Update 0.605: Comodo, Bard and Dancer, Alchemist and homunculus, buy orders at the auction

A big one. Comodo has opened: a beach town with a casino, and under it the Karu, Mao and Ruande caves with the MVP Tao Gunka. Archers can now become Bards and Dancers, with songs, dances and ensembles for two. Merchants can become Alchemists and raise a homunculus of their own. The auctioneer now takes buy orders. Every new quest goes straight into the quest log and shows where to go.

New maps, monsters, music and effects come with a patch, so update your client.

Comodo

The town

Comodo sits on a beach. It has a Kafra (she takes you to Morroc and to the Pharos Lighthouse), three guides, a souvenir shop, a cook's helper, a mailbox and a notice board.

• Houses. The weapon dealer sells whips and musical instruments; there is also an armour dealer and a tool dealer.
• The casino and the chief's house have their residents and a Kafra of their own.
• Dying in the town, the houses or the casino costs no experience, as in RO.
• Getting there. The Kafra in Morroc takes you to Comodo and the lighthouse, and the Juno airship flies to Comodo. You can also walk in through the Ruande cave from Comodo Field 01: that entrance used to be missing.
• Pharos Lighthouse has its own Kafra and boatmen to Alberta and Izlude. The beach on Comodo Field 04 has residents now too.

Casino

Just as in RO. Kachua takes a Diamond 3 carat and gives you a random item of the kind you choose: a weapon, armour, a garment, headgear, shoes or a shield. The odds are the RO ones. A miner by the Coal Mine sells diamonds for 55,000 zeny. For 500 zeny a local will tell you where else to look for them, and he tells a Thief for free.

Hat makers

The Comodo hat makers make 8 headgears from materials: Cross Hat, Bulb Band, Stripe Band, Blue Hairband, Mine Helmet, Parcel Hat, Grief for Greed and Opera Phantom Mask.

Karu, Mao and Ruande caves

The three caves near Comodo are home to Medusa, Nereid, Megalith, Stalactic Golem, Tri Joint and Megalodon, and to the MVP Tao Gunka. He respawns every 5 hours and comes with an escort of Megaliths.

The Doomed Swords quest

The whole quest is in. It starts at a barbecue by the northern entrance to Comodo and takes you through Al De Baran, Morroc, Juno and a cottage near Mjolnir. At the end three blacksmith brothers unseal one of the cursed blades: Grimtooth, Mysteltainn or Executioner. The quest log shows where to go at every step.

Comodo also has characters from quest chains of other towns: Grandma Munak for the pet tamers, an elder with an Old Blue Box and an Indian Headband maker.

Bard and Dancer

How to become a Bard

A male Archer with Job Lv 40 can take the exam. Lalo, the wandering bard, waits in the east of Comodo. Sing with him, bring him a flower (not just any flower), make friends with the Snowman in Lutie and pass the song test. You type the line of the song as text; case and punctuation don't matter. For 60 logs of one kind Lalo gives you an instrument: Violin, Mandolin, Lute or Harp.

How to become a Dancer

A female Archer with Job Lv 40 can take the exam. Bor Robin by the Comodo stage takes you to the new dance school. There Aile asks for a set of items and 10,000 zeny, and Bijou has you fill in a form. Then comes the dance exam: on command, step onto the right spot on the stage. The gift is a Rope or a Whip.

The quest log guides you through both exams. In «Available quests» each exam shows only to its own gender.

Songs and dances

• Skills: Music Lesson and Dancing Lesson, Musical Strike and Throw Arrow, Frost Joker and Scream, Adaptation, Encore, Dissonance and Ugly Dance. As in RO, Frost Joker and Scream tell a joke in chat.
• 8 songs and dances: Whistle, Assassin Cross of Sunset, Poem of Bragi, Apple of Idun, Humming, Don't Forget Me, Fortune's Kiss and Service for You.
• A song plays in a 7×7 area that follows the performer. It works on every player nearby except the performer, and stays on you for 20 more seconds after you leave the area. While the song plays, the performer spends SP, walks slower and can't attack.

Ensembles

A Bard and a Dancer from the same party, standing next to each other, can perform together. There are eight ensembles:

• Lullaby puts enemies to sleep;
• Mr. Kim A Rich Man gives more experience for monsters;
• Eternal Chaos takes away the enemies' defence from VIT;
• Drum on Battlefield adds ATK and DEF to the party;
• Ring of Nibelungen adds ATK to those with a level 4 weapon;
• Loki's Veil stops everyone inside from using skills, monsters included;
• Into the Abyss lets the party use skills without gemstones;
• Invulnerable Siegfried gives resistance to elements and status ailments.

All as in RO. The ensemble's level is the average of the two, and whoever started it pays the SP. The 9×9 area stays in place for 60 seconds, and both performers stand still and spend SP all that time. The ensemble ends for both at once, and anyone who leaves the area loses the effect right away. Areas, sounds and icons are as in RO.

Pang Voice and Wink Charm

Both skills are learned through quests, as in RO.

• Pang Voice (Bard) confuses the target for 30 seconds with a 70% chance. Riott in the Morroc tavern teaches it, and the quest starts with a shy young man in Prontera. The eggs for Riott come from Niflheim, which is not open yet, but he will take a Munak Doll instead.
• Wink Charm (Dancer) charms a demon, demi-human or angel for 10 seconds: the monster drops its target and won't hit the Dancer. In a duel it has a 10% chance to charm and confuse the opponent. Canell in Comodo and Aelle in Prontera teach it.

Confusion is a new status, as in RO. A confused character or monster walks not where it wants to but in a random direction for the same distance. The target's STR and INT lower the chance and the duration, and bosses are immune. Cure, Panacea, Royal Jelly, Dispell and death remove it.

The Wandering Minstrel

The whole quest is in. It starts with Errende in Geffen and goes through Morroc, Juno and Payon. Without it Riott won't teach Pang Voice.

Alchemist

The exam

A Merchant with Job Lv 40 can become an Alchemist. The exam takes place in the Alchemist Guild in Al De Baran, as in RO:

1. Application. Parmy Gianino takes a 50,000 zeny fee and gives you an order.
2. An arithmetic test with Raspuchin Gregory.
3. Brewing potions with Darwin.
4. Questions about reagents from Van Helmont.
5. A word search with Nicholas Flamel.
6. An errand in Juno.

Before the exam you need the Mixture quest: without it Van Helmont won't let you go further. It takes you to Luiz in Alberta, then to Geffen and to Morgenstein. After it Morgenstein makes Counteragent and Mixture to order.

Skills

• Axe Mastery, Learning Potion, Potion Pitcher, Acid Terror, Demonstration and the four Chemical Protection skills.
• Pharmacy brews 20 recipes: potions, Condensed potions, bottles and the Embryo. You need a manual, and a Medicine Bowl is spent on every attempt. An Alchemist's potions carry their maker's name and don't stack with shop ones.
• Bio Cannibalize plants on the ground a Mandragora, Hydra, Flora, Parasite or Geographer, depending on the skill level. Plants don't move and hit monsters nearby, and the Geographer heals players. A monster hit by a plant goes after its owner. Plants can only be of one kind at a time: five Mandragoras, but just one Geographer. It uses a Plant Bottle.
• Sphere Mine sets up to three Marine Spheres. A sphere stands still until hit, then runs off and explodes, hitting monsters around it. It uses a Marine Sphere Bottle.
• Summons give no experience or drops (except the sphere) and vanish over time, and also when their owner logs out, changes map or dies.

Monsters' Acid Terror can now break your armour, as in RO. And the bleeding from an Alchemist's Acid Terror now works on monsters too.

Elemental Potion Creation Guide

A new quest from Pisruik in the laboratory of the Juno library, for an Alchemist with Job Lv 40. The reward is a manual that lets Pharmacy brew elemental resistance potions.

Blacksmith and Alchemist rankings

Blacksmiths and Alchemists earn fame points, as in RO. A Blacksmith earns them for a level 3 weapon forged with three additions (an elemental stone and Star Crumbs) and for refining a weapon they forged to +10. An Alchemist earns them for a streak of successful Condensed potions in a row: 3, 5, 7 and 10 potions. A failure starts the streak over. You get a message every time you earn points.

The top ten of each job get a bonus, as in RO: weapons forged by a ranked Blacksmith hit harder, and potions brewed by a ranked Alchemist heal 50% more. In the game the rankings are the /blacksmith and /alchemist commands; on the site it is the «Blacksmiths and Alchemists» tab.

Homunculus

How to get one

An Alchemist needs the Bioethics quest. It starts with Kellasus in the basement of the Alchemist Guild in Al De Baran. Along the way you visit scholars in the guild and around town, and at the end you learn Call Homunculus, Vaporize and Resurrect Homunculus. In RO these scholars live in Lighthalzen; until it opens, they wait in Al De Baran.

The first call uses up an Embryo, and a random homunculus is born: Lif, Amistr, Filir or Vanilmirt. After that Call Homunculus brings back the same one. Vaporize sends the homunculus to rest (it needs 80% HP), and Resurrect Homunculus brings it back to life. You can name your homunculus once.

Care and feeding

Alt+R opens the homunculus window: level, HP and SP, fullness, intimacy and stats.

• Hunger. A homunculus gets hungry and has to be fed its own food. Intimacy depends on how well fed it is. Leave it hungry too long and intimacy drops; at zero the homunculus leaves for good.
• Auto-feeding. With the «Feed itself» box ticked, the homunculus eats its food from your inventory when its fullness drops to 30. If there is no food, you get a message in chat. The box is off by default.
• Experience. A homunculus grows from the damage it deals, as in RO. The homunculus and its owner get experience for its share even if another player lands the killing blow. Aggressive monsters choose between players and homunculi, as in RO.

Commands

The homunculus follows its owner, attacks the owner's target and anyone who attacks the owner. The window has «Follow», «Stay» and «Attack» commands. Alt + click on a monster also orders an attack.

Skills

Each kind has four skills, as in RO. Lif heals its owner and helps them escape, Amistr swaps places with its owner and protects them, Filir strikes and dodges, Vanilmirt strikes and heals at random, and may even blow itself up.

• A skill point comes every three levels. You spend them in the «Skills» window (a button in the homunculus window), and use the skills there too.
• The fourth skill opens at intimacy 910.
• Homunculus skills can be dragged onto the hotbar and used with a key. The skill delay shows on the hotbar icon, and the character's own skill delay doesn't grey out the homunculus icons.
• Vanilmirt's Instruction Change raises the Alchemist's Pharmacy success rate.
• The homunculus uses its skills on its own: it heals its owner when HP runs low, keeps its combat buffs up and strikes the target while saving some SP. It never uses escape, castling or self-destruction on its own. You can turn this off with the «Uses skills itself» box in the homunculus window.

Evolution

A Stone of Sage at Loyal intimacy turns the homunculus into its adult form, and its stats grow. After evolution intimacy starts over. If intimacy isn't high enough, the stone is still used up, as in RO.

Support and duels

• A homunculus can be healed with Heal and Potion Pitcher and buffed with Blessing and Increase AGI: you target it like a player. As in RO, these skills work on a homunculus only when its owner uses them. Chemical Protection doesn't work on a homunculus.
• Sanctuary heals a homunculus, and Safety Wall and Pneuma protect it from monster attacks.
• In a duel the opponent's homunculus is an enemy too. You can hit it with a click or with spells. If it dies, the owners' duel goes on. Outside a duel you still can't attack someone else's homunculus.

Buy orders at the auction

The auctioneer now handles buying as well as selling: place an order "buying this item, this many, at this price". The «Buying» button in the auction window lists all orders, «Order» places your own.

• The whole sum is taken at once and held in the order, plus a 1 % listing fee (at least 100 zeny). Up to 5 orders, 7 days each.
• To sell into an order, press «Sell» and set how many: the seller gets the full price at once, no commission. Only "clean" items are accepted: identified, without cards or upgrades, not bound and not broken.
• Bought items wait for the buyer at the auctioneer: «My lots» → «Orders» → «Take items». The buyer gets a chat message, or a notification in the app when offline.
• An order can be cancelled («Cancel order») at any time and the rest of the money comes back. When it expires, the rest waits at the auctioneer with the bought items; after 7 days the items arrive by mail.
• The ZeRO app can search orders, place and withdraw your own; selling and collecting happen in the game.

Fixes

• Healer monsters no longer heal themselves. Geographer and other monsters that heal their neighbours now heal only other monsters nearby, as in RO. A lone Geographer can be finished off in peace.
• Skill level with the wheel, over windows too. With a skill with levels selected and the cursor over the party, stats or inventory window, the wheel now changes the level there too, and the label by the cursor stays. Over lists, chat, input fields, sliders and the map the wheel still scrolls or zooms. Thanks to tabakerka for the forum topic.
• Items with a status chance (Green Ale, Yam, Giggling Box, Box of Panting) now apply it with a chance and take the target's resistance into account, as in RO, instead of always.
• ATK with a bow in the stats window. With a bow, an instrument or a whip the stats window now shows ATK from DEX, the one the character really hits with. Damage has not changed, only the number in the window.
• Google sign-in no longer stalls the server. While the server checked a Google sign-in, everyone else waited: usually a fraction of a second, longer when Google was slow. The check now runs separately, so someone else's sign-in goes unnoticed.