Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!

I am a poor mage, adventuring with my trusty leprechaun, and saving all my earnings for the meteor spell. Only occasionally traveling to Holiday Island. But now I tend to meet this horrible Tax Monster. If I have more than about 10k gold with me, I lose on this encounter (I tried it with more than 500k in my wallet, and lost about 40k and only got back about 2k in the end). This is bad for my plans with the spell shop...

Since Scroll #5 says the Tax Monster is a real criminal, I thought maybe having a Black Knight Detective with me would help. But it doesn't seem to.

So, I would gladly take a bailout package or any kind of hints what to do with the monster. I even have some money offered in the swap shop.

True to "real" life, the Tax Monster is very difficult to avoid, unless you have no money at all, as then you don't mind so much. You can try running away from them though, you might find one of the pets especially helpful there.

Well, true to real life, a huge federal bailout from Rux and investing it offshore in the swap shop helped.

I just thought that opposed to real life, I could be clever with the Tax Monster...

Ah hah. Yes, that also seems like a viable solution too. I think you were able to tickle Rux's funny bone just right.

\o/

Mad Merlin wrote:You can try running away from them though, you might find one of the pets especially helpful there.

I have this pet at level 15 and it is dutifully following me around. I just failed to run away twice from the Tax Monster before finally succeeding on the third try. Is this normal? I thought this pet gave a 100% chance to run away.

Does the Tax Monster live in one particular area, or will I have to contend with it from here on out, wherever I go?

Don't panic, the Tax Monster, as all other enemies, lives in one area only.

That certain pet that should not be mentioned by name does not work 100% of the time for me either. (Of course, mages don't need such dirty four-legged pets.)

Wally wrote:(Of course, mages don't need such dirty four-legged pets.)

Is Egress 100% effective after a certain level?

I'm guessing that this is not the intended use of the Swap Shop, but for 50 gold, you can keep the remainder of your gold safe from the Tax Monster for 48 hours. This is great for me, since the Tax Monster is now a cash cow, dropping at least 2x as much gold as other monsters of the same level. However, I can't believe that this is really intended. I'm just curious if there are plans to change any of this scenario?

I was under the impression that Egress works 100% regardless of level.

A few steps can be taken to slightly discourage using the SS as a banking service. If you go too far, however, you risk breaking the SS and preventing it from fulfilling its intended purpose.

I'm glad you are making money off the Tax Monster. I personally never encountered them frequently enough nor was anal enough about re-depositing my money in the SS to make much of a profit.

evev wrote:I was under the impression that Egress works 100% regardless of level.

A few steps can be taken to slightly discourage using the SS as a banking service. If you go too far, however, you risk breaking the SS and preventing it from fulfilling its intended purpose.

I'm glad you are making money off the Tax Monster. I personally never encountered them frequently enough nor was anal enough about re-depositing my money in the SS to make much of a profit.

Egress does work 100% regardless of level.

As for Swap Shop banking, I've been meaning to add an ATM to the Bank for awhile, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. In the mean time, people seem to be getting by with the First Bank of Swap Shop.

Mad Merlin wrote:Egress does work 100% regardless of level.

Is this something that could be considered a balance issue, or is it intended that a Mage has a 100% chance of escape while a Fighter (with the Pets and Skills/Spells that I'm currently aware of) does not?

Anything could be considered a balance issue.

The only times I've used Egress is when I made a stupid mistake and started another fight on my weakened Mage and when I actually had the 8 MP to cast the spell. I'm sure my Mage has a few deaths less than my Fighter because of Egress, but it's difficult for me to raise issue with this.

Overall I feel that the Mage having less HP than the fighter compensates handily for having a conditional 100% way of running away.

evev wrote:Overall I feel that the Mage having less HP than the fighter compensates handily for having a conditional 100% way of running away.

Yeah, I can see your point. The only times I ever really wanted to run away have been when fighting the Tax Monster or Account Ant and when I've mistakenly hit the "adventure again" link. Having a more reliable way of running as a Fighter would allow me to play less conservatively (often healing after each battle), but wouldn't have a large impact on Game!play overall.