Big Fat Achievements Guide - Popular Threadmaster

[jessicamundi]

Welcome to the Big Fat Achievements Help Thread!

Please heart this thread!

Contents:
• 1st Post: Thread contents, achievements I don't have yet, and notes.
• 2nd Post: The I ❤ Achievements Guide
• 3rd Post: Jessicamundi's Fast Track Guide & Tips for Forum Achievements
• 4th Post: Jessicamundi's Alchemy Achievements Guide

Achievements I don't have yet:
• Conventioneer: Awarded to anyone who redeems a convention code.
• Winged: Awarded to Gaians who successfully craft a pair of wings with Item Alchemy.
• Wing Mastery: Awarded to ambitious alchemists who craft every type and color of wings.
(I am not actively seeking any of these, but if you can help, feel free to message me.)

Notes
• This is an informational thread only.
• I am no longer doing requests, though I sometimes help randomly as I choose.
• Please heart this thread to help me with an experiment.


Watch him closely, every 8 seconds...

Thanks everyone for rocking my world!! emotion_bigheart

[jessicamundi]

The I ❤ Achievements Guide

This is the best Achievements Guide I've seen to date. Seriously check this out! There are probably achievements you don't have that you didn't know you could get.

To skip the introduction and just get an A-Z list of achievements, click here.

[jessicamundi]

Jessicamundi's Fast Track Guide & Tips for Forum Achievements



How to Use This Guide: Read this entire guide through BEFORE going for your achievements to get best results. This is a work in progress. One day it'd be nice to have a flow chart for this, but this is what I have for now.

Table of Contents
• Getting Started
• General Forum Achievements
• Group Achievements
• Invisibility Achievement
• Equipment Achievements
• Hidden Achievements
• Posting, Voting, and Tipping Speed Limits

Getting Started

Starting Your Thread: Start a new thread. In the subject heading, put the currently available achievements you're seeking. List those clearly in the text of your first post as well. Include a poll to start working on Inquisitor (even though it's not available to you yet), and remember to have a poll answer for people just seeking gold. Tell people to <3 your thread for Threadmaster (even though it's not available yet). When you get or progress on achievements, regularly update your subject heading and the text of your first post. Do this by editing your first post. Never change your poll, as this will ruin your numbers.

Getting Help with your threads: The best way to get help is to help others on the Achievements forum, let them know you're helping (be sure to quote them to get their attention), politely ask them to help you, and include a link to your thread in both your reply text AND in your signature. Always have a link to your achievement thread(s) in your signature.

General Forum Achievements



Perfect Setup: This is the easiest achievement. Just ask someone to quote you when they reply with: "That's what she said."

Popular Thread and Megathread: Popular Thread requires 50 replies (6th post on page 4) and Megathread requires 500 posts (5th post on page 34). You can achieve these all by yourself, no replies from anyone else needed. Most people do the Tipsy and Mark Twain achievements while working on these achievements. You can also work on Threadmaster and Inquisitor while working on these (do Firestarter on another thread).

Tipsy, Mega Tipsy, and Super Tipsy: You need other people to help you with this, so make sure it's in your thread's subject heading and on your first post. Make sure to post a lot, so people have a lot of posts they can tip rapidly (100 posts is best). Keep a running tab of your progress in your first post so people know how close you are to completion (due to a glitch, the achievements page does not track your progress for these; keep an eye on your Gaia notices when tipped). Tipping others back encourages more and faster tipping to you.

Big Tipper and Lavish Tipper: Only you can get these. Tip people who need the Tipsy achievements and tip back people helping you with Tipsy achievements.

Mark Twain: You need other people to help you with this. Include this in your subject and first post text of your achievements thread, asking people to quote you. There doesn't need to be anything in the quotes, just so long as there's that gray quote box with your name in it. People can quote you in other threads as well. You need 100 quotes. This is ideal when sought alongside Megathread.

Threadmaster OR Firestarter: NEVER EVER do these both on the same thread. It takes twice as long to get the second achievement if you do, because the people who previously voted on one achievement can't re-vote on the same thread for two months. If you do separate threads, each person can vote on each of the achievements. DO THESE IN SEPARATE THREADS. Threadmaster is completed when you have at least 100 votes and 92% of them are positive <3s. Firestarter requires at least 100 votes, and I think a rating between 4 and -4.

Inquisitor: Include a poll on every thread you make. Always include an answer option for people just seeking gold, so they can easily click without reading. Never change your poll, as it will restart the numbers.

Conversationalist and Elocutionist: Only you can get these, but do them on other people's pages unless you're seeking Popular or Megathread. Other people badly need your posts for their Popular and Megathreads. Quote them when they need Mark Twain. These achievements can be sought even before they're available, and seeking them is a great way to forward your work on Threadmaster, Firestarter, and Inquisitor. Just make sure you let them know you're working on them and include a link in your reply text and your signature. Conversationlist requires 1,000 posts, and Elocutionist requires 10,000 posts.

Group Achievements



Nudist Colony, Prayer Circle, Hive Mind, Clambake, and Sausage Fest: Group achievements are all of the achievements requiring 15 posts filling one page of a thread in uniformity. Here's rules for those achievements. Feel free to quote my rules on your group achievement thread.

Make a dedicated thread. It's advisable not to couple any group achievements with your Popular, Tipsy, Mark Twain, Megathread, Threadmaster, Firestarter, or Inquisitor achievements. It slows down the achievements involved because they have conflicting strategies.

NEVER Delete a Post. Even if you think it's gone, the page still counts your deleted post. This means the page will only have 14 posts and will be invalid for the achievement.

The First Poster: must have the achievement available. Someone who has already completed it, or doesn't have it available yet makes the page invalid for the achievement.

The Last Poster: When the last (15th) poster posts, everyone on the page must be in uniformity. The best way to ensure this is to have everyone in uniformity at all times until the achievement is rewarded.

One Post Only: Each person can only post ONCE on the page, otherwise the page becomes invalid for the achievement. This means no conversation. You only get ONE post per page.

Get Nekkid: When preparing your avi for Nudist Colony or Hive Mind, start by simply clicking the button that says, "Get Nekkid" on the avatar dress-up/equip page. If you're doing Hive Mind, only after "getting nekkid" should you then equip the chosen item.

Hive Mind: If you're leading this, make sure you are equipping only ONE item, and be sure that the item is cheaper than 100 gold, or have it be an item you will gift to participants. Expensive items are kind of a pain, however cool they might look.

Troubleshooting: These threads have many things that can go wrong with them: deleted posts, n00b double posters, absent-minded accidental replies to conversation (double posts), people not having their avis equipped or situated properly when the last post is made (which you can never retroactively prove or verify), folks from Chatterbox stumbling in and disregarding the rules, having the wrong Hive Mind item (having a Cool Starter Shirt instead of a Neutral Starter Shirt), and more. In most cases, aside from double posting, it's hard to tell who caused the page to be invalid. The key is not to blame anyone, even if it is clear who it was. Explain that the page failed, with a reason if you can clearly determine it. Then start a new thread and try again.

Multiple Pages: The trouble with multiple pages for these achievements is that the first poster of a page has to have the achievement available and not yet have it achieved. Often the 16th poster on a thread is just a random person helping out. To be sure that everything goes right, start a new thread over again for that group achievement.

Invisibility Achievement

This is the only forum achievement that CANNOT be done in the Achievements Forum. Make a new topic in Chatterbox (NOT the Achievements forum). Make it uninteresting and boring. Post during a busy time. NEVER tell anyone you're trying to get the invisibility achievement. Both short text and long text approaches have worked. If at first you don't succeed, try try again. Post enough threads, and at least one should get through.

Equipment Achievements



Tooth Fairy: Gift me buck teeth. I am always wearing wings (Elemental Wings, black, hard to see on the profile, but they're there).

Team Jacob: Equip a wolf related item such as a Black Wulf Tail, then save your avatar. *

Team Edward: Equip a vampire related item such as Dark Trousers, then save your avatar. *

Brandisher: Equip a gun such as a Cyan Water Pistol, then save your avatar. *

Risky Lifestyle: Equip a smokable item such as a Cig, then save your avatar. *

* All of these have been proven to work.

Hidden Achievements you may not have known about



Timid: Back out of posting at least 11 times. Click on the large gold Reply button (not the quick reply arrow) to go to the main compose Reply screen. Click on your browser's back button to go to the previous page. Repeat this 11 times.

Animal achievements: When dressing up your avatar, save your avatar as each of the types of animals. That's five very easy achievements right there.

Married, Divorced: Find a friend willing to do this with you. Go the marriage page to get married. After getting married, the Marriage achievement will become available as an achievement. This doesn't mean you have it yet. It may take anywhere from 10-60 minutes to process. You may have to sign out and back in again, and also visit the achievements page then go to another page. Once the Married achievement has actually been rewarded, then you can divorce on the marriage page. Again, the Divorced achievement will be available, but you need to wait a long time for it as well. Again, it may require signing out and back in, going to the achievements page, and then going elsewhere. If you fiddle around with it enough it seems to work.

Cool Cat: If you have enough Gaia Cash, buy a cheap animal form item (while in animal form) with Gaia Cash, and save your avatar with the item equipped in animal form. It can take up to 20 minutes for this reward to process, so be patient.

Ultimate Player: Friend at least 50 people, half of whom need to be the opposite sex.

Posting, Voting, and Tipping Speed Limits *



Posting: You can post once every 20 seconds on Gaia forums. This time increases when you get a message that says you are trying to post too fast. If you wait a full minute without posting, you may be able to post three times in rapid succession without any waiting.

<3 Voting: When giving a thread a <3 or </3, you can only vote once each minute, or 3 times in rapid succession every 3 minutes.

Poll Voting: There is no speed limit for voting on polls. Hurray!

Tipping: You can tip different posts once every 10 seconds. If you get a message that says you are trying to tip too fast, the 10 seconds starts over. You can re-tip the same post after an hour.

* These are generalizations given the nearly 30,000 posts I've made. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of these, but please cite a reliable source that states the actual rule clearly.

Thanks!
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I am no longer doing requests, but I'm keeping this thread for information purposes.
Thanks everyone for reading!! emotion_bigheart

(This post last updated: April 12, 2015)

[jessicamundi]

Alchemy Guide

Alchemy is a long, frustrating, and expensive process. For most folks seeking achievements I would recommend avoiding it. However, if you're really wanting to get all the achievements, here's some help guides and my own advice. I would say that getting all 10 levels of Alchemy costs around 30-40 hours and around 400 million gold (to speed up the process I actually used about 1 billion gold).

How Alchemy Works

Philosopher's Caches: Start by getting yourself some Philosopher's Caches. The cheapest way to get them is with Dumpster Dive. The fastest way to get them is by buying them in Bifrost (the Alchemy store). A good start is to just get the full 1000 Philosopher's Caches. You will almost certainly need more before you get to Level 10. Once you have caches, start opening them. If you have the 1000, unpack it. Then in your inventory, click on the item again to open one of them. It will reveal one of the various kinds of Philosopher's Caches (in relative order, from most common to rarest): zOMG, aquamarine, emerald, sapphire, amethyst, garnet, ruby, topaz, diamond, gold, and platinum.

Formulas: You can buy formulas at Bifrost, the Alchemy Store. The best way to do this is to skip trying to figure out anything in the store, and use the links in the following guide:

Nothin' But Cache is the thread I used to get my achievements. It's a wonderful guide that focuses only on the basic main items and formulas that can be completed with only philosopher's caches. This is crucial as you will find in Alchemy that most other formulas include items that are either prohibitively expense or simply are no longer available to craft or find. A lot of Alchemy is out of date, and I'm sure this used to be WAY easier when zOMG was around (I never got to play zOMG, but it seems like that was probably the case).

In the guide, go to Level 1 formulas and click on any one of the items. You will notice that some items require fewer caches than others, so you might go with the cheaper items. Also look to the future items in higher levels to see what components are needed later in the higher levels. The first three items on the list (Bottled Up Moonlight, Bottled Up Sunlight, and Cephalopodian Artifact) will be crucial later on.

Once you've clicked on a formula from that list, it will take you to Bifrost to buy the formula. I usually stop here, and skip to the next paragraph. But the other option is to gather your ingredients by continuing here: After buying the formula, click on Craft Formulas in the bottom left of the page, to go to the main Alchemy page. Click on the "Incomplete" tab, and then click on "Details" for the formula you bought.

Getting Components: Now that you have a list of the components needed for this formula, you need to get them. They'll all be in various Philosopher's Caches. The Nothin' But Cache thread lists all the caches that will have those items in them. There is a little guesswork involved, but you can figure it out with the numbers. If only 1 gold cache is required, look for one of the components that only requires a quantity of 1. That component will probably be in the gold cache. This is a lengthy process, but eventually you'll get all the components you need. Also, on rare occasions components will be cheap enough to buy in the marketplace. For components coming from rarer caches, this was a lifesaver. After opening 100 caches and only getting 1 or 2 of those rarer caches, I was so fed up, I was happy to blow a few million gold directly on the components I needed or on gold caches, all of which you can usually buy in the marketplace.

Crafting Your Formula: On the main Alchemy page, click on the tab "Ready." If there's nothing there you need to either complete a formula in the "Incomplete" tab or buy a formula to start getting components. Otherwise, if you've been following this guide, you should have what you need and can craft your item. Items vary in difficulty from very high probability to very low probability. It seems that the majority of Philosopher's Cache related items are very low probability. Luckily, the only thing that extra tries will cost you is time. You only pay the crafting cost once, and you only lose your components when you've succeeded. I have found that some crafting can take up to 100 tries. On other occasions, it's the first try. It's incredibly frustrating, but just keep plugging away. Be glad all it costs you is time (a lot of it, and rather pointlessly too).

Summary: Alchemy isn't actually too hard once you get the hang of it, but to get the hang of it, you really have to analyze that list of the ten levels of formulas by Nothin' But Cache, and you have to get to know which components are in which caches. On the other hand, Lei_Trigar has a list of caches, or here's my more condensed list:

Philosopher's Cache Components
Listed roughly in order from most common to least common:

zOMG: Aluminum, Axe Head, Biomorphic Power Cell, Blue Pearl, Branch, Brass, Bronze, Carbon, Charge Orb, Copper, Cured Hide, Damascus, Fish Scale, Glass, Gold, Graphite, Iron Ore, Kevlar, Leather, Music Note, Mystic Weave, Mythrill, Night Fire, Pearl, Pink Flamingo Feather, Pink Fluff, Plastic, Platinum, Ribbon, Rubber, Saw Blade, Screw, Shark Tooth, Silk, Silver, Skull Patch, Snake Eye, Starfish, Suede, Sword Blade, Teflon, Tentacle Piece, Thread, Tropical Bird Feather, Wing Tree Leaf

Aquamarine: Anycolor Lacquer, Bamboo Stick, Buffalo Sinew Cord, Bug Fuzz, Emerlad, Empty Bottle, Fail, Fool's Gold Nugget, Frog Slime, Glass Marbles, Grass Jelly, Ironwood Bark, Lesser Potato, Rabbit's Tail, Rough Cloth, Salt, Sea Water, Serpent Stone, Spring Breeze, Sugar Crystals, Troll Amulet, Tropical Clay, Tumtum Leaf, Turf

Emerald: Amethyst, Anycolor Paint, Bag of Petals, Chicken Fletchings, Disemboarded Keys, Dried Seahorse, Fine Cloth, Flax Seed, Geoduck's Shell, Gravite, Ice Crystal, Icespider Web, Licorice, Love Note Scraps, Mysterious Mold, Plastic Token, Rival Flame, Rose Quartz, Scissors, Shark's Blood, Spider Silk, Sprite Song, Staghorn Coral, Vegetable Lamb

Sapphire: Ancient Flame, Anycolor Enamel, Chalcedony, Cinnamon, Crystal Glass, Deer Sinew Cord, Diamondite, Fluorescent Fibers, Gears, Green Goo, Holiday Spirit, Honey Liquer, Mirror Shards, Monstrous Tooth, Mountain Air, Oni's Hair, Onyx, Rosewater, Shiitake, Smooth Whetstone, Tasty Ham, Turtle Shell, Werewolf Tooth, Wolfberry

Amethyst: Abada's Twin Horn, Amber, Anycolor Dyes, Banana Seed, Barbed Suture, Calcium Scraps, Copper Token, Crystal Crab Claw, Giant Squid Ink, Ginseng, Glittering Sequins, Golem's Toe, Green Leek, Gunpowder, Imported Lake Water, Medusa's Hair, Mineral Water, Rusty Tacks, Silver Token, Snake Oil, Spaghetti Tree, Steel Plate, Turtle Wax, Willow Bark

Garnet: Baroque Pearl, Cherub Feather, Cinderblock, Cyclop's Eye, Electrum, Fairy Toenail Clippings, Halogen Cloud, Jade, Lava Jelly, Lepidopteran Silk, Maggot Butter, Nightshade, Noble Spirit, Phoenix's Ashes, Star of Style, Stardust, Tangled Yarn, Tiger's Eye, Unicorn Poop, Vengeful Flame, Wisp of Cloud, Wolf Pelt, Wriggling Tentacles, Zombie Goo

Ruby: Abada's Hooves, Alligator's Skin, Amphithere's Scale, Bindweed, Comet Tail, Fire Salt, Fish Eggs, Fish Oil, Geode, Golden Webbing, Griffin's Beak, Haunted Object, Ice Sprite's Breath, Lotus Petal, Monkey's Paw, Moonbeam, Oni's Horn, Oni's Nail Clipping, Orc's Saliva, Sapphire, Showgirl Scales, Sunbeam, Unicorn Hide, Witch Hazel

Topaz: Aconite Root, Alligator's Teeth, Aquamarine, Bat Fat, Beeswax Loaf, Bolt of Silk Damask, Dust of Time, Gold Foil, Golden Apple Seed, Griffin Talon, Gunmetal, Hippogriff Talon, Obsidian, Orc Fangs, Pegasus's Hooves, Peridot, Raven's Feather, Raven's Feet, Screaming Mushroom, Ster Academy Student ID, Sulfur, Topaz, Troll Snot, Wizard Leaf

Diamond: Bakunawa's Red Tongue, Bigfoot Foot, Bloodgrass, Bronze Token, Cosmic Cell, Diamond, Dryad's Tears, Dust Motes, Fiery Curse, Go Berry, Golem's Scalp, Growth Formula, Helium Bubble, Ice Spice, Lace Fungus, Lapis Lazuli, Pixie Dandruff, Platinum Peach Pit, Quartz, Raven's Beak, Snow Jelly, Troll's Wart, Unicorn's Tear, Zurg's Shedded Skin

Gold: Alphyn's Scale, Alphyn's Tongue, Amphithere's Feather, Bakunawa's Whisker, Basilisk Tongue, Basilisk's Teeth, Crushed Gemstones, Dhampir Blood, Hemlock, Iliaster, Mandrake Root, Mermaid Scales, Monotonite, Mystere Perfume, Pegasus's Hair, Rainbow Strain, Ruby, Scorpionshark's Venom, Severed Soul, Siren's Larynx, Slothbeetle's Carapace, Succubus's Blood, Unidentified Object

Platinum: Adamantium, Bahamut's Bone, Cyclop's Horn, Dragon Guts, Elf Locks, Leviathan's Fin, Leviathan's Scale, Phoenix's Tear, Shell Casings, Succubus's Bone, Used Tissue

* * *

Thanks!
• As always, if you have questions, feel free to ask.
• Don't expect me to walk you through this long process (I already did that above, all you have to do is read).
• I did not include anything in here about making Wings or Wing Mastery, because after looking at the cost of the formulas alone, I ruled it entirely out of possibility. It's just incredibly expensive, probably near 1 Trillion minimum for each set of wings.

Other Alchemy Guides:
• Nothin' But Cache: In my mind, this is the most clear and useful Alchemy guide out there.
• Alchemy Guide Anthology: List of Alchemy guides.
• Ultimate Alchemy Formula Guide: Comprehensive Alchemy guide, but it's size makes it difficult to use. Also, it lists all formulas, including those that are almost impossible to make anymore due to zOMG no longer being around. Nothin' But Cache above lists only formulas which you can definitely make.
• Backwings Guide: For super-rich and insane people who want to try to get Winged or Wing Mastery achievements.

(This post last updated: January 31, 2015)

[kikikimmy]

eek

[CaptainTapole]

emotion_bigheart

[jessicamundi]

kikikimmy

eek

Thanks for the help!!

[jessicamundi]

CaptainTapole

emotion_bigheart

Thanks!!

[replicant invasion]

For the glory of the Sontaran Empire, we will mercilessly burn down this puny firestarter thread, and then WE WILL MELT IT WITH ACID...

wink

[Xx mAtSuRiKa xX]

Good luck~! heart

[ElegantlyChaotic]

0'd!

[jessicamundi]

heart BUMP heart

[Xantical]

heart

[jessicamundi]

ElegantlyChaotic

0'd!

Thanks!! heart

[jessicamundi]

Xantical

heart

Thanks!