Guide to Grub Guardian Ep. 10 Chelsea Court

Hey everyone! I'm back today with the 10th instalment to my Guide to Grub Guardian series. This episode we're taking a look into Chelsea Court, the second of the Marleybone maps.

This map was fairly simple and straightforward. The strategy mainly only consisted of using star towers due to the treeants which are a pain to take out without star towers. I placed the pet in a relatively centralised position and then placed the myth tower opposite it to get a similar damage output on both sides. The myth and pet tower's job is basically to get anything the star towers don't focus on, stuff like the ghouls and sometimes skeletons. The combination if very effective and works well to gain a fairly easy win on Chelsea Court.

Well, thanks for reading/watching and I hope you enjoyed!

Until next time!
- Blaze

Guide to Grub Guardian Ep. 9 Hyde Park

Hey everyone! I'm back today with another episode of my guide to grub guardian. In this episode we are entering Marleybone and firstly conquering Hyde Park.

The strategy for this map was rather different but fairly simple and got the job done. We, of course, starting out by placing out Epic fire pet and started the map with a star tower and a myth tower. These guys were able to take out the first wave with ease and after that, I upgraded the myth and bought and ice tower placed just above it to give the other towers more time to hit. Next, I took the ice to snowman and the myth tower to minotaur.

After this, I decided we needed a life tower so I put it in a spot to get the most out of it's range. I then began upgrading everything again, including the star tower and to finish, placed the final ice tower. A couple upgrades later and we were done!

Although this week was fairly short/easy, the maps will begin picking up in difficulty the further we go into Marleybone!

That's all from me folks! I hope you enjoyed and learned something from this episode/post and good luck in your grub guardian endeavours.

Thanks,
- Blaze

Guide to Grub Guardian Ep. 8 The Krokosphinx

Hey everyone! I'm back today with another episode in the guide to grub guardian series! This week we are tackling the final map of Krokotopia, The Krokosphinx. While this means we are near the end of Krokotopia, we are fast approaching Marleybone so I hope you're ready for that!

Anyway, the basic gist of things for this map relied heavily upon luck (to an extent) as we were using death towers which I try to avoid most of the time. However, even if you aren't that lucky, it's still almost a guaranteed victory, you might just need to try again for the gold, however, I was able to get it myself.

Basically, we start off with our pet as always and I placed him a bit to the left of the big gap so that we can fit in our other towers. Next up was a few death towers for the early rounds although the pet should probably be able to take them down, it's better safe then sorry. After this, I placed a few ice towers to keep them in range of the death for as long as possible and finally placed a Life tower (which gets all towers in it's range) to get those death towers shooting even faster.

The rest was consisted of more and more death towers and then levelling everything. I'm happy with this strategy, regardless of the use of death towers and hope you will be too.

Well, that's all from me for today folks! Hopefully you enjoyed and learned something too! And good luck with whatever Grub Guardian maps you're tackling yourself.

Thanks,
- Blaze

Guide to Grub Guardian Ep. 7 Pyramid of the Sun

Welcome to my seventh instalment of my guide to Grub Guardian! This time we're taking on the second last map of Krokotopia, the Pyramid of the Sun! This map doesn't have many options for a pets 2x2 required space and so I decided to place mine off to the left of the centre point, (placing on the right would most definitely give similar results) and got started.

The strategy for this episode included starting off with myth towers to get damage done on the smaller enemies and the life tower to get that damage out faster. After the myth towers were max, I bought a few ice towers and after, began investing into a star tower.

Seeing as this map brings lots of bosses on the last few waves, the star tower did incredible damage to them and I was just able to max it, therefore utilised the red laser.

Thank you very much for reading and hopefully I helped you out!

- Blaze

Guide to Grub Guardian Ep. 6 Tomb of Storms

Hey everyone! Today is the day we take on the Tomb of Storms in our expedition to conquer grub guardian :)

We are slowly making progress and are beginning to reach the ending levels of Krokotopia. Once we do manage to get into the higher levels, we will be getting better and better rewards.

Anyway, onto the strategy. This episode wouldn't have been possible without the ice towers, the were and invaluable help and allowed the myth/star towers to put out big damage and allowed the fire towers to keep everything burning longer. The fire towers were used to get damage onto the big enemies and and to take out the masses of smaller enemies. Finally, the star tower was used to take out a majority of the big enemies on the final wave.

Combining them all together the Tomb of Storms was beaten.

Thanks so much for reading and hopefully I helped you out!

Until next time!
- Blaze

Guide to Grub Guardin Ep. 5 The Oasis

Hey everyone! Today I'm bringing you the 5th episode of my Guide to Grub Guardian series. In this episode, we've moved on from Wizard City and are entering Krokotopia. The first Krokotopian map that we are going to be covering is the Oasis.

The main strategy in this episode was once again focused around myth and ice tower which are both incredibly useful for many stages. However, this time around, there was no optimal position for my 4x4 pet to be placed so I decided on putting him in the most high traffic area which was the right hand side.

I also decided on spreading the ice towers out to get the maximum slow time on the enemies. The myth towers were slightly spread and had overlapping ranges to give as much map coverage as possible.

Hopefully you enjoyed and I helped you out on your Grub Guardian journey.

Thanks
- Blaze

Guide to Grub Guardian Ep. 4 Colossus Boulevard

Hello everyone! Today I'm back with the 4th instalment to my Guide to Grub Guardian. This time, we will be taking on the final level in Wizard City, Colossus Boulevard. As we progress further into the levels, so will the difficulty increase.

The strategy this time was very much focused around the supporting ice and life towers which were both very necessary. Without ice, it is likely that some of the ghouls might have got through due to their speed and without life, there is no way that the myth and fire towers could have given enough damage to defeat the level.

Aside from the ice and life towers, only the Epic Fire Pet and a few myth towers were used as the source of damage. They may not seem like much but with the fire taking out the larger groups of weaker enemies and the myth focusing more on the larger targets, the strategy was effective.

Hopefully you enjoyed and I will see you next time.

- Blaze

Guide to Grub Guardian Ep. 3 Triton Avenue

Back again with yet another instalment of my guide to grub guardian, this time moving on to Triton Avenue.

The main strategy in this episode was focused around the star and ice towers. Having the ice towers at the start is an incredible bonus for this map, giving the star tower enough time to take out the larger groups of Gobblers and Cyclops.

The star towers really shine on this map and I'm very glad that I had them, the storm is also put in near the start to help the fire pet take out the faster, weaker, enemies.

Hopefully you enjoyed and if you're wondering when another non grub post is coming out, it will be out soon.

Thanks!
- Blaze

Guide to Grub Guardian Ep. 2 Firecat Alley

I'm back! This time with my second instalment to my Guide to Grub Guardian series. In this episode, we're going to be taking a look at Firecat Alley.

Once again, I will be using my epic fire pet throughout this series unless I decide to go to a life for the much later levels.

The main strategy here, like most, was focused around the epic fire pet and the star tower. Then I just bought some ice towers to let the fire really take effect. Finally, I just added a couple fire towers at the start to make them burn the second they leave the gate. Although not all necessary, this worked well.

Hope this helped and I'll see you all next time.

- Blaze

Guide to Grub Guardian Ep. 1 Unicorn Way

Since the last time I tried to do a Grub Guardian guide didn't work too well, I will be starting the new one from the very start.

Now obviously, this video will not be lengthy in anyway whatsoever.. but here it is anyway (we have to start somewhere!).

Hope you enjoyed it! :)

A new episode of the Grub Guardian guide will be out shortly however, so don't worry.

Anyway, I'll see you all next time!

- Blaze

Shark Alert - Predictions - Energy

Hey everyone!

• Shark Week -  and the release of the Warhammerhead shark
• Energy Elixirs -  Grub Guardian can help
• Seeing the Pattern? - Future Predictions?

So this was the week that House-A-Palooza drew to a close and Shark Week was once again with us. Exciting that a new shark was released for this week only, so if you haven't got yours, you haven't got much time left to snare one! Frostcaller has put up some tips on getting Energy Elixirs using Grub Guardian - these things are like gold dust with all the energy needs around the Spiral. And one of those past-times is of course fishing. It is still hard to go any length of time without another style of fishing post. For this and all the other stories shared by Wizards around the globe, click on the paper.

We'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

Grub Guardian: The Helephant Tower

Here we are with another Grub Guardian post...

The Helephant Tower is a Wysteria map (costs crowns to buy, I HIGHLY suggest spending crowns on Wysteria maps). Wysteria maps are definitely worth the couple hundred crowns needed as you will win so many crowns items as rewards that easily make up what you spent.

Anyway, I completed this map using star towers. Yes yes, I know, more crowns items... But seriously. This level is so insanely hard to get a gold medal on that I couldn't get it after going at it for around an hour. I can finish it, just not perfectly.

Here is the video.

Ok, basic strategy is just centralising the Epic fire pet and letting the star towers do the work. They are seriously overpowered. Anyway, you need to put down the Ice towers for those Helephants near the start as they are pretty quick but move ridiculously slowly with ice slow.

Hope you enjoyed and I will have more Grub Guardian posts out soon.

See you next time!

- Blaze

Alia's Sightseeing through the Spiral - I

I is for Insane and Impossible

Hi Everyone,

It has been a while.....I seem to have had a bit of a break from the spiral, and was brought back by an annoying problem.

I had been logging onto Grub Gardian and was just having fun completing all the different paths when I got stuck at one particular path ranked as "insane"......... so after continually being beaten by the game I decided it was time to pass this insane course.  I went through the process of trying all different types of towers but could only get to wave 4, before being beaten.

Ok.....time to train a new pet.  The storm pet wasn't hitting anything quickly enough and the only other fully developed pet I had was death.  Again not useful in this course, so for the first time I had to train a pet to use on Grub.

The course is Water Works, and this had been my best attempt yet.  Wave 1.  I ran out of good pet snacks so could only get my pet to ancient.  I decided that if I could get to wave 1, then maybe changing the strategy slightly might be enough to win.....

And guess what.......after a week or so of "on again, off again" trying I finally completed Waterworks on Grub Gardian.

Here is the screen shot of the time I got close.  Not quite the strategy I used to win..... Will post the winning strategy soon.  Until then, if you want an Insane challenge then this one will give you that.
There are probably tips and hints out there, but this one I wanted to accomplish on my own.

Enjoy :)
Alia

The Secret Weapon - Just what is it? And will it be enough?

I am guessing, if you are a regular reader of our blog, you will know that Tabitha challenged me to a "race to Rank 20 Gardener".

Of course I accepted, but with a one Level head start, and more energy...well, it actually posed me quite a difficult decision.  There are only 78 different seeds in Wizard101, and this means, only a certain number of strategies.  There were no rules, so I decided I would play with a 'no Crowns' policy and see if simple choices would be enough to get me over the line.

If Tabitha went with the most likely option, I would need a lot more than my 145 Energy to beat her!!

So, how to get this - with no Crowns in play?

Oh...and the other challenge will be, I need to max out my house(s) and yet still be able to service them, knowing all the while that there is a 69-plot limit to a Large Area Spell.  To do this, I need those special Treasure Cards that are usually found in - Moolinda's Green Thumb Pack.

But again - no Crowns?!  Is this even possible?

Enter - the Secret Weapon!!

Now, I know that Tabitha has a lot of theories about what this could be, but I am not sure she has guessed this one.  It isn't really conventional, but with a lot of work (and a little luck), I can triple my daily Energy and really give myself a chance!

So, just what is the Secret Weapon?

Yep, believe it or not, my strategy was based on good old Grub Guardian.  You can get both Energy Elixirs and Moolinda's Green Thumb Packs from this great little game.  I have my favourite map and I can play it quickly, easily and my target is to get the exact same score every time.  Honestly, I don't know if this makes a difference or not, but it has meant at least one Elixir and one to two Green Thumb Packs per day.

Given this, I figured I had about 290 Energy per day to use, and it has actually worked out very well.

Now, Tabitha's strategy will be hers to share, but I have suspected what it might be for some time.  For me to combat that, I needed a combination of things I could control (seeds I had and seeds I could buy) and things beyond my control, where I needed luck, such as drops from fights and mid-harvest seed drops.

For Power Leveling without Crowns seeds, there are not many options.  You need something you can buy and something with quick cycle times.  The best option here, believe it or not, is the Frozen Fly Trap!  The very seed I failed on when I first started playing Wizard101 (you can read more about this in my book on gardening!).

These seeds cycle about every 216 hours, but with likes, that is more like a few days.  The first harvest is a bit more than 24 hours after the seeds are planted.  This is reading well so far.  The bad news is that they are only worth 50 xp per harvest and 500 xp at Elder.  Compare this to those seeds that require luck (or Crowns) and they are 300 xp per harvest and 3000 xp at Elder.  Hmmm...all of a sudden they do not look that good!

Assuming that Tabitha has planted out her Red Barn Farm (I know I would) with 3000 xp, fast cycle plants, I will need 6 times more seeds to be 'in the game'.  That means that, assuming the Red Barn Farm is full both inside and out, that is a maximum of 300 seeds.  I need 1800 seeds!

<phew> that is a lot of seeds.  Is that even possible?

Then there is the Energy to maintain it all.  WOW!  That is not going to be fun!

OK, now I have 30 Couch Potatoes that I have farmed over time, so that will help (30 x 3000 xp), bringing my target down by 180 seeds.  I also have 12 Evil Magma Peas, that is another 72 less.  I now need about 1550 seeds.

I have the houses, but I will need to build the gardens...that is another 5 Energy per location (3 for the Enchanted Plot and 2 for the Seed).  This is going to be tough.

I will need to call in backup.  I have a few White Tiger Lilies that I have been collecting.  That is a start, but I need more.

For that I need to farm Night Goblins in Avalon.  I won't say why, as there might be some overlap here, but let's just say, that farming has been extremely tough with very little, but not zero, payback.  I got one of what I needed, but I fear it may be too little, too late.

...but let me know if you can guess what I was after there?

If Tabitha has done what I suspect...I am in trouble.  Still, I don't give up.  We'll see what the week brings!

You know what though?  If there is anyone I am going to lose a challenge to, I don't mind it being either Alia or Tabitha...so in the end, I have learned a lot more about gardening and either I will win or one of my favourite Wizard friends will, so there is no downside :)

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

Grub Guardian - Ravenscar

You know, Grub Guardian is pretty addictive! I have been playing it for a while now and have gotten some good drops.  Energy Elixirs are my mine target, and I have had 2 drop so far, but plenty of Fortify Elixirs and even a few nice housing items.

BTW - chatting to Blaze, I found out that I would need to spend Crowns to get to the best places, and Tanglewood Way has been good to me :)

That said, back to the topic of this post.  Cruising through most levels, I came across Ravenscar.  Now this is close to my favourite world in Wizard101.  The scenery, the magic, everything - Grizz rocks.  But playing it on Grub Guardian is quite different, it is just another world/screen.

But wow, it was hard!

I don't know if I was getting lazy or not, but, especially after (Blaze's advice again) lashing out with more Crowns to buy a Star Tower, most levels meant I was cruising.

Ravenscar brought me back to ground.

At first, it was a seemingly simple setup.  A couple of Star Towers, and it was time to punish the bad guys.  Money was coming in thick and fast, and it was another easy level.

Whoa!  What happened?  From smashing one wave to being completely smashed with the next one!  It was all over and I was the loser!  Hang on...that doesn't happen!  Get back in there, I need to go again!

Before too long, it was wham bam and you are over and out again!

...and again...

...and again...

OK - now this just simply isn't right!  I don't lose at these levels?!?  Do I?

So I decided to think about this properly.  What was going wrong?  It was clear that some of these waves had a large number of tough guys and they were completely drawing my Star Towers while their little mates ate all my Grub.  Hmm...OK, let's try something new.

Let's mix up a few towers...some Myth, some Balance...that will make the difference.

...but no.

OK - we'll take a chance and throw in some Death towers for some random kills.

...that has worked a bit better - but still they are killing me.  At least I got to the final round that time!  I actually need to sit down and really think about this one!

Right.  They are strong - need to hit them early with early Fire and central Balance towers to start to bring them down.

Need some bulk Myth at the back to pick them off accurately when they are heavily weakened.

Need some near-maxed Death to get a good percentage of instant kills - and lots of minor Deaths for the chance kills to tip the scales in our favour.

A couple of weighty Storm to damage lines of enemies.

A strong Life to give everyone a boost.

...and finally, I'll throw in some Star Towers.  Hey, I did spend Crowns on them!  At least they will help with the toughest of bosses.

You know what they say, planning is worth the effort.  Have a look and see what you think?

Yep, that's right.  Got 'em.  It was such a relief to get there will all Grub intact.  In fact, for my efforts, I was well rewarded.

A gold medal!  What would my prize be?  Yep, that's right, some Gold and an Ambrose Bomb :(

Oh well.  I have to say, it was good to be challenged!!

And once again, Ravenscar has lived up to what I expect of it!

How did you go when you hit Ravenscar?  Are there any maps that you find difficult?

I know Alia has just started with Grub and she is finding some of the maps difficult as she has never played a Tower Defense game before.   If there are any maps you'd like a hand with, just drop us a note :)

See you 'round the Spiral.

Morgrim

Grub Guardian - A Beginner's Overview

One of the things that Blaze has often enjoyed was Grub Guardian.  He would constantly work on us to get over there and play it with him.  For me, this was always a challenge of benefit versus time spent.  Honestly, Wizard101 takes a lot of my free time, I just didn't know how much time I would have left to play this thing called Grub Guardian.

Well, now I am a convert, and I admit, I do play Grub Guardian on a semi-regular basis.  Why? What changed my mind?  Two things - First: free Energy Elixirs, Second: Unique housing items!

Some of these are very unique. I thought I had every rug in the game...boy was I wrong!  There are at least 7 unique rugs available.  Add to that packs, elixirs ... the list goes on.  This is a treasure trove of Wizard101 items.  For a reasonable list of what is available, click here to go to Wizard101 Central.  From experience I have found that it is not 100% accurate, but it is a great start.

So what is it really?  At its heart, Grub Guardian is a classic TDG - A Tower Defense Game.  This means, you have something you need to protect ("Grub for your Pet", or "10 items of Pet food") from the numerous waves of bad guys who want to eat your pet's grub all for themselves.  The way you protect them is with your Pet (yes, your actual pet from the Wizard101 game), and a series of Towers that each represent a different school.  Each Tower has its own unique ability that can be used to defend your bowl of Grub.

Normal Towers
These are the normal Towers in the game that everyone can use.  Not all Towers are available to be used in every Map.  On the map in this image, the Myth Tower cannot be used, much to many people's annoyance!

• Myth - A cheap, fast, single shot at a time Tower.  Quite effective upgraded to Level 5 with a Life Tower boost.  A useful Tower in almost all occasions.
• Fire - A burning flame to keep up the pain for the hoards over time.  Can attack multiple targets simultaneously, but takes time to deliver the full impact of the blow.
• Ice - A freeze Tower specifically designed to slow the approaching hoards.
• Storm - A lightening bolt designed to take out anything in its path.  Can be quite useful, but fire rate is a little slow.
• Death - A very handy Tower that can instantly kill a bad guy.  Very useful in numbers!
• Life - A boost Tower.  All Towers within range of the Life Tower will have increased fire rates.
• Balance - A great multi-hit Tower that can also 'chain' the attack to all bad guys in the immediate vicinity, even if they are beyond the actual range of the Tower. Can be very helpful against large numbers of low level targets.

Crowns Towers
There are few Crowns Towers to choose from.  These include:

• Star Guardian - If you want to spend Crowns on a Tower it is hard to go past this one!
• Sun Guardian - Opens a crater that burns and slows the enemy when they pass through it.
• Moon Guardian - Generates extra cash if bad guys are killed near it.
• Avalon Guardian - A chain attack that uses lightening, fun and effective.

Each Tower can be upgraded during normal game play.  Just click on a Tower and the following will appear (unless it is full upgraded!)

From the image here, you can see that there is useful information about upgrades and what they will do for you.  To upgrade, simply click on the bar at the top (with the images in it).

There is one word of caution though.  If you have two Towers, one in the square directly below another, it is easy to accidentally sell the Tower at the top.  You think you are switching to the Tower at the bottom, when actually you click on the Sell coin!  Poof!  There goes your Tower!!

Pets
When selecting your pet, your choice will make a huge difference on your game!  Choosing your highest level Pet is a definite advantage as it adds to both its ability to help you, but also the Tower value, calculated at the end of the game and one of the factors in calculating your total Score.  I use a Mega Coldfire Dragon.  Miss Ellie can hit and burn bad guys from almost anywhere on the screen, making her a deadly weapon against the waves of lower level enemies that will try to distract your other Towers.

How to Play Grub Guardian in Simple Terms

When you first start playing Grub, it will ask you to sign into Wizard101.  This will allow the game to know who you are, what pets you have and how much Energy you have available.  You can now select your Pet, and then, once you are at the first map, decide whether you want to use your Energy to actually train your Pet (yep, you can train your Wizard101 pet in Grub) or whether you want to play for prizes.  For me, it is easy, prizes EVERY time!

To actually play Grub Guardian is pretty straightforward.  Milo will take you through the basics at the start.  Unicorn Way is a nice simple map to get you started.  You really only need one Tower to complete it, depending on the type of pet you have.  I'll overview that for now, and Blaze might post a few of the trickier maps in some later posts.

For Unicorn Way, place your Pet somewhere central, then place a Fire Tower as per the image below:

Before you click on GO, select your Fire Tower and upgrade it.  It will turn into a Spiral.  Now click on GO.

You can upgrade your Tower once more when you have the available funds.  That should be enough for you to survive Unicorn Way and come away with a Gold Medal!  If you do not, it will be your choice of Pet.  Upgrade your Tower again and you should cover it :)

Once you have collected a heap of prizes for the day, the game will tell you you have hit your limit.  Now it is time to enter the Wizard101 Spiral and claim your rewards!

One key point to note - you cannot be logged into Grub Guardian and Wizard101 at the same time.  You will be kicked out of one if you start playing the other.

I hope this has been helpful.  We'll start posting more blogs on Grub Guardian over time.  If there is any map in particular that you need help with, just leave us a comment.

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim