Hero’s Hour Skirmish Guide

This is a guide on how to do all of the skirmish/scenarios by level and the type of unit you need:

1 – Carver(10)
2 – Jellykiller(3), Blastmaster(2)
3 – Pyrebeast(7), Flame Stoker(1)
4 – Disciple(12), Tricrow(9)
5 – Spirited Fire(11)
6 – Stone Watcher(26)
7 – Disciple(18), Sneagle(7)
8 – Leech(24), Swamp Arrows(7)
9 – Voodoo(18), Equine Guard(8)
10 – Worm(30), Swamp Arrow(1)
11 – Blight Stinger(21)
12 – Automaton(30)
13 – Shah(1), Sand Devil(18)
14 – Spirited Fire(22)
15 – Bloodsucker(90)
16 – Spirit Serpent(1), Mutant Trogs(29)
17 – Goblin Guard(40), Gargoyle(10), Djinn(1)
Note: Relies a bit on Djinn Spellcasting RNG, specifically getting good buff coverage via the Fortune buff – may take a few tries.
18 – Deadeye(20), Forest Spirit(49)
19 – Goblin Guard(21), Automaton(10), Djinn(1)
Note: The most difficult mission currently IMO. Relies on Djinn Spellcasting RNG, – it has to be proc’d early and needs to have good coverage. It also relies on enemy Golden Buck Midas procs being low. May take many tries. Let me know if anyone’s found a consistent way of beating this.
20 – Spirited Fire(31)
21 – Archer(62), Wildspeaker(2)
22 – Spirited Fire(39)
23 – Flame Stoker(34), Canine(18), Shah(1)
24 – Spirited Fire(56)
25 – Wise(2), Trogs(45)
Note: Relies a bit on Wise Spellcasting RNG, specifically getting good value from Evolve(Wise Spell) on Trogs. Might take a few tries.
26 – Hierophant(1), Carver(28), Lizarcher(17), Lizgennaire(13)
27 – Marksman(44), Swordsman(28)
28 – Harpooneer(15), Mutant Trogs(41)
29 – Bearguard(29), Seastars(58), Stingers(5), Seamare(1)
Note: Seastars need to get access to the enemy hillkeepers and deadeyes – good positioning generally should make this strategy consistent.
30 – Aspect of Shadow(4), Wildkind(20), Flamestoker(188), Voodoo(46)
Note: Actually pretty easy, as long as you have plenty of Flamestokers you can get away with any composition

A complete guide to automatically read events from Google Calendar and present them on Discord via IFTTT.

Bonus – Ping interested roles!

Discord has some functionality built in called a Webhook which allows you to get automated messages and data updates sent to a text channel. One of the main things I use Webhooks for is to read calendar events from Google Calendar, send the event to a text channel 15minutes before it starts and ping Discord roles that may be interested in that event. In this guide I attempt to show you step by step how to set that up and the good news is that it is completely free to use.

We will be using the three platforms shown below:
– Google Calendar
– IFTTT
– Discord

Google Calendar to IFTTT to Discord
Google Calendar to IFTTT to Discord

The first thing to set up is the Google Calendar https://www.google.com/calendar/

Once there, sign into your google account or register if you are new. Then on the left, next to Other calendars, click the plus sign to add other calendars.

Google Calendar - Add Other Calendars
Google Calendar – Add Other Calendars

Then go to Create new calendar on the drop down menu.

Google Calendar - Create New Calendar
Google Calendar – Create New Calendar

Lets leave the calendar there for a minute and jump over to IFTTT, IFTTT is a site that helps you automate processes and it allows you to have a certain number of applets running for free. https://ifttt.com/explore

Register or log in to IFTTT then hit create at the top right and then we need to configure it to connect to the services. Where it says “If This” click “Add” and type google calendar into the search. You then need to pick “Any event starts”, this will look for events starting on your calendar. You should then be able to pick your Google Calendar Account, pick the calendar you have just created and select the time you want to trigger this, for online gaming stuff etc I normally go for 15mins or 30mins to give people warning that something is happening soon. If its a real life meet up you may want to trigger it a day or two before the event.

The next part we need to configure on IFTTT is the “Then That” but we need to set up the webhook in Discord first. On Discord, right click your server then go to Server Settings -> Integrations. Then on webhooks go to view webhooks and click “New Webhook”. This should create one, you can name it and pick which text channel it should post the event information on. Then all you need to do is copy the Webhook URL and we can go back to finalising our IFTTT settings.

On IFTTT “Then That” click “Add” and type “webhook” into the seach box. Pick webhook then click “make a search request”. In the URL box paste in the URL you copied from Discord. Set method to post, content type should be set to application/json and in body type what you want the message to be when the event starts, something like this:

{"content":"Our {{Title}} event is due to start in 15 minutes! {{Description}}"}

Doing that will pull the title and description from the Google Calendar entry automatically!

IFTTT Then That Setup
IFTTT Then That Setup

Once you have clicked create action that is the IFTTT setup complete. Click continue and finish on IFTTT, you can change the title of the applet if you want to. Now all you need to do is add some events to your Google Calendar and test that it works!

Bonus – With a little more setup you can make it automatically ping or tag Discord roles at the same time. In the above we added the {{Description}} part to IFTTT, this will relay whatever is in that description box on the google calendar event. We will use this to put the role information in. First thing you need to do is go to discord and check you have set it into developer mode. Go to settings -> Advnaced then toggle the developer mode setting to turn it on. Then you should be able to right click your server, go to settings -> roles and right click the role you want to ping and click copy ID.

Discord Copy Role ID
Discord Copy Role ID

Now if you paste that it will give you a load of random numbers like 513344460535674883. This on its own will not work but if you put it in the proper syntax <@& 513344460535674883 > then it should. Simply paste that into the description box of the event and it will ping that roll before the event starts.

Discord Text Message produced from Google Calendar via IFTTT
Discord Text Message produced from Google Calendar via IFTTT

Stamps – Great Britain – The Match Tax, A Law That Failed To Pass In Parliament

Robert Lowe, the chancellor of the exchequer, proposed a new duty on matches in 1871. Each box was to bear a stamp, with the image of a flame and the words “Ex luce lucellum” – or “from light, a little gain”. The joke remarked one Liberal politician, might “divert a college common room”, but the thought of Oxford dons smiling over a tax on the poor was bad politics.

A leading economist rallied to the defence of the tax, arguing that the poor should contribute to the state in proportion to their means. If they did not, surely taxes would fall on capital which would flee to foreign countries and so lead to unemployment. Such arguements were no match for the bad politics of Latin puns, and the tax was abandoned in a matter of weeks. Bryant and May, the great match manufacturer, erected a celebratory drinking fountain on Bow Road to mark the defeat of the tax:

Bow Station Bryant May Drinking Fountain
Bow Station Bryant May Drinking Fountain

The Stamps were produced but unissued.

Dayz Survival Tips – How do you identify and solve the sickness?

Infection

Symptoms: Your character is occasionally grunting, your vision blurs, you have no blood gain and persistent health loss.

Cause: Getting a cut or treating a cut without disinfected bandages.

Cure: Use alcoholic or iodine tincture on the wound to disinfect it but that only works in the early stages of infection. In any case take Tetracycline as that should help it clear up.

Cholera

Symptoms: Your vision blurs, you are being sick and getting dehydrated.

Cause: Drinking unclean water.

Cure: This one takes a few days to cure, use Tetracycline. When you need to eat or drink take small bites or sips to avoid being sick again straight away.

Cold

Symptoms: The only symptoms are sneezing. If you have more than sneezing then its probably flu (influenza)

Cause: The common cold can be caught from other survivors or you can get it by being exposed to the elements i.e. not wearing warm clothes.

Cure: Use Tetracycline. It can go naturally but takes ages so tetracycline is the best method if you can find some.

Flu (influenza)

Symptoms: The main symptoms are coughing but you can sneeze and have a fever too.

Cause: The flu can be caught from other survivors or you can get it by being exposed to the elements i.e. not wearing warm clothes.

Cure: Use Tetracycline. It can go naturally but takes ages so tetracycline is the best method if you can find some.

Dayz Survival Tips – Water

One of the main tips when starting as a noob on the beach is to find a water pump in a town or village and drink until you can’t drink anymore. Eventually, this symbol will show indicating if you continue then you will be sick, that is the time to stop and move on with your adventure:

Dayz Full Stomach Symbol
Dayz Full Stomach Symbol

When you eat or drink, it first goes into your stomach. The stomach can hold 2000 millilitres of content. When the volume reaches 1500 the stomach symbol appears, and when you hit the 2000 limit, you’ll vomit to empty the stomach. If you stop eating before that though, it takes about 5 minutes to digest the food and turn it into energy and hydration. While the contents are being digested and drop below 1500, the stomach icon will go away. Filling up on water at the start of your journey will mean you can easily get away from the coast or do some serious looting without having to worry about your water level for a while.

If you find a water bottle in Dayz or a canteen of water I would not drink it straight away as there is a chance you could get a nasty disease, make sure you pour out any water that comes with it and refill at a pump. Receptacles can be filled and water can be drunk from ponds, lakes, dams and extracted from water pumps.

There is no need to disinfect bottles or canteens, disinfecting bottles does nothing. You can use chlorine tablets to get rid of the chance of contracting cholera from bottles of water that you have found containing water that is potentially infected. There is a chance of getting it from water pump too so using a chlorine tablet or taking a multivitamin pill before drinking is a great way to protect yourself. If you have been gutting anything and are not wearing gloves then make sure you wash your hands before drinking too as this can also lead to getting sick.

Another nice tip is to use some larger vessels like jerrycans or cooking pots to drink from, you can use 1 chlorine tablet on it but get to drink a whole lot more water. Drinking rainwater from barrels is 100% safe as well unless you pour contaminated water into it then it ruins the entire barrel and you can’t use chlorine tablets on it.

Written at Dayz version 1.13.

Dayz Survival Tips – Scrumping!

Normally when I’m a fresh spawn I’ve been close to death many times and one thing has saved my life – Scrumping! There are fruit trees everywhere in DAYZ though I will focus on three in particular the apple, pear and plum trees. You can find fruit on the floor next to the trees in various states either raw, dried or rotten.

Where are these fruity trees?

Fruit trees are everywhere and you can use one of the DAYZ interactive loot maps to find them, after a while you will start to recognise the trees and not need the map anymore. Generally I have found that most of the trees in a town and in gardens of houses are fruit trees so that is a good place to look. In some places there are orchards with loads of fruit trees in, generally with these it depends how big they are to how successful your fruit finding will be. Weirdly the bigger the orchard the less fruit you will find as I think they have the same amount spawning per area no matter how many trees there are.

What fruit can I eat?

As I said above the fruit spawns as either raw, dried or rotten. You can eat raw or dried fruit straight away without any danger of becoming sick. Though the dried fruit doesn’t look very appetising its actually very good for your food levels. Take the standard raw apple for example, when you eat it you get 100kcal food energy and 75ml of water. Eating a dried apple will give no water but 200kcal food energy which is double the raw apple. Cooking the apple does increase the food energy slightly but generally isn’t worth the effort.

Eating burned or rotten food will make you sick.

How often does Fruit Respawn?

Constantly! Pick a piece of fruit up, run around a little and come back to that same tree a moment later and it may have some more for you to pick up. There are some areas where you have a close patch of 10 or so trees where you can literally do a loop running around each one checking for fruit then it will keep respawning. Make sure you pick up all fruit, even rotten ones as doing so will allow more fruit to spawn there. Somewhere like this with a couple of houses and 10 or so trees is perfect for the scrumping loop:

The DAYZ Scrumping Loop
The DAYZ Scrumping Loop

Happy scrumping and please do leave a message below if you have anything to add to help our fellow scrumpers survive this zombie apocalypse.

Written at Dayz version 1.13.

Elite Dangerous – Good Multipurpose All-rounder Ships

I don’t like to get stuck doing one particular thing in game and for that reason I’m a big fan of multipurpose ships. Multipurpose ships allow different ways of fitting to suit whatever role the player is aiming for whereas others are reasonably restricted by their abilities to a certain role be it combat, exploring, passengers, mining or carrying cargo.

You all start with a Sidewinder MkI which itself is a multipurpose ship and that is very much so you can try different roles, learn the game and decide what you like doing. I used the sidewinder to make some money and the next ship I went for is the Cobra MkIII which costs 349,718 CR but you will need a Mil or two to fit it well. I found its a great small ship that is manoverable and has many fitting points. As a result you can haul stuff with it, kill stuff with it and even turn it into a miner if you wanted to!

When you are ready to upgrade and you have enough credits to buy one and fit one I’d say the next best all-rounder is the Asp Explorer. It has a good amount of hard points, decent cargo space, amazing jump range and is medium sized. Though to buy the ship its 6,661,153 CR it will cost around 30M if you want to A-rate fit it.

Going up another level (though still classed as medium ships) your choice should be between the Python and the Krait MkII. If you are more into combat then take the Krait, if you are more into space trucking/mining then take the Python. The Krait will cost you 45,814,205 CR and Python will cost you 56,978,180 CR but, as above, make sure you have a lot more than that to cover fitting and upgrading. Modules cost a lot more for these bigger ships!

Hopefully that gives you a good path if you are like me and favour the multipurpose ship. Keep in mind that everyone is different and there are pros and cons to all ships so its important to do a bit of research before jumping in and buying one. Finally here is a table from the Wiki showing all of the multipurpose ships currently available and a link to the Wiki page showing comparisons of all ships:

Elite Dangerous Multipurpose All-rounder Ships
Elite Dangerous Multipurpose All-rounder Ships

Wiki link: https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Ships