Hi, Im Kaci. I play too much Kingdom Hearts. If you've got questions, I've got answers.

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“I don’t like Disney.”

There was a question today on Reddit, and it was a sentiment I hear very often: “I don’t like Disney, so why would I like Kingdom Hearts?”

After all, Disney is an ever-present theme in the KH franchise - they appear in every single game in one way or another.  Often, you are involving yourself with Disney characters and plots.  So what if you don’t like Disney?

First thing’s first: I’m not a huge Disney fangirl. Growing up, I wasn’t into the Donald/Goofy/Mickey thing. I didn’t care at all for Tarzan or Peter Pan or Hercules. I actually I hated Hercules.  In the first game, I think the only movie I really loved was Alice, and that level drove me crazy! Oh, and Halloweentown. That’s not to say I don’t like Disney, but the Disney stuff I liked didn’t have KH levels, i.e. Fox and the Hound, Aristocats, Beauty and the Beast (though Beast and Belle appear in the first game and they get a world in KH2!). Now I like Frozen and Tangled and Big Hero 6 and two of those are coming in KH3! But eleven year old Kaci, with KH1 and my selective taste in movies?  Nah.

When the game first came out I absolutely refused to play it because it was Disney. Then KH2 came out, I saw the awesome Deep Dive video, and played a little bit as Roxas and Sora for the opening of KH2 and was like “Oh man, I gotta play this now!" Now here I am. I have 100% completion on all the games. I run a KH blog. I’m completely hooked on this stupid phone game. So no, I don’t think being into Disney is required. 

The relevance to Disney is literally that each individual world has characters from a specific Disney movie. Probably 70% of the worlds are Disney worlds, but they are still great to experience. Not because they are like the movies, but because of how exciting and intricate the level designs can be. It’s a whole new way to experience the content. But still, my favorite worlds in the game are places like Radiant Garden and Twilight Town - unique to the KH franchise.

The story in itself is exceptional. The cast is about 50% original characters. A lot of Final Fantasy characters are there, too, between FF6 and FFX-2. But I’d never played any FF games before KH1 either and it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the game. I think they add a lot of depth and easter-egg-like value to the franchise for Square fans, and it fills out the cast nicely.

The bottom line is, Disney’s involvement is mostly there for padding. Going through a game where you go to 12 different worlds, each with their own story and resolution, and then bouncing to the next, would be a colossal undertaking. You’d find a lot of the padding pointless and boring, and often you do with the Disney worlds as well. But now they are telling a story that has nostalgia, a clear and concise conclusion, and you feel content to never see Tarzan or Mulan again. The use of Disney in the franchise is just great game design, that’s all there is to it.

Short version: Disney is there for nostalgia and padding out the game’s timer, with very few exceptions. Though Disney content is abundant, that’s not why it gets the love and praise it gets. As long as you don’t outright hate Disney on principle, you’ll adore the franchise.

  Anonymous said:
Hey, sorry to be really dumb, but I just had a question! For strength (like the value next to the sword icon? I assume that's strength?), how come the value changes when you go into battle? Like out of battle my Marluxia is mega weak and like 7200, but in battle it says the strength is 12000 (aroundabout) and he does more damage than shared medals which outside of battle said they had higher strength? I hope that makes sense :( Thanks :)

Great question!  This confused me for a long time.

The in-battle sword icon is your attack value, or what damage you’d do ignoring the defense of your enemy.  It’s actually a combination of your medal strength, your Chips on that medal, and the multiplier slot it’s in.  

For instance, my Terra is 7338 +1000, in a multiplier slot of x2.35 on Three Wishes. In battle his attack value is 19,594, which is just 8338 times 2.35.  It’s a handy measurement, so you know how much damage each medal is likely to do in-battle.

Friend medals are a little more complicated.  There’s no on-screen representation of a multiplier slot for a friend medal, which is why they are often thought of as less powerful.  But there is a multiplier for each Friend medal factored in based on keyblade level.  Roughly, a level 2 keyblade has about a x1.04 friend slot, while a level 20 keyblade has about a x1.30 friend slot.

My friend’s TVA+1000 is as follows on different keyblades:
MoG +5: 9050 ~ x1.13
SL +22: 11076 ~ x1.38
LL +25: 13198 ~ x1.64
DR +26: 13487 ~ x1.68

Special Attack Bonus and guilt are not factored into any of these, since it’s an optional multiplier in battle.

I hope this helps! (I actually learned a little bit on Friend medals while confirming this!)

<3 KCM

P.S. Anything above 7000 base strength is very very good.  Often base strength is what makes a medal better or worse than another.

PSA: Halloween Sora

Listen here, KHUX players!  This event is important.  I know it’s an annoying grind to get one of those Halloween Soras to guilt, but seriously, do it.  With his Defense Down ability, he is the single best (non-premium) AOE Speed medal in the game right now, beating out Hydra, and Square is giving it to us guilted and free.  Honestly, if you can get two?  Get two!  These puppies will destroy any Olympia/TT Adamantite Challenges you still need, too.

tldr; Halloween Sora = very good.  Get it.

<3 KCM

Halloween Sora Event!

Ohhhhkay.  Get ready for some hardcore grinding!

The Halloween Sora event has three missions, all of which are identical except for the Power/Speed/Magic type.  This allows you to tackle the mission that suits your best keyblade.  Each mission has three objectives:
~Completing the mission gives you 50 jewels each
~Using only appropriate type medals gives you a 6 star moogle
~Beating 5 Pumpkin Soldiers gives you a 3* Sora

I recommend doing each mission at least once for the jewels and Sora, but I’ll get to that.

What you’ll come across is:
(All enemies are typed to the target)
(Jack O’ Lanterns have x2 type-defense)
(Soldiers have x2 type-defense, then x1 type-defense for their weakness; i.e. if the enemies are Power, they will have x2 Speed & Power defense, but x1 Magic defense)

Jack O’ Lanterns:
Lv. 25 x3
Lv. 25 x3
Lv. 50 x1
Lv, 50 x1
Lv. 50 x1
Lv. 50 & Lv. 25
~*Target*~ Lv. 25 x1

Pumpkin Soldiers:
Lv. 100 x1
Lv. 120 x3
Lv. 150 x1
Lv. 200 x3

Health chest x2
Special chest -10 bars over 5 chests

Also, each mission gives ~20 event coins that can be used to complete an Event Board, giving things like Chips, Dales, and Cids.  The board requires 5000 coins to complete (so about 250 runs).  I don’t recommend trying to complete it: it’s mostly there as a consolation since you’re running these missions for Soras.

Each enemy also has a chance to drop a 3 star Sora medal.  In my experience, you net 1.3 medals each run if you kill every enemy group, and .65 medals if you ignore the Lv. 200s.  That isn’t to say you are guaranteed one by killing all the enemies, but that you essentially double your chances.  I have, however, gotten two medals without the Lv. 200 group!

Let’s talk strategy, then we’ll get to the medal evolutions.

Strategy:
Everything is very, very easy with the exception of the Lv. 200 group.  They hit very hard - two hits will kill you.  This means one of them needs to be dead before the first hit (unless you have Second Chance) and you will still need DB2 procs to survive.  Medals that deal non-attribute damage are great since it ignores the defenses.  Jack/BC Mickey/Shadow.

My strategy: 3x strength, Terra for 2x type strength, Jack, Shadow, and a friend’s Jack.  By the second turn, one of them is down and the other two are at about a bar and a half of health.  And I still can’t reliably kill them without DB2 procs saving me all the time.

I tried Defense Up with Nick&Judy.  It didn’t help.

Honestly, if you’re having too much trouble with the last mob - where you have to Save/Load more than once per run - then don’t bother.  Just take out the rest of them instead.  Luckily, to defeat 5 Pumpkin Soldiers, you don’t have to do the last group!  This lets you get that bonus 3 star Sora.

So now let’s talk about evolution.

Halloween Sora doesn’t evolve like normal medals: it uses other Soras!  And to make it worse, it still uses evolve medals, just not fairies.  In other words, a 3 star to a 4 star requires a 3 star Sora and two Fairy Godmothers.  A 4 star to a 5 star requires a 4 star Sora and two Yen Sids.  Et cetera.  Not following along?  Here’s a picture:

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^5 star to 6 star

This means that not only do you need the seven Soras to guilt, but you’ll need even more Soras to evolve!  Here’s a handy little chart I made:

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(Red is Combine, Blue is Evolve)

You’ll see on the left the amount of Sora’s needed for that stage of evolution.  For example, getting a 4 star to a 5 star will actually require two Soras - one 3 star turns the other 3 star into a 4 star to act as the catalyst.  If that’s confusing, just take my word for it.

This means you’ll need 8+6+4 = 18 Soras to evolve, plus the seven necessary to get Guilt.  So you’re looking at 25 Soras for one Guilted version!  That’s about 40 runs of the mission, ignoring the Lv. 200 group, plus 8 Fairy Godmothers, 6 Yen Sids, and 6 Fantasia Mickeys.

Rerolling your guilt is thankfully less painful (but not much less).  You have your original Sora, plus one to make it 4 star, plus two to make it 5 star, and plus four to make it 6 star.  That’s eight medals per reroll.

So is he worth it?

Sure.  He’s a Tier 3 guilt, so he can roll up to 100%.  He lowers defense for his attack by one tier.  He’s an AOE, and Speed AOEs aren’t really common.  And honestly, if you know what you’re doing, this is a lot less work than grinding out those avatar boards from the Watermelons.  Plus you get something actually useful!

The mission ends on 10/20 so you’ve got two weeks, so take your time!  Make sure you stock up on Fairy Godmothers, Yen Sids, and Fantasia Mickeys this weekend!  Good luck and have fun!

<3 KCM

Coliseum Challenge ~ Gems!!

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Gems are finally here, for all ten of you who have actually beaten all 35 adamantite challenges and are eager to upgrade your keyblades even further! (For the record, I’m at 33/35 and will stay there for all eternity.  That Darkside sucks!) So, what is this new event and why is it different to the Adamantite Challenges?

For starters, gems (which will be the only upgrade material in the foreseeable future) are limited to certain keyblades and are not associated to permanent challenges.  That is, when this mission goes down, any missed gems will likely be missed forever.  Not to worry, though!  Unlike adamantite, gems are infinite, so long as they continue to create events and rewards with gems associated to them.  They can be obtained from events (such as this one), lux rankings, coliseum rewards, and avatar boards!  Think of them like rare skills that upgrade your keyblades!

This challenge is giving us three gems, which will allow you to upgrade any three keyblades to level +26.  Treasure Trove and Olympia use Power, Three Wishes and Moogle O’ Glory use Magic.  Starlight, Lady Luck, and Divine Rose use Speed.

There are 50 missions total, and each one is a one on one match with a Heartless (or Cloud).  The levels of the enemies continue to increase, from a Lv. 1 Shadow to a Lv. 300 Cloud.  The goal is to get as far as you can, with the added bonus of Chips and Dales along the way, as well as 100 jewels every 5 missions.

After completing 10 Missions, you get the Magic Gem from a Lv. 100 Wayward Wardrobe.

After completing 25 more Missions, you get the Power Gem from a Lv. 225 Morning Star.

After completing 15 more missions, you get the Speed Gem from a Lv. 300 Cloud.

You should be able to get Magic no matter who you are.  You should be able to get Power with mild effort if you have some good buff medals.  It’s that last Speed medal that’s a problem.  Here’s a couple of things to know:

~Starting on the third set, defense is very high.  Friend medals are more useful for buffs, skills, and heals, since they don’t get a bonus from the slot multipliers.
~All 1 Turn rewards are now 2 Turn rewards.
~Skills - specifically Attack Prize Plus - and heals become VERY important in these missions.
~Continues are allowed.  The only rewards you miss out on for Continues is 100 jewels on the 5th, 10th, and 15th stages.  You can use a continue to get the Speed gem.  Actually, assuming you haven’t used a continue until now, you have 700 gems.  If you can finish all 15 missions in 7-9 continues or less, you technically broke even and can upgrade your Divine Rose/Lady Luck!  
~If you use a continue and you die a second time, it is in your best interest to use a second continue.  Don’t think “I can do better” and start again, because you likely can’t.  Just power through and finish the mission unless you intend to give up on the challenge entirely.
~Lastly: if you can’t make it to the Speed Gem, don’t worry so much.  It will come up again another time.  Next challenge, it might even be the easy gem to get!  Seriously, it’s not a big deal.  Don’t spend 2k jewels on this stupid thing.

All that being said, here is a small guide (that has now turned into a long guide) on the final 15 missions:

1: Lv. 230 White Rose (M)
Can heal, can cause sleep.  Other than that, just single target Speed.

2: Lv. 235 Search Ghost (S)
x2 Attack
If he’s hitting too hard, dispel him with Alice or Bell.  Single target Power to take him down fast.  Minnie DB2.

3: Lv. 240 Cannon Gun (S)
Nothing special until Turn 3, when his attack goes way up.  Single target him down before then.

4: Lv. 245 Stinging Bee (S)
x1 attack
x1 defense
This changes to x3 attack after the second turn ends.  If you can’t kill it before then, make sure you have some DB2.  His hits can paralyze you as well.  Turn 2 he has no buffs, so that’s where you should focus your Special if you’re counting your bars.

5: Lv. 250 Armored Warrior (P)
This is the first time we see this guy, I think?
x3 Type defense (first turn & third turn)
x3 Attack (when he attacks)

He hurts.  DB2 or Alice/Belle is mandatory to make it to the second turn.  I used no attribute attacks like Shadow and Jack, but you can probably do most of your damage in Turn 2, when his defenses are down.  Be careful though - if you can’t kill him, his attack and defense are both at x3 in Turn 3.

6: Lv. 255 Morning Star (P)
When low on HP, raises defense and heals itself.  Try not to let that happen.  His hits are a lot stronger than his fat bandit friend, so Minnie and DB2 should be important if you can’t single target him down with Magic.

7: Lv. 260 Hammer Frame (P)
When low on HP, he boosts strength and defense.  Try not to let that happen.  If he hits you, he has a chance to paralyze too.  Save/Load if you have bad luck.  

8: Lv. 265 Wyvern (P)
x1 Attack
He hits twice, and he hits hard.  Paralyze or Minnie, DB2, and lots of strong Magic.

9: Lv. 270 High Wizard (M)
Single target Speed.  DB2.  If you’re having trouble, bring Minnie, but there’s not much of a mechanic here.

10: Lv. 275 Dark Plant (M)
Same as above.  He lowers your defenses though.

11: Lv. 280 Blue Copter Fleet (M)
x2 Magic defense
x2 Speed defense

If this guy hits you, it takes down a lot of your HP.  Counter this with Paralysis and use Minnie and DB2 to keep your health as high as possible.  If you want to do Speed damage, you should debuff, but I used high single target Magic (Shadow is good here too) and it went just fine.  It took three turns, though.

12: Lv. 285 Gargoyle (S)
His hits won’t kill you, but they can paralyze you.  Save/Load if you get paralyzed and it messes you up.

He’s way easier than the BCF before him.  High single target Power damage with x3 Strength (x5 if you have Ill. Sora) and you’ll be fine.  Use TT or Olympia.

13: Lv. 290 Invisible (S)
Starts putting on x2 and x3 attack when he gets to low health.

For this one, I mirrored the paralysis trick from round 11, but with Olympia and Power medals.  Leon +1000 AB2 50% in the x2.7 slot, and paralysis in the free slots.  Remember Minnie and DB2.  No debuffs necessary.

14: Lv. 295 Black Copter Fleet (S)
x3 Speed attack
x3 Power defense
Refreshes after two turns

This was the first one I had to use a continue on.  You need Alice (or Belle).  Even if it’s a friend card, you need it to survive the first attack.  If you have your own Alice, put it early in the keyblade so you can use Power damage to whittle away at his health.  Paralysis and is very helpful, but don’t bother with Minnie - if you need her, you’re already dead.

Strategy:
Olympia.  Alice.  Strength x3, or x5 if you can.  Use your best single target in the 2.7 Power slot.  Everything else should be paralysis or poison, including your friend card.  Especially your friend card, since you’ll be doing next to no damage without a slot multiplier.  Bring DB2.

With this plan, you’ll get two full attacks of your Power medal.  Then you need a Paralysis proc, because his x3 Speed buff refreshes.  If you don’t get a proc, Save/Load.  Get a third hit in.  Pray for another proc.  Get a fourth hit in.  He’ll probably kill you unless you’ve got really good luck or a really good Power medal. (I had Leon maxed out.)  He’ll kill you.  Continue.  Start all over again.  Make sure to re-debuff him when you come back to life.  Rinse repeat until he’s dead.

I only needed one continue for this fight after spending almost 100 AP trying different tactics.  I, however, don’t really use Defense Up or Defense Down.  Those might be viable alternatives.  Nick & Judy could be very useful!  Don’t bother stealing the x3 Speed and using it against him - it’s not worth it.  Go for Power.

An alternative friend card for this is anything with Sleep or Sleep+.  Even more useful than paralysis.  Don’t use the special though if it’s Sleep+.  The damage isn’t worth the SP loss.

15: Lv. 300 Cloud (S)
He will kill you.

Strategy:
Literally everything he does kills you.  DB2 can proc for every single hit, and it will still probably kill you.  Defense up could work.  Like I said - I don’t use Defense buffs and debuffs enough. Again, Nick & Judy maybe?

Same plan as the BCF, except no Alice/Belle, and no chance for two turns.  Thankfully, he has about half the HP bars as the BCF, so it sort of evens out.  Sleep on your friend card is a must.  Paralysis is basically necessary.  A lot of Save/Loading.  I had him down to three health bars before using my continue - that was after two sleeps and a paralysis.

Don’t use ANY special that isn’t a.) a buff/debuff medal, b.) 0 SP cost, or c.) the medal in your 2.7 Olympia slot.  Because you won’t do a lick of damage. (If you’re using TT, you can experiment with the last three slots.)

I’m a C2P player.  I’m sure there are people that are better than me.  I’m sure there are people that will survive Cloud’s hits (magically) and won’t use any continues.  I’m sure there are people who will even two-turn him!  Please use this guide as a reference rather than a rulebook.  This is more for the hundred thousand people on or below my level.

Now that you have your gems, how should you use them?

Magic ~ Moogle O’ Glory.  Three Wishes focuses a lot on Slot 3 for all of the gem upgrades, and it’s not until +28 that it gets into useful territory.  MoG on the other hand has its multipliers in slots 2-5 above x2, and never focuses on Slot 1 during its upgrade process. (Of course, we still don’t have any orichalcum… so by the time we get another story update, another gem will probably be released!)
Power ~ Olympia. Olympia gets +x.35, including on slots three and five.  Treasure Trove only gets +x.20 on slots two and four. 
Speed ~ Divine Rose. Divine Rose and Starlight both upgrade slots 4 and 5 by +x.30, but DR has more usefulness in game atm, especially with the release of the guilted Jack medal.  Lady Luck only gives +x.25 to slot 3.

“It’s also worth mentioning that, instead of leveling three blades to +26, someone could instead use the three gems to level starlight to +27.” - by Reddit user bobguy117

I hope all that helped!  Have a great week guys!  Event ends 10/9!

<3 KCM

P.S. If you have any questions concerning the Kingdom Hearts franchise, from KHUX mechanics to plot arcs from KH1, feel free to send me an ask! ^_^  That’s what Kingdom Hearts FAQ is here for!

October Coliseum Guide

(This is my third guide tonight so pardon me if I’m a little curt.. >_<) 

We’re back for another month of Coliseum!  This one has some pretty Halloween vampire outfits and a lot of Attack Prize skills!  So let’s get down to business.

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Like always, you need 2200 coins to complete both avatar boards.  That’s clearing Round 30 of Tier 10, which is a lot easier now than it was when Coliseum T10 came out.  Especially with the Jack event, there is no reason anyone shouldn’t be able to get to Round 30.

Here’s the enemy list based on Round number:

x1: (All Power)
~Dire Plant
~Dire Plant x3
~Gargoyle Knight
~Gargoyle Knight x2

x2: (All Speed)
~Chomper Egg x4
~Air Soldier
~Air Soldier & Chomper Egg x2 & Gift Shadow

x3: (All Magic)
~Bag O’ Coal x3
~Bag O’ Coal x4
~White Rose & Bag O’ Coal x2

x4: (All Power)
~Nosy Mole
~Nosy Mole x5
~Large Armor & Nosy Mole x2

x5: (Speed unless stated)
~Bandit x3 (*CAUTION*)
~Bandit x4 (*CAUTION*)
~Wibble Wobble x2 & Shadow x2 (P)

x6: (Magic unless stated)
~Gift Shadow (P)
~Darkball x2
~Wayward Wardrobe (+3 Magic-Defense) & Blue Rhapsody x2

x7: (Power & Magic)
~Possessor (M) x4 (*CAUTION*)
~Armored Knight (P) & Possessor (M)
~Large Armor (P) & Possessor (M) x2

x8 (All Speed)
~Gargoyle
~Rainy Loudmouth x4 (*CAUTION*)
~Armored Archer x2 & Rainy Loudmouth x2

x9: (All Magic)
~Bag O’ Coal
~Bag O’ Coal x4
~Ice Plant & Bag O’ Coal x3 (+2 Magic-Strength)

x0: (All Magic)
~Minute Bomb x2
~Candy Apple x2
~Wretched Witch (+1 Speed-Defense) & Minute Bomb & Candy Apple

A couple of those aren’t fun to deal with; Wretched Witch and Wayward Wardrobe are the worst IMO.  Unlike last month, there isn’t a Hammer or Cannon.  No Bad Dogs either, thankfully.  Defense Boosts and 0SP medals will help out a lot as you advance.  Those Poison+, Paralysis+, and Sleep+ will really come in handy.  This month has less heavy hitters, more health bars.  A test of endurance, maybe.  But with Jack and TVA in the mix, I think we will be seeing a lot of contention at Round 100 or higher!

So, let’s get down to the good stuff.  The rewards.

Rewards:
As always, getting to Tier 10 gets you some Cids and some Moogles.

Vampire Board (Blue):
~Vampire outfit
~Vampire talons (wrists)
~Vampire mask
~Poison
~Attack Boost I
~Attack Boost All I
~Chip +250
~Dale +400
~Cid x2
Title: Grand

Vampire Board (Pink):
~Vampire outfit
~Vampire bracelets
~Vampire headpiece
~Sleep
~Paralysis
~Defense Boost I
~Chip +400
~Dale +250
~Cid x2
Title: Brawny

Rankings:
~Top 2,500 get the new skill: Attack Prize + & Attack Boost II - this triggers both AB2 and APP at once
~Top 10,000 get Attack Prize Plus, which is great on its own
~Top 10,000 also get Vampire Wings

That’s it!  Have fun!  Good luck!

<3 KCM

Hocus Pocus Raid Event

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This month, the raid event is a lot more like they used to be.  You get Raid Coins for beating bosses and you can fill out a Raid Board every weekend.  Hocus Pocus - that ripped pumpkin house in the picture - is your new raid boss.  He only has two weak points, which means only three turns of attacks.  To top it off, the Level 1 has over 7 million health.  Very tedious, but great for Lux farming.

There are some new bonuses though!  For example, completing the Raid Event mission once can net you 150 extra jewels - 50 per objective.  Also, beating a Level 10 raid boss still gets you a 6 star Chip, Dale, and Moogle.  It’s nice that they kept those rewards, but the bosses have much more health now so it will be even more time-consuming.

The board takes 190 coins to complete.  You get 50 coins for victory, 10 for all points, and 10 for host.  That means it takes three or four kills to clear the board.  The rewards for the board are:

~Chip +85
~Dale +85
~Cid
~Magic Mirror
No title

Like always, Double Lux and Double Spawn Rate for associated times.  Those times haven’t changed.

Every weekend for the month of October this event will come up for Saturday and Sunday! 

Have a wonderful month everyone!

<3 KCM