Topic

A Guide to Giant Philanthropy 101 (Shrines, Donations, Favor, Icons, Emblems)

Version 11.4.11

Hello there! Have you considered the amazing opportunities available to you in the world of Giant Philanthropy? Now, now, I know this is an adult game, but it doesn't mean that, you dirty, dirty bird. Philanthropy is just a REALLY big word that relates to the act of giving! Yes, those trash buckets with symbols on them you see around the world do have a purpose beyond garbage day! Sit down, have yourself some coffee and flummery, and let's explore the world of shrines! When we're finished, feel free to devote your entire existence to one, or all!, of the giants.

The world was created by eleven giants, if you didn't know. This is not a faith-based idea, it's true! To prove it, each of the giants have shrines located around the world, and when you interact with them, THEY TALK TO YOU. Do you need anymore proof? Good! Now let's cut the flowery exposition and get down to the facts.

Donations
When you donate to a shrine, you are awarded favor. You'll notice when you interact with a shrine, that there is an associated cap for the amount of favor you can stockpile with a giant. Every giant starts at 0/1000. In order to raise your favor, you must throw stuff in the bucket! Feel free to do this from any distance you desire. I played a game of horse with my chick cubimal, and let me tell you, I got creamed! 

The value of your donation is 10% of the item's value located on the info page of the item.
Let's take a look at an item that I find to be very popular in my philanthropic efforts, Meat. Now don't be scared by all this cuh-razy math I'm about to throw at you, because it's really not as bad as it seems. Sure it may scowl at you at first, but the math will warm up to you eventually if you feed and play with it at least twice a day. Meat has a value of 10 currants. For every piece of meat you donate to a shrine, you will receive 1 favor. Go ahead, toss some pork in the bucket. Not the whole pig, mind you, he's worth more than we're using in this example; just the one piece of meat. Congratulations, you've earned your first favor point! The fun does not stop there, however. Not all items are as easily divisble. You can approach this in two ways to help you figure it out. You can go the calculator method, or if you want to do quick math, then just assume that the currant value on the item's info page is the favor value for every 10 of that item you donate. Lost yet? Better to just whip out that calculator, if you ask me.

Emblems
Now unlike most philanthropy, there are direct, tangible benefits to you for making an investment in the bucket! And for the sake of this session, let's just ignore how absolutely ignorant that last statement was. You'll notice that there is a limit to the amount of favor you can stockpile. If you donate so much to the giants that the amount of your favor reaches that limit, the shrine will poop out an emblem! That's right, poop! I said it! HAHA! Congratulations, you have received an item that shows you are a good glitch! Now here's the kicker:

After you receive an emblem, the amount of favor you can store will increase by 100.

This will have benefits we will discuss later. However, now you have an emblem! What should you do with it? You have a few options. First, you can spend it. The first emblem spent will unlock a skill in the skill tree that will allow you to develop a skillset directly related to the giant further. For example, Zille is mainly associated with mining type stuff, so spending that emblem of Zille will unlock Mining 3, which will unlock Mining 4. So in the long run, it's pretty necessary to acquire at least one emblem for each giant! You can still spend the emblem after you learn the skill associated with it, but we'll discuss that later.
You will also hear the term CCC thrown around. CCC applies to qualities I look for in a man. You are allowed to Caress (sexy!), Consider (thoughtful!), and Contemplate (smart!) an emblem for each giant once per game day (every 4 hours). Just kidding on the last part, but not really. Caress will increase your mood, Consider will increase your energy, and Contemplate will give you xp! Freebies just for keeping a set of emblems around! Who knew throwing stuff in a bucket could be so rewarding!

Donation Limits: XP and Favor
There are two limits associated with donations. The first is the xp cap. This cap is 10% of your current xp to level. So once you hit that xp cap, that's it.

You receive 24% of the donation's value in experience points if your mood is at Mr. Winky. You will receive less experience points for your donation if you are not at optimal mood.

If your donation is going to go over the xp cap, you will receive a notification, so if you are donating just to hit the cap, keep lowering your donation until you don't get the message anymore. Bear in mind if you hit a new level during the day, your cap will raise as well, so you can contribute more during that game day to hit the new cap if you want.
The second limit is your favor limit. This one is easy to determine. It is based on whatever amount of favor you need to earn for your next emblem. If you are 0/1000, you can only do 1000 favor. If you are 0/2900, guess what, it's 2900. Now, if you happen to earn an emblem that day, the limit will increase as well, but I tend not to worry about that. For completist's sake though, those silly completists *cough*, if your limit was 1000, and you donate 1000 and receive an emblem, your new limit will be 1100. You can donate 100 more that day, resulting in 100/1100 before you cap for the day.
Reaching these caps are calculated seperately. Any bucket tossing you do will contribute to your overall xp donation cap, while you have a favor cap for each individual giant. Using a new player as an example, you can donate 1000 favor to all 11 giants in one game day if you wanted. It gets mighty tricky to do that when they start letting you stockpile more favor though! Perhaps there is some way to ease the burden of giant donations for giant philanthropists?

The Secret Sauce
There is! I will let you in on a secret: you can make your donation seem like a lot more than it really is. Imagine is everything, my dear! First you need to acquire either Fairly Hallowed Shrine Powder or Extremely Hallowed Shrine Powder. By using these on a shrine, the giants become so engrossed with the effects of the powder, their perception of your next donation gets altered. It's like drugging up your creators, it's great! Fairly will reward you with double favor for your donation, while Extremely will reward you triple. Go with Extremely is my best bet. I personally love sneaking up on a shrine, throwing that powder right in it's face and slam dunking my donation right down that bucket. I then perform my patented bear-in-a-barrel victory lap around the shrine while reveling my newly earned favor. Try it out!


Spending Favor

Now, perhaps you've noticed there is another option listed on the shrine's page, and that is spending your favor. It's true! You don't have to hit the cap if you don't want to, for any favor you have stockpiled can be spent to speed up the skill you are currently learning!

You can speed up your skill learning by a maximum of 50% of the original learning time of the skill by learning "double time."
This is a complicated statement/concept that is worded carefully to ensure maximum confusion!  Think of it this way, every time you spend favor to speed up learning, you are learning at double speed. Let's use a 10 hour skill for example. If I spent enough favor as soon as I started learning the skill, then I could cut down the skill's learning time to 5 hours, because I am learning at double speed for 5 hours. Now, if I were to cut down the skill by 2.5 hours, a few things happen. One, the timer on the skill window will show that I only have 7.5 hours left to learn. Two, I will have 2.5 hours of double time learning remaining before I must speed it up again to maintain maximum spending benefit (I've used 2.5 hours, I have 2.5 hours of speed learning left to earn).  Any time spent learning a skill outside of "speed learning" is time you have lost the opportunity to learn double time. If I were to spend no more favor after the 2.5 hours expired, I will return to normal learning speed for 5 more hours. Now, say I wait two more hours, and have 3 hours left. I could spend favor again, and it will allow me to learn double speed for 1.5 hours, which is all that remains. The two hours I spent outside of double time, I can't get back, and the one hour that I could have saved during that time is long gone. So anytime you are learning double time, if you have not reached a complete 50% savings of learning your skill, then you have until the end of your double time in order to extend your speed learning.

You know what, let me help you visualize it. A picture is worth 1,000 words. At this rate, I could open an art gallery with all the pictures this guide could have been summarized in! 

For a visual representation of how spending favor looks, click here.

Make sense? This is the benefit to raising your giants favor cap. The more points you can stockpile and spend in one sitting, the quicker you can shave off learning time, ensuring maximum benefits without multiple trips and donations! On top of that, emblems! More on that in a moment, I promise.

But after all this complicated math-ery, how will I know what my favor points are worth?

For every favor point spent in your skill's primary giant, you will reduce learning time by 10 seconds.
For every favor point spent in your skill's secondary giant, you will reduce learning time by 7 seconds.
For every favor point spent in any other giant, you will reduce learning time by 5 seconds.

You can locate the giants associated with the current skill you are learning on the skills page, or check it when you start a new skill in game. As you can see, it's best to make donations and spend favor in the primary giant vs. the other giants unless you have SO MUCH STUFF that it doesn't matter, but we all can't be like you, now can we? /snort

Lastly, those emblems again. I mentioned earlier that they can be spent beyond the first one for another purpose. Spent emblems can also be used to speed up learning as well! Think of each emblem as worth 1000 favor points. If you have not already reached your speed cap on learning, you can spend the emblem to nudge you closer to the cap. The same rules apply as when you spent favor points. The amount of time the emblem will shave off will tell you before you spend it, so don't be afraid to check it out!

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Scribbled on a post-it note on the original presentation you find:
Icons
Hai Guys!!!! I know it's been a while since I updated this, and maybe I'm just a little too addicted to the game to edit the original work, but there's just a little bit more I have to tell you about, Icons! See, you're probably at this point in your Glitch life now where you are overflowing with emblems because of this guide, it's ok, you can admit it! You needed this guide like you needed my Aunt Mabel's Super Chunky Cherry Pie for dessert yesterday! This guide is making your thighs fat with emblems, I can tell (but I'll never say it to your face)! Well, wouldn't it be nice if there is a way to reduce all those excess emblems into a stronger, more powerful you? Well hey, that's where Icons come in. It's liposuction for your emblems!

When you acquire 11 emblems from the same giant, a new verb becomes available, "Iconize."

Do you remember all those kids shows where all those robots would form together to create a more powerful robot? Well, same thing! You are putting together 11 emblems to create a more powerful emblem, except this Icon lets you see a picture of your giant presented in one of the more expensive display cases available at your local Pier 1 Imports, without a coupon! You can carry the icons around and use them like Emblems, but Icons gain the unique ability to be placed in your home and used from the ground without having to pick it up. Utility and Beauty all in one package? Thank you Pier 1!

There's also another advantage to keeping the icons on the ground in your home: Giant Love. Now that you've placed your Icons in the exact spot where your Feng Shui Calculator © determined would be the best place, everytime you run past it, your icon may grant you bonus energy, mood, XP, or favor. It even gives you a fun animation to know you got lucky. Bet you're snotty little emblem never did that for you! 

Icons also grants more powerful verbs that you can use once per day, just like emblems. These verbs can be used on top of your Emblems, so double perk bonus miles, woo! Instead of CCC, our powerful megazord of worship has RRR. Reflect is the XP option, Revere is the Energy gain, and Ruminate is the mood booster. These verbs are more powerful than their emblem kin, and the rewards scale based on your level.

BUT WAIT! 

DANGER WILL ROBINSON! 

Icons don't give out their perks willy-nilly. No ma'am, these Icons want something in return! YOUR SOUL. No, not really, but....

Tithe'n for a Livin' (SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY)
While emblems are a kid sister who trusts you and will do anything for you, Icons are your more skeptical teenage brother who demands some sort of sacrifice in order to maintain the perks of your relationship. At some point, using the verbs will deplete the Icon of it's hidden mojo, and you will need to tithe. Think of each icon having a fuel bar like a Blockmaker or Fuelmaker, the more you use it, the more you'll need to replenish it. When the fuel bar runs out, your Icon will rat you out to Mom. But seriously, they'll demand a tithe! The amount of your tithe depends on your current level. As the rewards of having an Icon scale with level, so too does your tithe. Tithe'ing refills this unseen fuel bar, and allows you to take advantage of all this annoying sibling has to offer. Please note that punching your icon in the face will not forgo the need for a tithe.

Phew, that was a lot to cover. I'm sorry I had to write this on a post-it note, but it just didn't seem to fit anywhere in the presentation! And ignore that smudge of cherry pie. Writing makes me hungry!
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I believe that's about everything related to the world of giant philanthropy. If there's anything I missed, as I'm sure I have, please feel free to let me know so I can modify my presentation. In the meantime, if you happen to find any sexy, thoughful, smart men who are available every four hours, could you please send them my way? After all, I am a philanthropist! Happy glitch-ing!

Version 11.4.11 to include visual representation of Speed Learning.
Version 11.3.11 to include Icons and more accurate understanding of "Speed Learning." (Thanks Sthenno)
Edit: Check out agent86's latest tool, FavorSaver! to help you determine the size of your donations!

Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

Previous 1 2
  • I donate a LOT, but there's still one thing i'm unclear on - daily donation-for-XP limits. Can you shed some light on them and whether/when they increase? 
    Posted 12 years ago by xLIFEx Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you for the Explanations!  This is kinda what I thought only I thought it a bit faster because I didn't explain it to myself as I thought.  Don't gape at me like that!  I learned it from the Giants by osmosis or something.
    Posted 12 years ago by Brib Annie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Shine Leonine:

    Ah yes! There's so much wrapped around the finger of this subject, I sometimes forget what all those pieces of yarn mean. I could make a blanket out of all that!

    There are two limits associated with donations. The first, as you mentioned is the xp cap. This cap is 10% of your current xp to level. So once you hit that xp cap, that's it. I do not know the formula for which to calculate your xp, but just keep donating until you hit it. If your donation is going to go over the xp cap, you will receive a notification, so if you are donating just to hit the cap, keep lowering your donation until you don't get the message anymore. Bear in mind if you hit a new level during the day, your cap will raise as well, so you can contribute more during that game day to hit the new cap if you want.
    The second limit is your favor limit. This one is easy to determine. It is based on whatever amount of favor you need to earn for your next emblem. If you are 0/1000, you can only do 1000 favor. If you are 0/2900, guess what, it's 2900. Now, if you happen to earn an emblem that day, the limit will increase as well, but I tend not to worry about that. For completist's sake though, those silly completists *cough*, if your limit was 1000, and you donate 1000 and receive an emblem, your new limit will be 1100. You can donate 100 more that day, resulting in 100/1100 before you cap for the day.  


    I'll weave this later into the presentation when I get some sleep! EDIT: Officially woven, thanks Shine!
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks for the info on the Primary/Secondary/other learning time reduction numbers.

    The guide was pretty helpful. While I knew most of it, I suddenly realized that, for all the times I've maxed out my primary giant's daily favor and spent it on learning faster, I'd never even considered also maxing out my secondary giant's daily favor and spending it on learning. I could be dropping 50% more learning time per day on these longer skills. Good thing I noticed this early.

    Also, the best method that I've noticed to get favor is to mine Sparkly Ore (value 8 per unit, 4-8 units per progress bar, plus some if somebody else is digging with you). It's common enough in certain places to be able to mine lots of it, and it doesn't have the "1-4 harvests per day" harvesting limit that things like plants and animals do. It's 9 AM in-game and I've already maxed out the favor of 3 giants, which is probably head and shoulders above the favor I could get from plants and animals. And this is only at Mining III, Mining IV seems to mine at twice the speed, from what I've seen of other people using it. Frankly, mining just seems over-the-top good at building favor with the giants, even without the favor boosting items referenced in the OP.
    Posted 12 years ago by Mr. Glenn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Mr. Glenn:

    Proper use of spending favor delves into the realm of Advanced Giant Philanthropy. Unfortunately the course does not exist yet in the registrar, so I can't talk about it right now! It might have to do that I'm about to take a nap too :o
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nice work Zu.  The only thing I wonder is how much XP one receives when they are only a few favor points from an emblem.  If you are 20 favor points from an emblem, then donate 1000 meats with extremely hallowed shrine powder, do you get the same XP as you would if you were at 0 favor?  Thanks
    Posted 12 years ago by Friend Subscriber! | Permalink
  • In my experience, Friend, you lose that overflow favor... so it's worth it to try to not overshoot your goal by much. I wish it would "wrap around" and apply to building up favor again! But I'm not sure on the XP, maybe that isn't lost.

    Zu, this is terrific! Thanks for sharing!
    Posted 12 years ago by Lilith Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sorry to ask another question my helpful friend, but when you say 'current XP to level, is that how much it takes to raise the level in general, or are you saying that the closer i am to levelling up the smaller proportion i'm going to be able to earn XP from? Much love!
    Posted 12 years ago by xLIFEx Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Finally somebody explained this in a way that makes sense and also cleared up some of those unclear aspects of 'Giant Philanthropy'.
    Thank you Zu!
    Posted 12 years ago by Sir Mixalatte Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Another benefit of getting emblems and increasing the favor cap is then you can reach your daily xp cap at one giant at higher levels rather than having to go to multiple.  
    Posted 12 years ago by Hameigh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Shine Leonine:  Hover over your xp bar, #1 of #2. Take #2, divide by 10, xp cap. Ta-da!  

    Your donation xp cap remains static unlike spending favor. You get a flat 10% per game day you can spend
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Friend: Your xp caps and favor caps are calculated seperately. I do not recommend donating to a shrine when it is almost to cap with extremely hallowed shrine powder for the xp alone. Think of all the wasted favor! There are poor baby bears-on-a-barrel in Somalia who could use that, tsk tsk.
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you do muuuuuuuuuch for this hearty lesson!!
    Posted 12 years ago by Bbcversus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You didn't mention that the shortcuts for the special emblem powers spell out the word CON.  That's right, sheeple!  Wake up!  Zille doesn't care about you!  Lem doesn't take your calls!  

    ...ahem.
    Posted 12 years ago by Snarkbutt Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Snarkbutt:

    Up is down! Tomatoes are killer! I look forward to attending your seminars on our new overlords, the Rook! :)
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • CON also stands for CONstitution. Therefore I conclude that a balanced diet of emblems every day keeps you healthy and fit.
    Posted 12 years ago by Toksyuryel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Incredible explanation Zu... really well-done. Should explain many of the mysteries of donations & I think I'm going to be pointing a lot of people here.

    Are you sure about the learning time reductions? I thought it was 10/7/5, not 10/5/1 for primary/secondary/not-affiliated giants.
    Posted 12 years ago by Snazzlefrazz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love this post!  It should exist in its entirety in the wiki.
    Posted 12 years ago by Jewel Stoned Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you!  :)
    Posted 12 years ago by Li'll Missy Brenda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Entertainingly crafted! Yes, save it in the wiki!
    Posted 12 years ago by girlhacker Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Snazzlefrazz:

    When I start my next skill I'll doublecheck with the emblems. I had taken that information from reading it somewhere, but only ever tested the 10 seconds to be sure.
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Way to go Zu.. nicely crafted explanation.
    Posted 12 years ago by Puzz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +100 Ty Zu for spending the time to write such a wonderful 101 :)  What a wonderful thing for newbies [and some middle-aged players] who are not quite sure what shrines and donating are all about !!!
    Posted 12 years ago by Qizara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Great guide, thanks, I was told several times it was 10/7/5 for giants favor, good to know it's actually 10/5/1.

    By the way, increasing your favor cap is really underrated it seems? Not hearing of a lot of people doing it, probably because it's not needed unless you start doing it early.

    This is a great resource sink for anyone looking to prepare for the possibility of new skills coming out that will take weeks to learn.
    Posted 12 years ago by Bluigi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Actually, favour is 10/7/5 for primary, secondary, and unrelated giants, so that needs to be changed, but otherwise it's a good guide for folks.  :)
    Posted 12 years ago by Marebito Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks for the entertaining and informative post, Zu! Do you also happen to know what the maximum possible favor capacity is? You mentioned 2900 favor, is that the known upper limit, or was that just an example?
    Posted 12 years ago by zZzZzZzZ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm not an official source, so the 10/7/5 seems to be the more proper response, and makes more sense now that I'm doing the math in my head. Changing the guide to compensate. Thanks all! I also rearranged some paragraphs to make it streamline a better flow.

    @Vermilion: No known cap. My Humbaba is at 7300 and rising. You give her what she wants and she keeps asking for more, damnit!
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • As always thank you Zu! You're always amazing help! =)
    Posted 12 years ago by cynder Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks a lot.  I was unclear on the effect of shrine power before!
    Posted 12 years ago by MeansDarling Subscriber! | Permalink
  • So super donations are in Giant Philanthropy 201?
    Posted 12 years ago by Negata Subscriber! | Permalink
  • For the record, I just went around a couple of shrines & asked the giants what they'd give me for current levels of favour on my current skill.

    Primary giant:
    151 favour, 25min10sec=1510secs => x10

    Secondary giants:

    692 favour, 1h20m44s = 4844secs => x7
    1021 favour, 1h59m7s = 7147secs => x7

    Unassociated giants:

    969 favour: 1h20m45s = 4845 => x5
    598 favour: 49m50s = 2990 => x5
    Posted 12 years ago by Snazzlefrazz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you - this was enormously helpful!
    Posted 12 years ago by Sparkle Plenty Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Why didn't I find this sooner??? Before I gave myself a massive two day headache figuring it all out, by trial and error...wwwaaahh..

    But brilliant info thank you .....

    As for the man..forget it  ..stick to squeezing yer chickens, massaging yer butterfly's and petting yer pigs.. Hmmm..maybe that didn't sound right , what I mean is..Stick to playing Glitch!! LOL :D x 
    Posted 12 years ago by Cryztal Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Is the xp cap per shrine, or total?
    Posted 12 years ago by Implet Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Implet: XP cap is total overall. 

    Any bucket tossing you do will contribute to your overall xp donation cap, while you have a favor cap for each individual giant.
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Love the comedy in the guide 6/4
    Posted 12 years ago by Beta #2 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • If anybody is wondering exactly how good these Hallowed powders are, I just made a single 1200 favor donation to Zille. Normally, this would have taken 1500 Sparkly Ore, but I saved 750 ore with the Fairly Hallowed version. The powder cost me about 850 currants on the auction and came with 5/5 charges. I then went to a vendor and went to the Sell tab to see what I'd get for the 750 Sparkly Ore I saved. 4500 currants! I saved 5.3 times what the entire powder cost me in only a single use out of the five! So Fairly Hallowed is probably worth more than 15 times what the cost is on the auction, even at base 1000 cap, and it only gets better the more you can donate at once.

    Now, if I'd used the Extremely Hallowed version, costing about 1800 on the market and coming with 5 charges, I would have saved 1000 out of the 1500. That's 6000 currants in savings in one use. That's still good, saving almost 3.5x what the item is worth in a single charge, but not as good for the price as Fairly Hallowed. But bang for your buck isn't everything. See below.

    So yes, both of the powders are definitely worth their prices. However, your choice of powders would depend on whether you want to save the most currants or the most time. Fairly Hallowed saves nearly twice as many currants as Extremely per use, but doesn't save as much mining time. Extremely saves 50% more mining time when compared to Fairly, but doesn't save as many currants (but still pays for itself). Keeping in mind this post was made while the prices were 900c and 1800c for Fairly and Extremely, respectively.

    I made this post in case somebody read the Secret Sauce part of the OPs post and was still skeptical because it didn't contain any actual numbers, like I was.

    Oh, also, I think the numbers for the Giant donation skill reduction times are missing the numbers for the tertiary (third-place) giant. For example, on the mining page, it says that the associated giants are Zille, Alph, and Cosma. Zille gives the most, Alph second, Cosma third, and then the rest of the giants give less than Cosma. When I used some emblems to increase my learning times, Cosma gave about 33% more than unassociated giants. Correct me if I'm wrong.
    Posted 12 years ago by Mr. Glenn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think it's worth noting that the break even point for shrine powders is 200 (based on their list value, not necessarily on the market value at any given time).  If you are making a donation of more than 200 in value then shrine powders are saving you money.  By the time you are reading a guide on donation, it seems unlikely you are making donations worth less than 200, so you should be using them almost all the time.
    Posted 12 years ago by Humbabella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Mr. Glenn: I used to think there was a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place giants. In the Giant Olympics however, bronze medals have not been invented yet, therefore each skill has a gold primary and two silver secondarys. Lucky you!
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks for the helpful guide. Not sure why I didn't notice it was exactly 10% of the Worth value before. Another note, for those donating ore, you will actually get a little more favor if you grind it down to elements first. Of course that costs extra energy, so you will need to decide if it is worth it or not.
    For example: 1 x chunk of Sparkly is worth .8 favor, but 5xRed + 1xGreen + 4xBlue + 6xShiny adds up to 1.03 favor.

    Edit: Oops, thanks for the correction Zu, Sparkly is .8 favor. I looked at the wrong number on my sheet!
    Posted 12 years ago by Shootsin Latters Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Shootsin Latters
    That's nearly a 75% increase in favor per ore. That's good info. Suddenly I'm glad I didn't sell the Grand Ol' Grinder I got from the Rube.

    Edit: Okay, so 25% increase. With all the donating I've been doing, I should have caught that. Learning Element Handling, Refining I, and Refining II should take in the ballpark of 8 hours. That sounds like a good amount of time for that amount of improvement, considering Mining IV's 100% increase (not counting the rare gem increase, which is an unknown quantity) is taking about 53 hours.
    Posted 12 years ago by Mr. Glenn Subscriber! | Permalink
  •  @Shootsin Latters: Correction: One chunk of Sparkly is worth .8 favor, since it's value is 8 currants! It will sell to a vendor for 6 currants, or you can mostly buy it on the auction house for 6 currants as well. WAIT~! Something you can buy off the auction house for less than it's vendor value? That sounds like Advanced Giant Philanthropy~! Zoinks!
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Can anyone clarify the part about the favor cap?

    Let's say I have a learning time of 1 day left. Somehow I have enough favor to reduce that by 50%, to 12 hours. One game day later, I'm at 8 hours left on my learning time. Can I then donate and spend enough favor to reduce it to 4 hours?

    Thanks!
    Posted 12 years ago by Rebelwerewolf Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Rebelwerewolf: It depends on what the original time of your skill learning happened to be and how much time has passed between donations. The math is a little tricky, because it's proportionate to the amount of current learning time you have left. If you reduced your current learning time by 50%, then you have reached the cap, regardless of when it happened. If you had more than one day left when you reduced it 12 hours, than you still have some more favor you can spend, but the amount you can save decreases between donations even more (based on original possible savings). The four hours you waited for your next donation lost you two hours of potential savings. Hopefully this helps~!

    My head is spinning trying to theorize~! I need some no-no!

    Also, I'll add Icons to the post at a later point. I'd like them to settle a bit before trying to sound official on the subject.
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The Refining skill turned out to be not worth it, IMO. It takes 4 energy with Refining I and 2 energy with Refining 2 per ore to grind them. At best, it triples your energy expenditure for that 25% increase. You can bypass the energy cost of the grinding with the Flaming Humbaba drink, which is about 166 currants per use given current auction prices. I think the worst part of it is the inventory usage. One slot for the grinder, and several slots for the bags, since they're so small, ores give so many elements, and I usually have 3000+ ore when I'm done filling my bags.

    All in all, it's both a hassle and of questionable benefit, so I'll continue donating my Sparkly Ore straight with EHSP. I'm sure the skills will come in handy later.
    Posted 12 years ago by Mr. Glenn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just wanted to add, because I have been a source of misinformation about this a couple times in the past:

    There seem to be no particularly advantageous donatables -- as in, Humbaba does not prefer Humbabol donations.  I was confused by this and another case in the past, because it would appear that the game has some fractional values assigned to some items (with the remainders hidden).  I've particularly noticed this with compounds and small stuff like that.  This hidden remainder can lead to a calculation error of up to 5%, from my experience (if I recall correctly, I did the scratch math on a now discarded paper).
    Posted 12 years ago by FlirtyvonSexenhaven Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Oh my!  Someone exposed an algorithm that helps us understand how the game works.  Mmm, I feel... INSPIRED!

    ENTER: FavorSaver!

    agent86.nfshost.com/glitch/...

    It reads your inventory, lets you sort your donatables and computes the optimal amount you should use to meet (or meat) your donation goals.  

    There's still some features missing, so consider this a 'preview' version while I finish hacking at it.  The final version will save your priority list in a cookie (not the kind you can eat, sell, or donate, sadly) and will allow you to mark items as 'not shrine powder worthy' among other things.

    As always, these tools are based around certain assumptions about how algorithms within the game work, and so my math may not be 100% accurate. 
    Posted 12 years ago by agent86 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @agent86: Yay, inspiration! Great tool!
    Posted 12 years ago by Zu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • One of the most helpful posts. Thank you!
    Posted 12 years ago by emdot Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Excellent post!
    Posted 12 years ago by Wintera Woodswitch Subscriber! | Permalink
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