A Guide to Understanding Evolving Items

[emorexic-pimp]

In this guide you will find everything you need to know about Evolving Items. Whether you've been around the EI block a few times or the entire concept is new to you, this guide is here to help!

INTRODUCTION

Many gaians are well aware of Evolving Items, yet a surprisingly large number of them do not quite understand how these mysterious items work. Well fear no more, for I intend to explain each and every aspect of evolving items. I know there's a lot of reading, but the good news is that you can skip around and only read the parts that interest you! I tried to set them up in an order that made sense, but skipping around shouldn't leave you too awfully confused. Two posts I definitely recommend visiting are the FAQ and Visual Aids posts.

» If you see any mistakes, outdated, or incorrect information please tell me with a post in this thread or in a PM.

UPDATES:

To view old updates, click here.

1/23/11

Took a rather long hiatus from Gaia. Debating whether to update the guide or leave it as is. Since I wasn't even here, I'm currently assuming all of the basic information is correct, and for all I know someone else took the torch and got a newer thread going.

If anyone wants to help catch me up on the recent developments over here on Gaia and/or help me code some things back into date, feel free to shoot me a PM. I'm crossing my fingers that someone decides to help!

6/17/10

So many broken promises from my last update. Still haven't gotten around to doing almost anything from that. I'll try to get to some of those as soon as I can.

Ever since that free counter site broke down I'm not sure if anyone even uses this thing anymore though. If anyone has any links for free BBCode view counters PLEASE send me a link.

Comments/Concerns?

» Want to ask me a question about evolving items?

Feel more than free to post it here or PM me. If you want to post the question here but have me PM the answer to you, please say so in your post.

» Want to suggest that I add something to the guide?

Feel more than free to do so. I'm always looking for a more clear way to present all of this information better.

» Want a more condensed version of this guide?

Luckily for you, the lovely Toriki-chi has created just such a thing! You can find her thread here.

» Confused about any wording I used?

PLEASE post it so that I can fix it. Chances are that if you were confused, someone else was/will be.

» Have a guide you want me to link to?

Go ahead and ask!

» Want to leave a 'thank-you'?

"Thank-you"s are loved and let me know how many people this helped.

» Need more help with something else?

The fine people at the Q&A can help you with any problems you have with the site.

» Like this thread a lot and want to express it in some form?

You can help this thread by giving it some kudos in the MRC! Here is a post with the proper form to fill out to give this thread a thumbs-up.

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

KEY TERMS

This post is here so that you aren't "stranded" and left to fend for yourself when you start seeing terms relating to evolving items throughout the rest of the guide. The list is just like a dictionary, it goes from A to Z.

Evolve:

The action of an item wherein it loses one set of poses in order to gain another. Once an item is fully evolved, it will have access to every single pose from every single evolutionary stage.

Fake Pose:

The first 'pose' of any Evolving Item. Clicking it adds the pose to your avatar in an invisible way. It can also be used to fix the doubled pose glitch. The reason it is kept on the item is because it needs to stay there as the item evolves so that the thumbnails in the inventories of users do not change with each evolution.

Abbreviations

Admin »» Administrator:

"Leaders of the Community and Moderator teams. They are responsible primarily for high-level administrative tasks, billing issues, and overseeing Gaia moderation staff." Along with all of that, every so often, an Administrator will find time to make an Evolving Item or two.
++» Their names will show up in orange when they post or PM you.

CS »» Cash Shop: space [`OPEN`]

The place on Gaia where most Evolving Items can be bought for a limited time with Gaia Cash. When an Evolving Item evolves, the Generation in the Cash Shop moves up. This means that the Generation in the Cash Shop is always the least evolved.

Dev »» Developer:

Someone who works for Gaiaonline. Although usually used to generalize those that make the code for the site, it can also be used to include artists as well. If you have a layering problem with any of your Evolving Items, be sure to try and contact the Artist in charge of creating that item before asking Juno.
++» Their names will show up in brown whenever they post or PM you. This is true for any member of the staff.

EI »» Evolving Item:

A banner on the homepage once defined them as "Ever-changing items that get cooler all the time." Evolving Items are any items that undergo the process of evolving.

EIM / Museum »» Evolving Item Museum: space [`VISIT`]

Gaia's "official" source for everything you need that's Evolving Item related. It includes links to all the reports, a special try-it-on (first generation) area, and every EI so far along with it's status (evolving, finished, etc.). The only problem with the Museum is that it will often be awhile behind where items really are due to the fact that no Developer has been assigned to maintain it yet.

EIR »» Evolving Item Report:

A report that comes out every Friday in which the most recent evolutions and newest items are highlighted and new Evolving Items are shown. The Evolving Item Report has no set time on Fridays.

GC »» Gaia Cash:

The only currency accepted in the cash shop. Gaia Cash can be obtained in one of many ways including the purchase real life Cash Cards, completing Cash Offers, or setting up a Paypal transaction.

Gen »» Generation:

The Generation of an Evolving Item refers to when it was put in the cash shop in relation to the First Generation of said item. As confusing as that sounds, it all boils down to the First Generation being the oldest and the highest numbered Generation being the youngest. If you still don't quite understand, don't worry! It will be explained fully later on

FAQ »» Frequently Asked Questions:

Gaia has their own list of FAQs that is linked to at the bottom of every page. Evolving Items have their own page in it. The Evolving Item page currently contains little to no helpful information on the subject though.

NPC »» Non-Player Character:

Pretty self explanatory, they are used for characters in Gaia's plot lines and sponsor quests.
++» Their names will always be in red when they make poses or PM you.

REI »» Rapidly Evolving Item:

This is a special kind of Evolving Item that doesn't lose poses when it evolves and generally adds one pose a day for several days before it is finished.

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

THE BEGINNING

One of the main reasons why gaians tend not to understand EIs is because they missed the first official Evolving Item Report. Well fear no more because I am willing to take the most important bits and pieces of the first report out just for you! However, the first report is pretty interesting and worth the read if I do say so myself.

Dr. Singh and Timmy

Dr. Singh: Each type of Evolving Item will grow at its own pace. They start out like you: small, shrill and ungainly. As they grow, they'll become larger and more complicated.

Many people have this strange idea that every item should evolve at the same pace. In the above quote, you can clearly see that this was never an intention.

Dr. Singh and Timmy

Timmy: What if I buy one from the Cash Shop today? Will it already be changed?

Dr. Singh: No, Timmy. Evolving items are sold in generations. If you buy Fausto's Bottle today, you'll receive the second generation of the item, so it will take some time to start evolving. Once the second generation begins to evolve, the Cash Shop will begin selling a third generation, and so on. If you want to buy an evolving item, don't hesitate too much… items in the Cash Shop are subject to change, so you might miss your chance if you wait too long!

Timmy: Wowee zowee! So the sooner I buy an evolving item, the quicker it'll get to its final stage?

Dr. Singh: Exactly!

In this one you clearly see how generations work, and how they come out.

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

EVOLVING ITEM REPORTS

Here is a simple mini-guide to understanding the EIRs themselves. You can use this to pick out what is important and what parts you can skip. If you want to see the most recent EIR, it will be at the top of [NPC] Dr.Singh and Timmy's posts, in the Announcements Forum, or at the top of the list in the EIM.

At the top of each report is the a banner. If you want to see all of the banners used so far, click here.

After the banner, you will see a bolded section that looks a bit like the following:

This week: A brand new item (item X), final evolutions for items Y and Z, and new poses for items A, B, and C.

After that, you will see the image that displays the items evolving that week which will be followed by the following information on Gaia Cash:

Visit the Gaia Cash Shop

Get Gaia Cash cards at Target, 7-11, Rite Aid and Wal-Mart stores nationwide, or order Cash online. Learn more.

At the end of the report, there is a link to a poll thread about what your favorite evolving item is. If for some reason you are unable to use the link in the report, you can also find it as either an announcement or a sticky in the Gaia Community Discussion (GCD) forum.

Now for the part where I start to tell you something the EIR doesn’t. If you haven’t already done so, then I suggest opening a new tab or window for the Marketplace. The big secret is that often times, people put their first generation EIs up for sale the day before the EIR comes, or put new EIs up for sale the moment they come out. Use this to your advantage! Wait for the EIR and copy-paste the EIs that evolved into the searchbar of the Marketplace, or check Tektek ahead of time. From there, you must find the first generation of the item (the first generation is not always the first one on the list that comes up). Finally, you can see all of the new poses and determine whether or not you like the direction the item is heading in.

Checking Tektek ahead of time may allow you to score big in the market. Typically, items raise quite a bit on Thrusdays and Fridays of weeks in which they are scheduled to evolve. As such, you can use this to your advantage and maybe just make quite a large sum of gold quickly.

After you're done observing all the new poses of the items you wish, go ahead and read the report. As I said in The Beginning, I highly suggest reading each report as they have formed quite a storyline so far. You don't have to read it; but some of them have been pretty entertaining. I do realize that some people never even look at announcements and so I would like to take this opportunity to point out that it is a bad idea in general to skip over Announcements!

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

EQUIPPING

This post is here just in case anyone was confused by how to equip Evolving Items. It also includes who to contact if you have a problem with the layering of any Evolving Item.

»» No Auto-Unequip:
There is currently a glitch with equipping evolving items when they evolve. The glitch is that once it evolves, the new pose does not remove the old pose on it's own. The way to get rid of the old pose is to go to your Avatar page and click 'Get Nekkid'. If clicking 'Get Nekkid' sends you to the home page, you may have to use the old Avatar page. Alternatively, you may click the 'fake pose' on the item itself.

As with all items, only one pose can be equipped per item. Say you had one Fausto's Bottle, then you would only be able to equip one pose of said item. The only way you could equip more than one would be if you had more than one Fausto's Bottle.

In this quote, Dr. Singh clearly tells us how to cause an item to evolve:

Dr. Singh

Everyone who bought Fausto's bottle before this afternoon should try removing it from their avatar and then putting it back on. They'll notice that it's started to change.

And if you reverse it then it means that in order to keep one pose on an item that has evolved and no longer has the pose available you simply don’t take the item off until it reaches the final form and all poses from previous stages are available

Now I would like to turn the focus to something that still causes me to do a double take to this day. That thing is the question, "why does the first icon never work? Well, I may not have the answer, but I would like to point this out because many people are confused by this as well.

Dr. Singh

If you have Fausto's Bottle, go look at your inventory. When you click on it, it will bring up two icons: the one on the left is the item's default icon, and it won't do anything when you click on it.

If for some reason you refuse to believe me then try it yourself in the marketplace, the first image will show up in every generation, yet it will not show up on your avatar in any of them. And thus, it is called a "fake pose". The reasoning behind this has to do with the thumbnail of the item for the marketplace/inventories. The system appears to require that the thumbnail for the entire item be a thumbnail for a pose of the item.

One thing that you may notice about your Evolving Items on any of your inventory screens (dress up, inventory, trades, marketplace, etc.) is that they have now started to sparkle blue. This is not an accident. It is a feature designed to help prevent certain scamming attempts. For more information on Sparkling Items, feel free to check out A Guide to Sparking Items. You can turn the Sparkles off on your Account Preferences page.

Layering Issues


As with all items on Gaia, EI's tend to have layering issues every so often. If you find a layering issue that you wish to see fixed, post in [NPC] Stein's layering glitch report thread. Please make sure you follow the template given in the first post when you are reporting a glitch


Do not report EI layering glitches to Juno!


Keep in mind that just because you report a glitch does not automatically mean that it will be corrected. Due to the vast number of items on Gaia and the limited amount of layers, fixing one glitch may lead to glitches with even more items. It is up to each artist to determine which problems they wish to fix.

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

WHEN WILL IT EVOLVE?

This is another one of those things that needs to be answered a lot when dealing with those who are new to EIs in general. Long story short: Gaia does all the work for you, all you have to do is lay back and watch things happen

Let me start out by saying that you can not cause your item to evolve faster or slower by doing any specific action, a few select staff members (mostly artists) at the actual gaia office are in charge of making older generations evolve so it is best to pester them about it if your older generation item does not evolve at the rate it is should. This does not mean you should spam them to hell and back if you think your item isn't evolving correctly. To find out how often your item is supposed to evolve, check out a few of the guides in the Links: In and Out post. To be specific, I highly recommend visiting The Complete E.I. Calendar.

Back to the point, "when will it evolve?" This is a difficult question to answer. How often an item evolves is only guessed effectively after the third evolution. This is because the first evolution is from when the first item comes out to when it evolves for the first time. If gaia doesn't sell a certain amount of the item, it may stay up for awhile before evolving. The second evolution begins to show how long an item will take to evolve, however there are have been a few times when this has been way off. The third evolution (the time between when the second and third stages come out) is almost always how long you will have to wait for it to evolve again.

There are other ways of estimating the time between evolutions. One great way is to check the price tag! The higher the price, the less time you have to wait between evolutions. For example, 999GC items tend to evolve every other week, while 749GC item evolve every third week. It's a good bet that any items 499GC or less will take about a month between evolutions.

Of course you could always depend on other guides to give you more specific information about when your EI will evolve. Another good place to check is tektek.org's list of evolving items. Keep in mind though, that Tekton only tracks the first generation of each item. This means that if you are looking at an item on tektek and you do not have the first generation, then you are a few stages behind where he states you are. Also remember that he can only guess as to when the first gen will evolve for the first time, thus if he says a first gen item should evolve for the first time next week, you shouldn't get your hopes too high.

Another thing that some people seem to think is that how they got their EI determines whether or not it will continue evolving. This is not true! Whether you get it from the Cash Shop, the marketplace, a grab-bag box, a overseer item, a gift, a trade, or any other form of receiving an item, all EIs of the same type evolve at the same time. For a detailed explanation as to why, see the Understanding Generations post. For now, just know that they will all evolve at the same time no matter what so there is no need to fear how it will evolve based on how you got it.

Not all Cash Shop items are Evolving Items. If you have bought your item from the Cash Shop (as opposed to the market or in a trade), to make sure it is an Evolving Item and not a plushie, I recommend buying it from the Evolving Items section. There are two ways to get to that section. First off is to click evolving items from the drop down menu in the cash shop. The other way is to click the banner at the bottom; however, this banner will not always be there for you to click as the Cash Shop has an ever-changing supply of items that all deserve a spotlight of their own.

However, if you are unsure if it is an Evolving Item and it is on the market, then I suggest looking at a List of Evolving Items to make sure.

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

UNDERSTANDING GENERATIONS

Once again this post was inspired by a question that would need to be answered on a frequent basis. However, this post can be broken down into three parts: the top, the middle, and the bottom. The top half is to explain exactly how generations work in regards to the stages they contain using a few different examples. The middle is my explanation as to why the devs have EIs work the way they do. A few of the "facts" in that section may or may not be assumptions that I have made about how the codes for items work. The bottom half is to clear up any remaining questions that you may have about left about generations, stages, or the differences between them.

Generations are used for tags on the end of items. To start off, I want to say two things:

1. Generations are not the same as stages.
2. Eventually, every generation will have every stage and every pose unlocked.

Those two facts are important to keep in mind while reading this post. Plus, by saying it upfront, you may have just read everything you wanted to know from this post and can now continue on in your merry way without reading the rest of this gigantic post.

The generation number of an item will never change! No matter what you do a Fausto's Bottle 2nd gen. will never be the same as a Fausto's Bottle. This applies to ALL evolving items. If you wish to see more about this then see for yourself. See? Even though all of the generations are done evolving, they keep their individual "gen. names".

One of the best ways to understand how generations work is the same way they work with families in real life. The first generation would be the parents to the second generation. And the second generation would be parents to the third generation, and so on and so forth.



procrastination girl probably explained it better in this post.

procrastination girl

the generations thing: it may be easier to think of it like siblings.

say you have a little brother, 3 years younger than you. he will go through all the same stages as you did, and he'll get older at the same SPEED as you are (one year per year), but he'll always be 3 years behind you. even if he's only 10 now, he WILL be 11, 12, and 13, eventually, just like you were, but 3 years later than you were.

the difference between evolving items and people, of course, is that the evolving items stop at some point (at which time you have access to all the previous stages, like everyone has said), so once the oldest generations have stopped evolving, it's possible for the younger generations to catch up. can't do that with people, really!

Mugetsu Ookamiza also explained generations well in this post.

Mugetsu Ookamiza

have they ever talked about generations in your school?
generations have to do with order of birth.

if you make a family tree starting with your great-grandma she would be generation 1, your grandma, would be generation 2, your parent generation 3, and you generation 4. your great-grandma would reach old age first and you would reach it last, despite the fact your stage of growth will change your generation number won't.

So now that we've covered how they work, let's take a look at just why they have such a seemingly complicated system in place. The reasoning behind this is actually quite simple and easy to understand if you look close enough and are willing to think a bit. Each item on gaia has it's own number that allows it to be found in the marketplace and be replicated in the database. The more important of those to (in relation to this point that is) would be the marketplace one. Items of the same number share the same exact poses. The poses may be taken away, added to, replaced, and more. When this happens, ever item under that number instantly updates and is the same as before.

Since each item of the same number is the same exact item, having only one generation would give everybody the same poses the moment they bought the item. This is hardly fair for users who took the risk and bought the item before it evolved!

In order to reward those users, the poses would have to be split up. The only way to do this is to make a new number for what is basically a copy of what the original item was. Each number has to have a different item name under it, so [#] gen gets added to the end. Once the new item is up, it is a simple matter of doing something similar to a copy-pasting of code from the first gen to the second so that the second gen has the poses the first one had before it evolved. This can be repeated for however many generations there are of the item.

The reason why [#] gen items can not be the same as the original is because they can't be deleted. All of those items are under the same number and can not be transferred to another item number. In order to make only first gens exist, the other item numbers would have to be deleted which would cause all of the users who did not have a first gen item to begin with would lose their item permanently.

That is why the number on the end of an evolving item will never ever ever ever change.

Here is an example of item numbers being used in EIs:

http://www.gaiaonline.com/marketplace/itemdetail/ is the url used with numbers being added to the end to signify different items.
The numbers of the Fousto's Bottle gens in order are as follows:

1st gen = 14579+++++++++++++++++2nd gen = 15143+++++++++++++++++3rd gen = 15461

4th gen = 16063+++++++++++++++++5th gen = 16299+++++++++++++++++6th gen = 16477

7th gen = 16899+++++++++++++++++8th gen = 18017+++++++++++++++++9th gen = 19425

Don't pay too much attention to the differences between the numbers, they signify how many items were made in the time it took for the item to evolve again and mean nothing to us. The important trend to notice is that the numbers go up! This means that higher gens were created later than earlier gens.

For a bit more information on how the whole generations idea got started and why they kept it can be found in this post by CP. It turns out that users actually liked generations despite the devs not planning on keeping the gen idea going!

Congratulations, you have made it to the bottom half!
If you still don't understand the difference between stages and gens, you're probably really confused after that last section. I'll do my best to clear up any remaining questions so you aren't as confused.

First let me define a stage. A stage is a set of poses available to an item. Another word sometimes used is 'phase', but they mean the same thing. I mention this because while I like to say stage, tektek uses the word phase and I'll be using tektek as an example here.

Okay, now that we've got that, lets go ahead and look at it in context by using tektek. Fausto's Bottle has a total of nine stages. In each stage is the set of poses. It is important to keep in mind that will not always stay on the same gen and will move up the numbers until they reach the end.

As the first gen evolved, it moved from stage one to stage two to stage three and so on. After the first gen moved to stage two, a second gen came out that was at stage one. The second gen moved on to stage two at the same time as the first gen moved on to stage three; at this point a third gen was released at the first stage. If we were to try and continue a pattern we reach the problem of the first gen finishing. If the first gen finishes, how does the second gen move on? The answer is simple: it just does. It simply evolves again at the same time it would have if the first gen had another stage. The third, fourth, fifth etc. gens all do the same thing when they reach this point.

If you had trouble understanding the above paragraph, you may understand better by looking at it visually in the Visual Aids post.

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

VISUAL AIDS

For those of you who don't like reading walls of text, and understand things visually, this post may come in handy.

» All images used in this section were created by me. However, you are free to take them and use them.
» These are all based off of a theoretical item that only has 4 generations and that always evolves at a steady rate (some EIs don't).

THIS ITEM EVOLVES:


EVERY WEEK

THIS ITEM EVOLVES:




EVERY OTHER WEEK

THIS ITEM EVOLVES:





EVERY THREE WEEKS

THIS ITEM EVOLVES:








EVERY FOUR WEEKS

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

FAQ

This post is an expansion on Gaia's official EI FAQ. The questions from that are in here too. Since there are lots of questions here, I used spoilers to hide the answers. Simply click where it says so to open or close the answers.

oo1. What do I have to do to make my item evolve?

(Click to close)
YOU CAN NOT MAKE YOUR ITEM EVOLVE! Your items will grow and change on their own; you don't have to feed them, keep them equipped, make a certain number of posts or anything of that sort. All it takes is patience. Your item will evolve depending on when you bought it; for example, people who bought Fausto's Bottle within the first two weeks will all see their items evolve at the same time.

oo2. When will my item start evolving?

(Click to close)
While the evolution schedule is planned out in advance, only Gaia employees know for sure when your items will evolve. And don't bother asking them, because it's a secret! Different items will grow at different rates. Some may evolve in just a week or two, but others may take a month or more to start growing. One common trend to see is that as the price in Gaia Cash goes up, it begins and continues evolving faster. Some grow quickly at first, but take longer and longer between each successive change. Each item has its own schedule. To find the schedule for your individual item, feel free to browse some of the guides in the Links: In and Out post.

oo3. Will there be an announcement when an item is about to change?

(Click to close)
Only for the first generation. After the first generation finishes, you are on your own to check and see if your item has evolved or not.

oo4. Will evolving items stay in the store forever?

(Click to close)
Unlike regular store items, the Cash Shop has an ever-changing selection. Some evolving items may be removed from the store before they start evolving, while others may stick around. Certain items may have more than one "series"; they may be pulled from the store for a few weeks, but be reintroduced later in different colors or with different stages of evolution.

oo5. When an item evolves, will I be able to revert back to its previous look?

(Click to close)
Evolving items change over time; as they change, you will not be able to revert the items back to their original look. However, once the evolution is completed, then your item will have all previous poses added to the item as well as a final form.

oo6. When did the Cash Shop open?

(Click to close)
Fri Nov 02, 2007

oo7. Does it matter if I got my EI from the Marketplace instead of the Cash Shop?

(Click to close)
NO! All items of the same type are automatically updated and thus it does not matter how you got a hold of your EI.

oo8. Tektek said my EI would evolve on __, but it didn't! WTF?!

(Click to close)
Tektek.org is NOT run by gaia staff. It is run by a user named Jason Schwen (gaia username: Tekton) and thus he has no more access to information than you or I do. He simply makes guesses until he uncovers the schedule for the item. This means that he can (and will) be wrong every so often which is especially true with new EIs that have not evolved or have only evolved once or twice.

oo9. I bought ___ from the CS because I liked how it looked in the announcement, but I didn't get the poses I saw!

(Click to close)
When you buy an item from the Cash Shop, you receive the newest (and thus least evolved) generation. The poses shown in the reports are the poses that are on the first generation of that particular item. If you bought a later gen and want the new poses, you will have to wait a few weeks until they move down to your generation.

o10. How do you find all of this stuff out?

(Click to close)
A bit of lurking, luck, time is all it takes. Some great places to lurk the artists is in their journals, post history, and sometimes their guilds. A great place to look for general info is in either the Q&A or in the GG&R. The luck comes from the fact that there have been many users on gaia who are willing to share their EI information openly so that I don't have to buy anything. Time is just there for how long it takes me to piece together bits of information.

o11. When will my item evolve?

(Click to close)
The answer depends on what item it is and how many times it has evolved already. As stated many times, different items evolve at different rates; so without knowing what item you have, I can't even make a guess. Even when I do know, it can take awhile for me to verify it using several of the other guides (I do this in case one has faulty info). If you want to do this on your own, you're more than welcome to! It will only take you a few clicks and maybe some scrolling depending on the guide you use.
Warning: If your item has not evolved at the very least two times since it was released, the information in these guides will be guesses and not the actual dates.
Be sure to check out this post for more information!

o12. I don't like getting the EIRs in my announcements, how can I disable them?

(Click to close)
It should be as easy as going to your Ignored List, searching the name [NPC] Dr.Singh, and adding that account to your list.

o13. Will I have to pay again to make my item evolve?

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Nope, EIs are a one-time payment. Once you buy it, the rest is completely free!

o14. Why is my item frozen and how do I unfreeze it?

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I personally do not fully understand the ins and outs of the policy, but from what I get, your first purchase and any purchases made within the next 14 days will be frozen for 7 days each. This policy was implemented due to an apparently large number of paypal accounts being hacked and used on gaia. For an explination from someone who knows what they're talking about, see taligator's post (another post) on the issue.

o15. How much longer until the EIR comes out?

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No one knows. There is no set time for the report to come out, however it will always come out on a Friday unless there are scheduling conflicts with Monthly Collectables, National Holidays (in the US), or major glitches. If the report is delayed, look for it to come on Monday or Tuesday of then next week.

o16. I want__, but it's already gone from the CS. Will I ever get a chance at getting it again?

(Click to close)
Maybe. Every now and again, the Cash Shop may get an update that will allow you to purchase and old EI that is no longer available. This was the first time such a thing has occurred. There are other forms of releasing old EIs include the use of random generators such as CS grab-bags and the overseer.

o17. How do EI bundles work?

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Every so often, gaia might release a "bundle" in the CS. When you buy a bundle you are given last (highest numbered) gens of every EI mentioned in the item's description. To get those EIs unpacked, simply find the bundle in your inventory (be sure to check both the game and special tabs!), click it's thumbnail and then click the use button.

o18. How/where can I get Gaia Cash?

(Click to close)
Depending on your location, you may be able to purchase Gaia Cash cards from a local retailer. Other ways include using paypal, using a mobile phone, and sending an international check. For a step-by-step on how to do each of those, I recommend taking a look at this post in the Monthly Collectible FAQ and/or the main Gaia Cash page.

o19. Why are my EIs sparkling and how can I turn it off?

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On May 3, 2010 Gaia released a blog post stating that the sparkles over all cash-related items were put in place to prevent scams. For example, it should put an end to the Winter Rose Scam -- in which a user would promise a Winter Rose in exchange for items and or gold but send a White Rose Wristlet Corsage of considerably less value instead; and since the thumbnails are extremely similar, many users would accept the offer without hesitation -- because a real Winter Rose would sparkle whereas the Corsage would not. EI's all sparkle blue. You can disable the sparkling feature altogether on your Account Preferences page.

o20. What do those numbers under the banner represent?

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That image counts the page views since April 06, 2009. If you want a counter of your own, feel free to sign up for one at eFreeCounter.net. They are completely free and easy to use.

o21. Who all helped you with this guide?

(Click to close)
There's a lot of them: gaia staff members (items and all they did), procrastination girl & Mugetsu Ookamiza (letting me use thier posts), Kiei Sadame (banner), mange de la merde (banner and keeping me from going insane), other guide makers/maintainers (making their guides), everyone who asked questions (inspiration), Jeboo (sending) & Novocain (taking) Copper Twopence image.

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

EVOLVING ITEM LIST

Want to see all of the EIs in one place? Wonder where in the basic evolutionary process your EI is? Hopefully this list is enough to satisfy you!

» This post contains images that link to marketplace listings for each evolving item in the order in which they were introduced to the public. There may be some extra items in a few of the links, but there is nothing I could do about that since I can not tag items. I could link them to the EIM, but I don't feel it is quite as useful as linking directly to the MP.

» This post may fall behind by a few days (or even weeks), so it may not be completely correct at all times.

» This post probably contains at least a few errors since it's a lot of work to check every item every week. If you notice items that are in the wrong place, PLEASE tell me so that I can fix it.


ALL ITEMS




STILL EVOLVING
WORKING ON IT~



Recolors





Bundles

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

SPECIAL ITEMS

There are a few items that are exceptions to the rules stated above. This post is here to help you understand what these exceptions are, how they work, and why the artist decided to do make their item an exception to one of the rules.

RAPID EVOLVING ITEMS:

Rapid Evolving Items (REIs) are special evolving items that gain a new pose every day. They also have the condition of not losing any poses as they evolve. Typically, a REI will be released in a single gen and the when it is done evolving a second generation will be added with all the poses already available. These items tend to have fewer overall poses, but they do finish significantly more quickly (generally in a little over a week).

ONE MONTH EVOLVERS:

This started with CP's Pora Ice. One month evolvers are EIs that usually come out around specific "big" holidays on Gaia and evolve for the month in which that holiday takes place. When a monthly evolver is introduced, you will be told that it will evolve fully in under a month.

MINI-EVOLUTIONS:

This exception started with pepper-tea's Picolitrosso's Urn EI. She wanted to give users as many usable poses as possible and since her item evolved every other week, she decided to have the actual evolutions be poses geared towards the story the item told with accessories being added every week in between evolutions. This exception basically means that the artist plans to add poses in between evolutions. You will not be warned when they do this though, so you will have to remember to check on your own every Friday.

superphi, the creator of the Fallen Wish, has defined mini-evolutions like so in her journal:

A small note regarding the mini-evolutions: Although the concept was introduced in previous evolving items, mini-evolutions are not meant to be regularly occurring, and vary from item to item. It really depends on what the artist sees to be fitting for their item. Fallen Wish is only supposed to evolve once every 2 weeks, and anything else that comes between is considered 'extra'. This is just so users don't feel like there were any 'broken promises' when there weren't really any promises made to begin with. Heh. ^_^a

NO GENERATIONS:

These are Items that do not have generations for one reason or another. The first one was Titan's Legacy which was released from the Overseer in aquariums. Because it could potentially be released for all of time, the developers decided it would be easier just to have everyone receive the same item and not to be bothered to make a potentially infinite number of generations. The next one to come out was the Black Drome Egg. It came from the EI bundle and was simply a re-color of the White Drome Egg. Because of the fact that it never evolved, it never had generations. Mercury's Moon was released as a prize from the Famestar 2000 item and has a similar situation to the egg because of it.

CHOICE ITEMS:

Choice items are a kind of EI that works similarly to a Monthly Collectible in the fact that it not only appears in the special tab in your inventory, but also in the fact that when you "use" it, you will be given the choice of which item you receive.
pepper-tea and reapersun were the artists who brought this idea to life with the copper twopence. Fleep is the developer responsible for making this possible as he confirmed in his journal.

source


Dr. Singh:The Copper Twopence is a whole new kind of evolving item-- when you first run across it, you'll be given an important choice that will guide how the item evolves...




Lets take a look at this important choice, shall we?

Thanks go to crystal_raye for getting these images for me! They seem to be useful for explaining. Also thanks to Dinala1641882 for the image linked to by the bard.

++++++++++


The center image is of the Bard, he is the one who you are giving your twopence to in exchange for a song. He has two options for you to choose from.
The first song you can ask him to sing to you grants the Carol of Nick to receive that item. (click left picture) Alternatively, you can request that he play you the Carol of Ebenezer for the other item. (click right picture)

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

Characters

Ever get lost in the tangled jungle that is the EIR? Or maybe you just want to know a bit of background on the most recent celebrity guest. Either way, feel free to check out this post for more information

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO PAGE TWO UNTIL I CAN FIND A WAY TO PRESENT THE INFORMATION MORE CLEARLY.

YOU MAY STILL FIND IT HERE IF YOU WISH TO SEE IT.

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

???

! ! !

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

???

! ! !

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]

[emorexic-pimp]

LINKS: IN AND OUT

Did you like this guide? Feel free to link back with either text or one of the banners located in the 'IN' portion. If not, feel free to browse some of the other EI guides that interest you using the links in the 'OUT' portion (bottom half) of this post.

IN

If you make one, post it here or PM it to me and it will be added here with your name displayed beside it.

If you're looking for a cool, but image-free way to link back, here is something you can feel free to use.

The larger ones should not be put into your sig as they exceed the size limits which are:

1. Not larger than 500x500px
   
2. Under 100,000 bytes

Me

[url=http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.41660811_1/][img]http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/emorexic2/guide/guide1.png[/img][/url]

Kiei Sadame

[url=http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.41660811/][img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/emorexic2/guide/EIBanner.jpg[/img][/url]

mange de la merde

[url=http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.41660811/][img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/emorexic2/guide/EIBanner2.jpg[/img][/url]

SacredDemon17

[url=http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.41660811/][img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/emorexic2/guide/EIBanner3.png[/img][/url]

Me

[url=http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.41660811/][img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/emorexic2/guide/EIG_banner_1-2.png[/img][/url]

OUT

» All of these links are 100% gaia safe (just click the large bold parts), however, if you have a slower computer, I suggest staying away from the ones I have marked with an asterisk (*) as they contain many images on the page that I link directly to.

» PM me if you want be to put one of yours up here, have a link to a thread you would like to see up here, or if I have taken yours and you want it taken down for whatever reason.


Gaia's Official FAQs:

First Official Evolving Item FAQ

Personally, I hated the thing. You probably already guessed that though since I bothered to type out this whole guide simply so I didn't have to direct people to that... thing for help. Anyway, since was the "official" FAQ, I had to link it.


The New and Improved Evolving Item FAQ

This FAQ is much better! Complete with some questions taken directly from this guide, it is sure to be of help to many more people than the old one ever was.

Renditions of this Guide:
A Guide to Understanding Evolving Items v2

when I went on hiatus for a long period of time, Toriki-chi became my hero and stepped up to the plate by creating this compacted version of my guide. It is incredibly useful for if you don't want to read through this in as much depth as I wrote it and just want the quick and dirty facts.

Item Guides:

Tektek.org
Tekton's famous site comes to the rescue yet again! With predictions, poses, and more, tektek makes EI's easy.


Dinala1641882's Site

With links to the marketplace, links to EIRs an EI was in, and more, Dinala's page is a great place to look for information.


Evolving Items Addicts Anonymous

Looking for poses, estimated time between evolutions, price, a place to discuss your opinions on recent evolutions? Look no further! FakePlasticTreeHugger and Celestarre


Evolving Items Guide

The ever-so-helpful Complete Gaian Itemlist Guild has created their own thread that lists the poses of every EI there is.



Misc. Resouces:

The Complete Evolving Item Artist List

Created by Legend, this guide is highly reliable and trustworthy in naming the known artists of each and every EI. From the expected list of artists and their respective EIs to the links for exact sources where the information was confirmed to links to the artists' profiles so you can leave them a comment, this has to be one of the most helpful guides on the list. This is especially true with Juno's request to contact the creators of EIs with glitches.


The Complete E.I. Calendar

Luzianne's resouce is highly reliable. If you are ever wondering when your item is predicted to evolve, this is the place to go.


Evolving Items: What Users Want to See

tempest675 and kresnik alchemist's thread is a great place to go if you want to suggest poses for your EI. Although you can make a thread of your own in Site Feedback to do the same thing, this thread is a popular alternative.


Inari Beads/Furugasa/Yama no Tamago } Translations/Insight

If you have ever wondered what the names of the poses in your EI mean, Kitsunemaru-sama's guide is a good place to start looking.

Fanthreads:

TEAM SPROCKET!

Looking for a place to discuss your evomon? Well here it is!


Truth About Timmy (TAT)

A great place to discuss the plot of the most recent of Timmy's mishaps.

INDEX
[Introduction] ~ [Key Terms] ~ [The Beginning] ~ [Evolving Item Reports] ~ [Equipping] ~ [When Will It Evolve?]
[Understanding Generations] ~ [Visual Aids] ~ [FAQ] ~ [Evolving Item List] ~ [Special Items] ~ [Characters]
[???] ~ [???] ~ [Links: In and Out]