Quinton's Ultimate Bowman/Hunter/Ranger Guide #4

Z3 is the smallest map and usually you can get the map to yourself. In
FOG it is hard to find a spot, and you might get KSed eventually with
your weakened Strafe. Coolie Zombies drop Zombie Teeth at such a high
rate that you can either sell them to people for a profit or exchange
them for experience and items. People ask me all the time: Why waste
time walking up there? You get poisoned, you need Red Bean Porridge to
prevent the cold, it is annoying and time wasting.

Truth is, it isn't. You need to stock up on Unagi, Pure Water,
Antidotes, and Red Bean Porridge before you come. Every time you get
poisoned use an antidote and continue on like nothing happened.
100 Red Bean Porridges last more than four hours. That's really all the
time you need to train a day. As you level your Strafe up you will
notice you will start to one-hit KO Zombies more often. As for walking,
it doesn't take more than 15 minutes to get all the way up to the
Forest. If you are funded you can buy Dead Mine Scrolls for easier
traveling, but they cost 100,000-300,000 mesos each at the Free Market.

Gryphons? Blins? Do not train at Gryphons because this build does
not promote an early AR. The experience may be nice, 220 with an
occasional 1-hit KO, but it is just too frustrating. Even with an
early AR they would still be a pain in the neck, and falling is not
fun. That map requires you to move around a lot to reach the spawn,
and flying enemies are just plain annoying.

With Blins you have to 1-2 hit kill the actual Blue Flame Blin before
the Morphed Blin spawns. The Morphed Blin takes 2-4 hits and gives 330
experience. I truly think that the spawn is way too slow, and it
doesn't help that Blins, the Blue Flame version, don't give any
experience.

Also, right when the Morphed Blin spawns, you can't hit it right away.
I've tried training here, and it is just not that fast. Stick with Z3.

Level 75-80 Warped Path of Time <1>. Forgotten Path of Time I.
Forest of Dead Trees III.
Now you've been killing Coolie Zombies for a long five levels. You can
go over to Ludibrum and try some Buffies, Soul Teddies, and Master Soul
Teddies now that your Strafe has been leveled up. Their magic attack
is strong with a long range, but you should be able to 2-3 hit kill
these guys. Another option is to stay at Z3 and max out your Strafe
before heading elsewhere.

Level 80-90 The Cave of Trail II. Stairway to the Sky II.
Forgotten Path of Time <3>.
Cerebes are good to kill with some Dead Mine scrolls for easy
traveling. The only annoying part is that there are geysers that spew
poison in the area, but thankfully Cerebes drop antidotes to help with
the occasional poison.

Lucidias, on the other hand, are all at the bottom of the map in
Stairway to the Sky II, which makes for excellent training. Try these
guys out. And yes, I have listed Death Teddies for these levels.
You do not have Puppet yet, so don't go crazy and solo them. Only
kill Death Teddies with a good party until you get Puppet.

Level 90-100 Warped Path of Time <3>. Forgotten Path of Time <3>.
Start killing some Ghost Pirates and Dual Ghost Pirates. You should,
most of the time, be killing these with a good party. At level 97-100
it is finally time to acquire Puppet and start soloing Death Teddies.
A Priest is always a welcome two-person party for these training
grounds.

Level 100-110 Lost Time. Deep Sea Gorge I. Zakum.
When you hit level 100 you should definitely try and get into a good
party for Zakum. The experience is great and the drops are rewarding.
Moving on from Death Teddies, you should be capable of killing
Master Death Teddies now. Once you hit level 104 head over to Deep
Sea Gorge I and start to kill some Gobies with your Inferno.

Level 110-120 Dangerous Sea Gorge I. Warped Path of Time <4>.
Forgotten Path of Time <4>. Twisted Time.
Papulatus, Crimson/Jr. Balrog, Zakum, and
Pianus Parties.
Now is the time to kill Squids using your Silver Hawk and maxed Puppet.
Back in Ludibrum start mass killing Phantom Watchers and get into
parties for Spirit Vikings, Gigantic Spirit Vikings, and Papulatus.
Keep trying to get into Zakum parties for immense experience, and
Pianus can drop your level 100 overall. Crimson and Jr. Balrogs are
always a good hunt for scrolls. These are your final times as a
Ranger before Bowmaster, so have fun with it.

XIII. Misconceptions, Comments, Questions, and Answers

A. Bow Booster, Soul Arrow, and Focus

Some people say to get them to equal out in time. This means that you
would want Bow Booster level 18/20 and Soul Arrow level 6/20 so that
they both last 180 seconds. This way you can easily recast the spells
when they both run out.

Wrong. This has to be the most idiotic idea. First off, you are going
to be wasting 15 MP + 12 MP + 12 HP every three minutes. This is
literally going to deplete your HP and MP over time. Secondly, Soul
Arrow at level 20 lasts for 600 seconds, or 10 minutes. That is a lot
longer and more useful. Bow booster at level 20 has an awkward time,
200 seconds, or 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Funny thing though:
200 x 3 = 600. This means that Soul Arrow will last the duration of
three Bow Boosters. If done correctly it will end at exactly the same
time where you'll recast both. Cool right?

Focus lasts 300 seconds maxed. 300 x 2 = 600. Catching on? In a ten
minute training period you should use Soul Arrow once, Focus twice,
and Bow Booster three times. After that ten minutes is up you will
recast all three at once. This is so much more useful than what I hear
about getting a lower level of Soul Arrow.

B. "I didn't quite get your AP distribution at level 95 onward. You
capped your strength at 100. Why?"

Simple. By level 100 you should have a Zakum Helmet (1). This Helmet
gives 15 ability points, on average, to every stat, including 20 to
accuracy. This will jump your strength up to 115. Dragon Bow is the
final bow right now. It is very rare and I'm not saying everyone is
going to get it.

You will most likely be using a Zakum Helmet (1) for the rest of your
time on Maple once you acquire one. To be smart then, you
should cap your strength at 100 because the addition of strength from
your helmet will cover the strength needed to wield Dragon Bow. If you
seriously doubt you'll ever get this bow, do the same tactic for Metus
or a Nisrock and cap your strength 15 below that bow's required
strength.

C. Soul Arrow with Attack Arrows

When you have any type of arrows in your use inventory, it will be
selected as the next arrow you would shoot. Having these arrows
selected, say if they're an attack arrow, your range of minimum
and maximum damage will increase. When you do shoot those arrows,
that new range is applied. However, with Soul Arrow active, the
arrow is still selected, your range is still increased.

When you shoot an attack arrow with Soul Arrow active, though,
you are literally shooting "Soul Arrows." You do not shoot the
selected arrow, and seeing as how Soul Arrows have no attack
bonus whatsoever, you do not get an attack boost. This is true
of all attack arrows. There is no way to get extra attack in
the arrows you shoot unless you actually are firing the arrows
selected.

While carrying Steel Arrows, Bronze Arrows, Diamond Arrows, or Arrows
for Bow [2], none of these will give you an attack addition when you
have Soul Arrow active. It was believed to be a glitch before, but
it's been proven false.

Recently, in New Leaf City, Diamond Arrows have been released, and
eventually Showa is supposed to have Arrows for Bow [2] available
from NPCs for GMS. Both of these types of arrows give an attack +4
effect. As for using them: Diamond Arrows seem hard to come by,
and you cannot buy them from NPCs. If you have some, great, use
them. Otherwise, use Soul Arrow.

You can use approximately 2 Strafes every second. This being said,
every second you can use 8 arrows; every 10 seconds 80 arrows,
every minute 480 arrows; every two minutes 960 arrows. Add on 5
seconds to get it to 1,000 arrows. That's 1,000 arrows in 2 minutes
and 5 seconds.

Now, I am not saying anyone is going to shoot and stay in one spot
and spam Strafe continuously, not needing to consume MP potions.
If you were to have several breaks in between attacks, a set of
1,000 arrows would last approximately 2 minutes and 5 seconds
to 3 minutes for someone who uses Strafe as their main attack.

When Showa eventually comes out I believe you will be able to buy
Arrows for Bow [2] from NPCs. Take these arrows and add in the new
Warrior Elixirs at New Leaf City that give + 12 attack for 8 minutes
at the cost of 5,000 mesos each. That's a 16 attack addition to your
range, not including your bow attack or glove attack.

The only flaw is the amount of money needed. One Arrow for Bow [2] is
40 mesos from Doran in Showa. I found this information on Hidden
Street. If you were to buy 1,000 of them, that would be 40,000 mesos.
If you were to buy 10,000 Arrows for Bow [2], it would come up to be
400,000 mesos. Warrior Elixirs cost 5,000 mesos each, and buying
10 of them would be 50,000 mesos. The time each one lasts is 8 minutes.

This means that if you used 1,000 arrows in about 2 minutes and 5
seconds to 3 minutes, you would use up 10,000 arrows in 20 minutes and
50 seconds to 30 minutes. Since Warrior Elixirs last 8 minutes each,
the average time here would come to the usage of 3 Warrior Elixirs,
or 24 minutes. You would then use 10,000 Arrows for Bow [2] and 3
Warrior Elixirs in an approximate 24 minute span of training.

With this being said, I am going to say that the average person who
uses Strafe as their main attack will use up 10,000 non-Soul Arrows
in approximately 24 minutes, or 1,000 every 2.4 minutes.

24 minutes x 10 = 240 minutes / 60 minutes = 4 hours.

In 24 minutes you use:

10,000 Arrows for Bow [2]. Multiply this by ten to get it to a 4 hour
span and you get 100,000 Arrows for Bow [2].

3 Warrior Elixirs. Multiply this by ten to get it to a 4 hour span and
you get 30 Warrior Elixirs.

This means that if you want to get the full extent of a four hour
training run or, say, a 2x Experience Card, you would have to buy
approximately 100,000 Arrows for Bow [2] and 30 Warrior Elixirs. The
overall price of these items would be 400 x 100,000 = 4,000,000 mesos
for the arrows, and + 5,000 x 30 = 150,000 mesos for the Warrior
Elixirs. 4,000,000 + 150,000 = 4,150,000.

To get an attack bonus of + 16 attack, not even from your glove or bow,
you have to pay 4,150,000 mesos for four hours of training. This is
helpful to know so you can stock up before you train.

60 minutes / 8 minutes = 7.5 Warrior Elixirs
60 minutes / 24 minutes = 2.5 x 10,000 = 25,000 Arrows for Bow [2]

One hour of training with an attack + 16 bonus would then be equal to
1,037,500 mesos being needed, buying 25,000 Arrows for Bow [2] and 7.5
Warrior Elixirs. This is the average price. Technically you can't buy
half a Warrior Elixir, so buying eight would increase the price by an
extra 2,500 mesos, coming to 1,040,000 mesos for one hour.

Wow, that's a lot of money. You definitely want to be funded to keep
up this kind of buying. But hey, it's worth it to get that occasional
3 or 2 hit kill out and start dealing some serious damage. Now, this
is saying if we get Showa released in GMS. By no means will you be
able to do this with Diamond Arrows.

This is #4 Look at #5