which ones I can make... and I don't want to take the time from Slayer to make them.  When it makes sense, I use Dragon Claws special, or Vine Whip special, Korasi's special, or the Enhanced Excalibur.

Steel Titan, Cannon, Potions, every advantage possible

I skip slow tasks, even if I like them.  Right now, all I want is speed.  So, during the weekend I got a grand total of over 6 million exp.  I wish it all went to Slayer, but of course most of it was just plain old combat.  Of that number, 1,200,000 or so went to Slayer.

While working on the skill, I got a ton of Effigy drops.  I quit counting after a dozen, and just cashed in the ones I could, left the rest in the bank for the moment.

Now's probably a good time to talk about Effigies.  I don't know which monsters drop them, or what the drop rate is, but it seems to be rare, or very uncommon.  They have 4 stages, each of which requires a correspondingly higher skill level in different skills to unlock.  Each level you unlock (or someone assists you to unlock) gives experience points to that skill.  (Either to you, or the person assisting if you needed help.)  The final stage reveals a Dragonkin Lamp, which is used for experience in any skill you want.  The amount given depends on the level of the skill chosen.

Ancient Effigy

That's the short form.  For a full explanation, Wiki has a great webpage.  In my case, it's all going to Slayer, and at level 98... and yes, that's the only level I gained this weekend...  I'm getting about 46k exp per Dragonkin Lamp.

So currently, I've got something like 14 Effigies that I'll need boosts or assists to unlock.  Once I unlock all the lamps, that will give me about 600,000 exp.  I also have enough Slayer points to buy about 85k exp as well.

Monique assisting me with Ancient Effigy

To top it all off, tomorrow is Tuesday, and Monique and I will be doing penguins.  They'll give me close to 40k.  Which means, at my current Slayer experience, I only need about 300k more experience to get 99.   (Quick update here:  we finished Ritual of the Mahjarrat, and used all 80k exp lamps on Slayer.  I just need to finish cashing in my effigies to level 99!)

That's a lot of work, but without the Effigies, it would be tons more!  I think I can get it by next weekend (I hope!)

Then I start playing Soul Wars, earning Zeal points.  With 100 Zeal, TzRek-Jad will be mine (insert evil laughter here).  I can't wait!

Runescape: The Quest for Baby TzRek-Jad?

Concept art from Runescape

Have you seen Baby Jad?

Are you one of the lucky ones that already got him?  I'm not.  Darn it.  

I spent a couple of months earlier this year getting the hang of beating TzTok-Jad.  Got to where I was sleeping and dreaming Jad.  Yes... I'm a slow learning, and am truly horrible at real-time combat.  Just can't handle all the prayer switching while fighting.

Still, with a lot of practice, and many attempts, I finally beat him.  Got 3 capes, and called it quits.  Thought when I finished I'd never want to see him again.  But in a weird sort of way, I've grown attached to Jad.

So when Jagex announced that TzTok-Jad had a baby... and it's name is TzRek-Jad...   I just flat-out, no holds barred, wanted one.  Maybe 2, one for my Player Owned House!  Before knowing anything except his requirements, I knew it was going to happen.

The requirements?  Only the most restrictive of any pet in the entire game.  Baby Black Dragons used to be the coolest pet in the game.  They needed 99 Summoning and a rare egg dropped from the black dragons.  (Green, Blue, and Red are also available, just not as cool.)

Now Baby TzRek-Jad has the baby dragon topped.  Baby Jad reqires 99 Summoning (just like having a baby pet dragon).  But he also requires 99 Slayer.  Plus 100 Zeal points from Soul Wars.  Plus, you have to GIVE BACK a Fire Cape!!

That makes him pretty darned exclusive.  At this moment, I've got the 99 Summoning, but only 95 Slayer.  I figure about a month to finish Slayer.  Then start Soul Wars.  Don't even know how long it takes to play, and how quickly points can be earned.  But I'll find out in about a month.  Seems reasonable to assume another month for that.

Let's see, this is the end of August.  So around the end of October, or early November, I hope to have mine.  And no, I'm not patient.  It's killing me to not already have him!  But I'm very good at persistent.  And even better at obsessive.  So I'll just obsess over it until I've got it.  Last time I worked this hard for something, it was the Taskmaster Emote.  And just days after I earned it, Runescape released all those fancy capes for people who've maxed all their skills... or more.  

Kind of devalued my hard work.  But what the heck.  I'm playing Runescape because it's fun.  I'm sure not going to obsess on a Completionists Cape.  But Baby TzRek-Jad?  I think I can manage that.  :^)

By the way, since I don't have one of my own, I'm posting some YouTube videos that show him in action.  Enjoy.

Runescape: TzTok Jad's a Dad! Who'd have thought it?

 

I've been exclusively dungeoneering for some time now.  Either solo, or duo with Monique.  Made it to level 82 so far, and going well.  Next thing I know, Jagex has a behind-the-scenes update with a ton of things coming out.  But the one that caught my eye?  Baby TzRek Jad!

Yes, they're coming out with a pet baby Jad!  I spent a couple of painful months learning how to beat Jad, then wrote a very long and detailed guide about it.  All using the Ancient Curses/Deflects method, which requires no actual combat with Jad, and does not bring the healers out.

I should have put that in past tense.  Jagex recently decided that was a bug, and patched it.  Now, whether you hit Jad or not, the healers come out.  So I'm going to have to figure out how to beat him all over again, and modify my guide.  It's going to be a while before I get around to that.  For now, I've just added a notice to the top of the guide about the recent changes, with some suggestions I found online of how to work-around it.  

So, while they've destroyed months of work, and taken away the only way I was able to defeat Jad, Jagex also announced the upcoming release of a pet Jad.  Kind of like a religious experience... Jagex giveth, and Jagex taketh away...

Which makes me mad at them, and thrilled, all at the same moment, and about the same thing.  Life's complicated, huh?  

Focusing on the good side, it's a really cool idea.  And the requirements for getting a pet Jad are satisfactorily high, which means you have to really earn him.  Up until now, the coolest (and hardest to obtain) pet was the Baby Dragon.  To get one, you have to have 99 Summoning, then kill dragons of your color choice (Green, Blue, Red, or Black) until you get a Dragon Egg.  This in itself is a rare drop.  I've gotten an egg as quickly as my first 10 kills, and as slowly as nearly 300 kills.  It's random.  Only Chromatic Dragons drop eggs.  The metal dragons do not.

You can only have one pet baby dragon in your bank/inventory, but you can fill your player-owned-house menagerie up with them if you so choose.  Out of  15 slots, 8 of mine are dragons, mostly black because they're the coolest.  :^)

I'm not even considering the Dungeoneering pet (Sneaker-Peeper).  It's not especially great, nor are the requirements that high.  Not that impressed.

That's a pretty restrictive requirement, yet baby dragons are all over the place.  Not exactly common, but not unusual, either.  Baby Jad will change all of that.  Suddenly, baby dragons are not the coolest or most restrictive pets in the game.

How cool could it get, right?  In this case, right through the roof!  

First, you've got a baby of one of Jagex's most powerful, hated, and feared monsters.  If you beat Jad, you get the Fire Cape, so everybody can look and know you beat him.  Plus it's functionally one of the very best capes in the game.

Second, the requirements to get him are the most restrictive in the entire game.  You have to have 99 Summoning, 99 Slayer, 100 Zeal Points from Soul Wars (which takes a lot of playing!) and...

Finally... you have to trade a Fire Cape in!  If you've only ever beaten Jad once, this is a serious sacrifice.  But still worth it, as evidenced by Monique.  I've got three Fire Capes, so trading one in won't really bother me.  But Monique only has one Fire Cape, and has no intention of ever going back for another, yet she's willing to trade her one and only cape for a pet baby Jad.

That's a real sacrifice, since the cape is one of the best in the game.  On the other hand, she told me she rarely uses her Fire Cape, and if she's got a baby Jad following her, people will still know she beat Jad at least once.

So, is it worth it?  If you meet the requirements, and have multiple Fire Capes, then absolutely.  If you've only got one Fire Cape, maybe, maybe not.  And if you don't meet the requirements, then you may have a long haul before it's even an issue.

Me?  I've got 99 Summoning, and 3 Fire Capes.  But only 93 Slayer, and I don't like Soul Wars.  And still, I'm going for it.  I'll get my 99 Slayer, then play Soul Wars until I'm there, then proudly collect my baby Jad!