So last year, mostly of out of stubbornness and partly out of ambivalence, I didn’t get Lanling, the confidant/partner you can purchase during the Chinese Valentine's Day event. Back then, I wasn’t willing to put any more money into the game and I’ll be honest wasn’t sure what the big deal was. Since then, I've faired fine without him and didn’t regret my decision, that is up until a couple months ago. With the hype of his imminent return, and now having a F2P experiment account, I started to rethink my previous position.
I knew I wanted to get him on my F2P, because I’m a little more strapped for adding partners to my line up just through normal game play. And hey, since he’s both confidant and partner, and I've yet to acquire one on either account, why not go for it! (Side note: I have no desire to go beyond VIP8 on my P2P, if I ever make it there, and it's going to take at me at least 10 CS events to get enough to tokens to recruit others that are or will be available soon.) He’s like a powerhouse in a nice little package. Which lends to his pricing. Confidants are usually 8800 event points and partners are 6600 (that translates to about 12,00 ingots, give or take, depends on your ingot ratio if there are games involved), so if you acquire the maximum amount of coupons, Lanling being only 9800 ingots is an amazing deal!
But that was the thing, how do I save roughly 10,000 in time?
I don’t know how, but I managed to pull it off on BOTH accounts. (That's right no topping up on the P2P this round!) I was really proud of myself for being able to pull in off on the F2P, since I had to really hunker down and figure out where I could get the additional funds in 7 days. Ultimately, I ended up dropping my Favored hoard in order to have enough experience points to get my 500 ingot promotion bonus, in addition to performing 35 marriages once Dom started. By reset on the last day I was able to recruit Lanling, no questions asked and level him up before Dom ended.
On the flip side, I get going back and forth as to what I wanted to do on the P2P. I really liked the Traditional Wedding Dress (far more than last years), but was it worth putting another $100 into the game for? By the time I reached the end of the event my decision was made, I only had enough for Lanling and I was fine with that.
Why you may ask? A wise fellow guildie on my P2P account made an excellent point in passing when to cheer up someone who regretted buying an additional partner from another event, and it has since changed the way I go about these special high spending events. Here's what they said:
A partner is a never ending power boost.
That probably seems like a no brainer. But being one who occasionally gets caught up in the FOMO of this game, that fact helped anchor my resolve. And this is coming from me, the title snob! (Though my recent escapade when I dropped my 3.5 month hoard for Dom last month, has made rethink my whole methodology there, too. More on that in a future post.) They are a great boost for Dom, but having a higher power level can mask a weak momentum. And I discovered that's what's most important to me now. I want a high momentum, on both of my accounts, to prove there’s legitimate force behind behind my power number.
Anyway, that’s why I chose to get Lanling on both accounts. He’ll probably become my second fav confidant and partner on both accounts. No one can replace Yin Zhen on the P2P or FuHeng on the F2P as confidants and Prince Yi as a partner for me. 😅