Wizard101's latest bundle has arrived: The Spiral Cup Gauntlet Bundle is available at your local Target stores for $39, and includes all new Wysteria-themed items, including the third house gauntlet. Take a look at everything you'd want to know about the bundle and the drops here!
Item Overview
The bundle comes with a new set of Wysteria-themed gear, including the first ever book wand, though you hold it a little bit differently than you might expect. It's held in the palm of your hand as if on display rather than like you're carrying an actual book, and isn't any too spectacular in combat. However, it's certainly a step in the right direction.
The accompanying gear, like that in the Arcane Builder's Bundle, gives no health (new trend?), but doesn't look half bad. All gear and wand tiers are included in the video below.
The mount is fantastic. It's a Tanglewood Vine, which is ridden like a surfboard and tears up the ground as you move, rolling around in a circle, with an idle "waving" animation. If you're ever in a multi-level location like a home, you can see the other half through the ceiling if the rider is one level above you. It's a very cool mount.
The pet is a Pegasus Pony that gives a Judgement card at baby. The mount is shown in the video below. For more information on that pet, check out the Petnome Project page HERE.
As usual, the bundle also includes 5000 crowns or a one-month subscription. However, the highlight, of course, is the Spiral Cup Gauntlet, called the "Wysteria Fountain" on the card. This new dungeon for your house is different than most. To use it, you have to be friends with the owner, meaning that random strangers can't simply come in and use your dungeon. It's really quite an interesting story of your teaching Pigswick students exactly how magic is done, and potentially earning some very cool drops along the way.
Here's a quick video of all of the gear and wand tiers, as a well as me riding the new mount. It's really something, and I figured you'd want to see.
The Spiral Cup Gauntlet
This dungeon is quite a lot of fun, and, like other bundle gauntlets, has its share of cheating bosses are rewards. Johnny has a full video of the gauntlet HERE. Unless you're simply extremely bored, I recommend taking a low level in and running quickly for the rewards only. Once you complete the gauntlet once, you'll receive the badge "Spiral Cup Tutor."
There are plenty of rewards to be had from the dungeon, however. First and foremost, you can receive three new first-generation pets. These are the Purple Spider from the first battle, the Dill Piggle from the battle with three pigs, and the Rude Goblin from the last battle. None of these are guaranteed drops, but you do have a chance. Click on any pet picture to go to the Petnome page.
Purple Spider
(First Battle Drop)
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Dill Piggle
(Three Pigs Battle Drop)
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Rude Goblin
(Final Battle Drop)
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The best thing you can get from the gauntlet, however, is the unique gear. Just what are all of those sets up top about, anyway?
What Sets the Spiral Cup Gauntlet Apart
The Spiral Cup Gauntlet is unique for a few reasons. In the past, gauntlets might have offered some decent gear or existing pets with one new one, plus a badge. The Spiral Cup Gauntlet offers the following as rewards:
- Three new pets: The Purple Spider, Dill Piggle, and Rude Goblin
- One new badge: Spiral Cup Tutor
- One new hat: Spiral Cup Cowl
- One new set of boots: Spiral Cup Boots
- Seven new outfits: Vestment of [Wysteria School]
- Greenwarden's Energy gear from the Wyvern's Hoard
- Rare school blade treasure cards
- Reagents and pet snacks
That's pretty impressive. It means that owning this gauntlet and/or farming it isn't necessary to get some all-powerful, game-changing gear. However, it does mean you can get a few new cosmetic gear sets and pets. And that's the direction packs and bundles should be taking. Most of the time, the gear has stats that would never be used anyway by any decent wizard. So when you get something that looks good, you are suddenly drawn in regardless of the stats. That's a good way to go about it.
The seven new outfits are all dye-able, so you can make them any color you want. I've included pictures of these full sets in the Wysteria school colors.
Tempest
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Ember
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Frost
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Equilibrium
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Spirit
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Chaos
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Earth
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The great thing about these outfits is that they can be auctioned at the Bazaar. So you can bring friends or your own other characters and farm, and should someone get a drop they don't need, they just send it over through the Bazaar. I've also seen as many as ten of one type of vestment in the Bazaar at once, and that's before this bundle is even officially released, so I anticipate plenty of these to go around.
Choices, Choices
Will you be purchasing the Spiral Cup Gauntlet, or making use of a friend's? What do you think of the mount, gear, and wand? And how about that new friends-only gauntlet requirement? (Note: This requirement does not affect the Pagoda or Winterbane gauntlets)
Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral! Credits: Big thanks to Erin for letting me run before I purchased the gauntlet and for allowing me to get a picture of her Pegasus Pony. Thanks to "TheSummoner" on Central for the Purple Spider image - used with permission.
The dungeon's difficulty varies on the wizards you enter the dungeon with, does this also affect the drops? Ex. If I am a level 100 wizard and I enter the dungeon with a level 10 wizard and I get the energy gear, will it be for a level 10 or will it be the appropriate level for my wizard? Thanks and great review!
ReplyDeleteThat is an excellent question. I know that pets, cosmetic gear, and all of that is the same. As for the energy gear, I'll ask around.
DeleteMy friend and I both level 100 went in with a level 18. We all got pets during different battles. The level 18 and my friend both got different wildclaw pets in one battle, I got the Dill Piggle in another battle (the one BEFORE the 3 pigs, not the one with the 3 pigs) and my friend got the Goblin in the final battle. So at least as far as pets go, it doesn't matter who you're with. Bring a newbie and blast through it.
DeleteAre seeds of Deadly Helephant Ears dropped in this gauntlet or not? If so what is the drop rate like?
ReplyDeleteYes. While snacks and reagents and treasure cards are common, you'll occasionally get some furniture or seeds, one of the drops being Deadly Helephant Ears. However, as I implied, the drops are fairly far and few between.
DeleteSomething to keep in mind, though, is that DHE plants are drops from Avalon enemies, so if you can get a low level in for an easy tier every run, this might very well be worth farming.
Do you think its fair for random strangers not able to get in the spiral cup swordroll?
ReplyDeleteIs it fair? Hmm. I'm not sure whether or not it's fair, but I can tell you this:
Delete1) As a player with multiple gauntlets, I do not mind taking random people in the Commons or wherever to visit and use my gauntlets and remove them after they arrive.
2) Even when only having my friends use my gauntlets, requiring them to be my friend is very, very tough. I have a full list, with all starred individuals who I know very well, so to add anyone means "compromising" someone else, but I want to let me friends use the gauntlet.
3) While these are my personal preferences, many people use housing tours to show their houses, and keep gauntlets up inside for use. This can skew the ratings (simply because people like a free gauntlet).
4) If you could simply visit houses and make use of the biggest part of three bundles now, why would you pay $39 to use it? I wrote an article a while back about Housing Tours potentially killing Gauntlet Bundle sales, and apparently, KingsIsle is getting the same worry, and justifiably so.
I think a simple solution to the whole thing is to allow anyone to use the gauntlet so long as your house can only be accessed by teleporting to you or teleporting to a friend who has teleported to you. So it's friends and friends of friends instead of such a limited group. Then, if you put your house on housing tours, the friends-only lock is immediately put in place on your gauntlet, even when people still teleport to you. Once you remove it from tours or it expires after 60 days, the lock is lifted.
I think it is a great compromise. I really hope KingsIsle can utilize it.
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