A mini-guide to (almost) everything Ghi-related~

[Fr33d0m4ever]

Welcome to my (rather large) mini guide~

First off, please excuse my lack of organization/writing skills. I know it's not easy to read, especially with my sporadic comments/commentary everywhere... but I feel it necessary to get a point across. I also apologize in advance if the "~" annoys you... that's just my way of typing~ ;-;

Anyway, this aims to cover something in depth that... well, being honest, nobody should care about. And that thing is Ghi. (None of the story behind it or ghi amps... you can find a quick explanation of that here~)

I've divided this into 2 main sections (and a couple others for rambling~): "Ghi in general" and "Ghi Exp"~

Don't want to read it all? Here's a summary of everything in this guide:

-Ghi allows you to make use of your ghi abilities~

-Ghi constantly drains if you're alone, and increases if there's lots of people on the same screen (so you can make use of/ keep using your ghi abilities~)

-Ghi Exp allows you to earn/improve the aforementioned ghi abilities~

-Ghi Exp can only increase, and is based solely on how long you "stay active" according to the game~

-You get "ghi exp" by killing monsters, moving screens, and chatting. Nothing else~

[Fr33d0m4ever]

Ghi in general

As you play, you earn Ghi abilities. These abilities give you a passive bonus to 5 stats: Willpower, Health, Luck, Dodge, and Accuracy~

You earn all these in a set order (which is as I said when I listed the 5 different abilities). Before you can earn the next tier of ghi abilities (from minor willpower to regular willpower), you have to earn all the current tier of ghi abilties first (get minor health, luck, dodge, and accuracy too)~

These are what the abilities do at CL 10* (format and info copied from z!F Guide to Rings and Ghi):

*If you're not CL 10, you can still figure out your stat gains by taking your CL and dividing by 10. Then multiply that number to the numbers you see here. This does not apply for luck, which is the same regardless of your CL~

Accuracy

Minor: 20 Accuracy

Normal: 30 Accuracy

Major: 50 Accuracy

Dodge

Minor: 20 Dodge

Normal: 30 Dodge

Major: 50 Dodge

Health

Minor: 120 Health

Normal: 200 Health

Major: 300 Health

Luck

Minor: 2 Luck

Normal: 3 Luck

Major: 5 Luck

Willpower

Minor: 20 Willpower

Normal: 30 Willpower

Major: 50 Willpower

To actually make use of these abilities, you have to have your "ghi meter" full. This is the third icon that's to the right of your health and stamina at the bottom part of your screen~



The fuller it is, the more effective your ghi abilities are. At 100, they are 100% effective; 50 = 50% as effective; 0 = no ghi abilities are providing a boost~

You fill up the ghi meter by doing one of two things:

1. Being on the same screen as many other people~
2. Staying in Barton Town for a bit regenerates 10 ghi in 10 second intervals~

The specific rates you gain/lose ghi are uncertain; it is altered slightly by whether or not you are in a crew~

Do not confuse "ghi" with "ghi exp" though; that's another headache if you get into specifics~

Specific observations I can give:

-With no crew and being alone on the screen, you lose 1 ghi every 30 seconds~
-A 4 man crew on the same screen will not ever lose/gain ghi (or at least, nearly 15 minutes passed with 0 change any of the numbers~)
-Being on the same screen as 4 others (5 total), but not crewed makes you lose 1 ghi every 150 seconds (2.5 minutes)~

Other less certain observations:

-On a screen with 8-9 other people, I was gaining ghi back at a rate of approximately once every 30 seconds.
-Being on the same screen as 4 others, this time crewed, allows you to gain ghi at a rate of about 1 every 180 seconds (3 minutes)~
-My current sloppy tests show that being in a crew (of 2) slows down ghi loss/regeneration by 1.2 - 1.25... however the thing specifically works~
(Instead of 26 ghi lost in 13 minutes, only 21 ghi was lost while standing alone. No random people walking by either~)

[Fr33d0m4ever]

Ghi Exp

I hope you like the animated gif... that took awhile to make correctly from over a hundred screenshots~ ;-;

Gif not loading? Click here to see it~

Basically, you do things in game, and it raises~

The higher the boost you're trying to obtain, the longer it will take~

...More specifically:

There's 102 segments to the ghi exp bar~ ...I honestly don't get it either. Early ghi ability levels don't use all 102 visual segments either. Also, the first and last segment are roughly equal to half of 1 full segment~

You make that bar move by being active in-game. When you do one action, it lets you gain "ghi exp" for 60 seconds~ I'm also going to assume you gain 1 ghi exp a second. If you do any action before the 60 seconds are up, you refresh the timer for another 60 seconds from that point~

What counts as "being active" is:

-The moment you log in~
-Moving a screen~
-Moving to a different area~
-Killing a monster~
-Chatting on talk/shout/crew channel (only 30 seconds here though~)

What doesn't count is:

-Gaining and/or using rage~
-Hurting a monster/healing someone~
-Using a buff~
-Getting damaged~
-Whispering (or at least, the time I tried, whispers appeared to send, but the receiver never received it~)
-Talking to npcs~

Ghi exp gain time/rate is not affected by:

-Your ghi meter's level~
-The size of your crew/whether or not you're in one~

Now with that...

Approximate time needed to make the ghi bar move 1 full segment:

Red = Timed from beginning of bar to end~
Green = Tested each segment's time~
Black = Very rough estimated time based on previous data~ (Anywhere from 1.5-1.75 multipliers... with 1.66 being the closest match between all gaps)

1) Nothing - Minor Willpower: 26.4 seconds (total = 44 minutes, 25 seconds)... No, this is not a mistake~
2) Minor Willpower - Minor Health: 17.6 seconds (total = 29 minutes, 45 seconds to 29 minutes, 30 seconds on 2nd time while testing if crew size/ghi meter affected the rate at all)
3) Minor Health - Minor Luck: 50 minutes total
4) Minor Luck - Minor Dodge: 82 minutes total
5) Minor Dodge - Minor Accuracy: 80 seconds (estimated total = 2 hours, 16 minutes)
6) Minor Accuracy - Willpower: 140 seconds (estimated total = 3 hours, 58 minutes)
7) Willpower - Health: 240 seconds (total = 6 hours, 44 minutes)
8 ) Health - Luck: 396-399 seconds (estimated total = 11 hours, 6 minutes - 11 hours, 12 minutes) Messed up my timing, so couldn't continue on for more accurate results~
9) Luck - Dodge: 645 seconds (estimated total = 18 hours, 16.5 minutes)
10) Dodge - Accuracy: 31-32 hours total
11) Accuracy - Major Willpower: 1860 seconds (estimated total = 52 hours, 42 minutes)
12) Major Willpower - Major Health: 88 hours total
13) Major Health - Major Luck: 147 hours total
14) Major Luck - Major Dodge: 245 hours total
15) Major Dodge - Major Accuracy: 14520-14550 seconds (estimated total = 407 hours, 22 minutes - 408 hours, 17 minutes)

Total time for all ghi buffs: Around 1016 hours of active play time. I want to say it should be 1023 or 1024, but... that will require more exact numbers to confirm~

[Fr33d0m4ever]

...Wait what? What's with all the missing/uncertain/strange numbers?

I asked myself that as I tested this more and more... but many reasons (this focuses on the ghi exp portion mainly~)

1. The bar segments update in strange intervals. They can update at seemingly any time between 0 & 60 seconds (usually a multiple of 10-second intervals if you're lucky... but when that "10 second interval" is is another story.) Also, once the bar does update, it doesn't seem to update again until 30 seconds have passed~

2. The ghi bar itself doesn't update unless you close and open the window again (where on a touchpad, it takes me 3-5 seconds at fastest~)

3. If you do this testing out in a place others can walk around, it feels quite bad just moving from screen to screen at a snails pace and not respond to anyone that tries to talk to you~ (It happened a surprising number of times~)

4. I don't have access to an account at every single ghi level~

5. There were times that ghi exp went up early. Then on the next segment, it went up late. 30 seconds early/late from what I noticed~

6. The first and last lines of the ghi bar were roughly half the normal time needed to "move". That may have just been coincidence though~ Confirmed~

7. You try staring at the ghi bar for a long while, and you may become delusional about when it moves. I had to use screenshots to confirm that my eyes weren't tricking me~

8. Attempting to get info that's already so vague is downright frustrating~

9. I tried making a formula of sorts to fill in the missing numbers for time needed. But after I tested the full time needed for the first and second ghi boost, I saw it was a pointless thing to do. It's like the zOMG team put in random numbers to the thing. Doesn't help I can't get precise numbers... which could mean even more errors in making up a formula~ >>;

-----That said, if you want a very rough estimate of what the missing numbers are, multiply one of the existing numbers by anywhere from 1.5-1.75 and do some guesswork. At least, that seems to be within the range of all the time differences I've been observing~-----

10. I mainly made this to clear up exactly how that exp bar works. I think this is more than good enough for that purpose... I'll fill in the non-major ghi times at some point~

11. The ghi meter starts updating in 60 second intervals while crewed up but still alone on the screen... so it's also not a reliable source of exact information~

12. Most of this research is done on a whim. For what I feel are obvious reasons, I don't think any person would always willingly stare at a screen doing almost nothing for any extended period of time~

13. Server conditions affect results. Even the smallest hiccups can skew results. This was especially noticeable for the final ghi boost~

[Fr33d0m4ever]

Thanks to:

-Valheita for the idea that the ghi exp bar might have an update delay~

-Myrielle because I lied~

-A certain person for forcing me to usually talk here instead of other places~ *cough*~ Not anymore~

-A certain other person for letting me whine all the time~ *coughcough*~

-You all for taking the time to check/read my mini guide (+ random rambling perhaps)~

-Asking questions/providing feedback that helps improve the guide (possibly without you intending to have done so in the first place)~

-The rest of the zOMGers that have come and gone that ultimately lead me to where I am now~

-zOMG itself~

[Fr33d0m4ever]

Reserved~

Extra little bits of interesting info

Loot drop rates with regard to time

-Your loot drop rates for items and rings are influenced by time. Basically, if you stand around in-game for 20-30 minutes (can't log out/disconnect though), the next few monsters you kill will very likely give you orbs, loot items, and possibly a ring. All these even moreso if you have your luck stat high. After you receive one of those, the timer for loot, orbs, and rings resets. More time = increased chances to receive items~

-That's not to say you won't ever find 2 rings in a row from 2 monsters (it has happened to me). But if you're feeling lazy and want specific items, try that~

-Obviously I can't delve into any specifics, since there's no way of knowing the specific chance you have at any given time~

[Fr33d0m4ever]

Extra res'd 2~

[Fr33d0m4ever]

Open?~

[-Shiny_Tsukkomi-]

Wow. Awesome guide.

How long did it take you to make this?

[MiIiyah]

surprised HAI FREEDOM!!
and thank goodness for this. somoene needs to run to the admin and update the guides sticky!

[Roderick Ponce]

Fuga de amor ♥...

finally I got it o.o

Desilución ♥ ....

[Labcat X]

... Who seriously took the time to count the segments in the Ghi EXP Meter...? Did they count segment by miserable segment? Or did they measure a single segment and compared it with the total length of the gauge and did some fancy equation to come up with 102?

eek

[Jedly Deadly]

At last, this needed to be made.

[Fr33d0m4ever]

-Shiny_Tsukkomi-

Wow. Awesome guide.

How long did it take you to make this?

The animated gif took... 7 ish hours (4 getting the screenshots, 2 editing the screenshots, 1 making the animation)~

Testing the individual ghi exp times took... roughly 15 hours (the majority of which were major accuracy... making the bar move one segment and then immediately counting from there took ages~)

Testing the ghi meter took roughly 2-3 hours of observation~

Testing each individual scenario as to what affected ghi exp took 2 hours~

And other loose ends + writing this guide took another 3 hours~

So total... 30 or so hours in the past 4 days~ >>;

MiIiyah

*waves*~

Labcat X

*raises hand*~ ^-^;

Edit: Specifically, I found out there were 102 segments first via screenshots (as you saw in the animated gif~). Then, for early ghi levels, just timed the whole exp bar filling. For later ones (the ones in the middle) I closed and opened the ghi exp window every minute to get a rough approximation. With that, I then built up the exp I needed for one segment until I was 30 or 60 seconds away. And from there, opening and closing the ghi window as fast as I could without my eyes tricking me~

[Labcat X]

Fr33d0m4ever

-Shiny_Tsukkomi-

Wow. Awesome guide.

How long did it take you to make this?

The animated gif took... 7 ish hours (4 getting the screenshots, 2 editing the screenshots, 1 making the animation)~

Testing the individual ghi exp times took... roughly 15 hours (the majority of which were major accuracy... making the bar move one segment and then immediately counting from there took ages~)

Testing the ghi meter took roughly 2-3 hours of observation~

Testing each individual scenario as to what affected ghi exp took 2 hours~

And other loose ends + writing this guide took another 3 hours~

So total... 30 or so hours in the past 4 days~ >>;

MiIiyah

*waves*~

Labcat X

*raises hand*~ ^-^;

THAT. IS. DEDICATION.

I need that kind of dedication.

cat_crying