Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 605 - 588: The Biggest Beneficiary of the Crooked Permanent Pool

Chapter 605: Chapter 588: The Biggest Beneficiary of the Crooked Permanent Pool

"Holy smokes! Insane!

"Sorry, Nitiandang, I was too loud before, my bad!"

Heilong promptly drops to his knees.

After fully leveling up Gerlin, Heilong also discussed with the audience in his live stream on what to do with this max-star character.

Should he bite the bullet and use it? Or just keep it in the inventory?

Whichever choice he made felt awkward since the character’s stats were seriously worrying.

Some said to wait for an enhancement, but Heilong didn’t hold out much hope for that.

Weak characters abound in the game, and no one has figured out the sequence in which Nitiandang will enhance these underdogs.

So even though Gerlin was likely to get a boost, whether it would be in a month, three months, or five, was as uncertain as lottery—hard to get a definitive answer.

But now, there’s no need to fret.

The enhancement really came through!

Although the exact extent of the strength wasn’t clear yet, the impressive rise in stats was evident, and now he could at least beat Xi Yun.

Being able to beat Xi Yun, there’s a chance for making the team.

With the extra boost from max-stars, Gerlin would definitely be playable.

Heilong’s face broke into a wide grin, once the biggest victim of the gacha system’s perversity, he had now become the biggest beneficiary.

"Alright, let’s go try out some monster battling!"

Heilong excitedly returned to the frontline battlefields of the Earth Country and Water Country, opting to start with enemies from the Water Country.

The scrolling comments laughed at him.

"The host has lost his mind, using a Water Element character against monsters with high Water resistance? Funny."

"Shouldn’t you be fighting Fire Element monsters? Or even Earth Element monsters, I’d tolerate."

But Heilong didn’t care, he just unleashed a set of skills on the enemies of the Water Country.

"Springs, I have returned!"

"Feel the tide of the forest!"

As a Wood and Water dual-attribute character, Gerlin’s minor skill is Wood attribute, which is used to enhance his own Water Element Power to increase the attack level of his Water attribute.

His ultimate move, however, is Water attribute, summoning a miniature Sighing Spring within a certain area.

His main method of attack involves transforming into a torrent and charging at enemies. During this process, he continuously depletes the volume of water from the miniature Sighing Spring, and when the water runs out, he can’t maintain the torrent form.

Without the Sighing Spring, Gerlin’s normal and heavy attacks would just be very unsubstantial water attacks, not even worth a dog’s time.

With a "whoosh" sound, Gerlin, transformed into a torrent, collided with the monsters ahead.

These included soldiers from the Water Country with natural high water resistance and Water Element monsters resembling Ancient Gods, some of which were even immune to the Water attribute.

But in the moment Gerlin charged, many large, sea-blue figures floated upon the screen.

After just two or three charges back and forth, he cleared the field!

The scrolling comments were all stunned.

"Holy cow?"

"What just happened?"

"How is the field cleared? Isn’t that monster water-immune? The host must have cheated, right?"

Heilong laughed heartily: "Ha! Ha! Ha! You all called me illiterate, but you’re even dumber than me!

"Didn’t you read the plot text?

"After obtaining the power of the Sighing Spring, Gerlin’s Wood attribute skill will enhance his own Water Element Power, raising the intensified effect of the Water attribute attack.

"Intensified effect, got it?"

The audience in the live stream never imagined that one day they would be schooled on game plot knowledge by Heilong.

But many smart viewers also caught on that this change actually came from the recent special training mission.

What Gerlin gained wasn’t just a boost in stats, but also a seemingly minor tweak: an increase in Water attribute strength.

That was actually hinted at in the plot, but most viewers didn’t pay attention, thinking it was just plot babble, irrelevant to game mechanics.

Now it seems, it’s extremely relevant!

In "Endless Fantasy Legend 2", even within the same element, there are varying degrees of strength.

The most obvious example is the Earth Element.

Based on the strength of Earth Element Power, the game’s skills can be roughly divided into strong Earth and weak Earth; the weak Earth is like loose soil, while the strong Earth is more like rock.

In theory, Earth Element against Earth Element would be mutually immune.

But when strong Earth attacks weak Earth, it can have a very high damage multiplier, effectively breaking shields.

Of course, the specific strength of attributes is divided into several different tiers, not just weak and strong. However, the exact divisions aren’t very clear yet and need more testing.

And it’s the same with the other elements.

When an element with a strong attribute hits a weak one, not only does the target not get immunity, but it also takes extra damage.

The enhancement to Gerlin is crucial, particularly how it beefed up the "strong attribute value" that comes with his Wood attribute minor Skills.

Before the buffs, even when Gerlin used his minor Skills, his Water attribute attacks couldn’t outmatch those monsters in Water Country that have immunity to water, so his hits barely tickled.

But after the buffs, once Gerlin pops his Wood-based minor Skills, his Water Element attacks are treated as "strong water," which can now hurt those water-immune monsters and even ignore the resistance of some high Water-resist beasties!

Although there’s no extra damage multiplier, and it’s not as high as the multiplier you get from reacting with the corresponding attribute, you can’t beat Gerlin’s stats!

This power-up truly turned him into a veritable hexagon-shaped warrior.

"Is this what winning the lottery feels like? I am invincible!

"Wait, hold on, there’s still the issue with charge time that needs sorting.

"But no worries, that’s an easy fix. I’ll be right back!"

Heilong quickly realized that with a slight tweak, Gerlin could be transformed into his ultimate form.

The only thing holding him back now is the issue with charging his ultimate Skill.

Because entering the Tidal state requires continuously consuming the miniature Sighing Spring summoned by his ultimate, once it runs dry and if the ultimate isn’t charged up, Gerlin can do nothing but stand idle, and his damage output would drop to zero.

Just stack up enough charge so the ultimate can seamlessly connect without interruption, and then mindlessly pile on the damage.

His three other teammates would provide him with accessories that boost damage and heal.

Soon, Heilong finished making adjustments.

With tweaks to equipment, weapons, and teammates, he ensured Gerlin’s ultimate could transition without interruption.

And so, a true hexagon-shaped wheelchair warrior was born.

His operation was even too simple: first stack buffs with the other three utility characters, then switch to Gerlin, activate his minor Skill and ultimate together, hold down the attack key, and you could clear the screen with one button.

With Gerlin in Tidal Torrent state, there’s an auto-lock-on effect to enemies, and this state also includes a small Area of Effect (AOE).

It stands out as simple, brute force, and brainless!

The attack mode even has a bit of an anti-air effect – the Tidal can sort of lift up to about one and a half person’s height.

It’s not enough to handle all air units, but it’s sufficient for typical floating enemies.

The barrage viewers were in shock, all commenting that it made no sense.

How could your Water Element attacks deal damage to water-immune monsters?

Is that really immunity?

As for these doubts, there’s no need for Nitiandang officials to explain, because Heilong could give a convincing enough answer.

"Some people are questioning how Water Element attacks can hit water-immune monsters and saying it doesn’t make sense?

"No, no, no, I think it makes perfect sense!

"It’s reasonable from any perspective!

"Otherwise, does it make sense that the Water God can’t hurt Water Slimes?"

The live stream viewers thought about it, hmm? That actually does make sense!

In some games, various attribute immunities are strictly enforced, like Fire Slimes being immune to fire and Lightning Slimes being immune to lightning.

That means if it’s a Fire Slime, then all Fire Attribute attacks would be ineffective against it.

But this could lead to a serious problem:

In the game, assuming there are characters like the Fire God or Lightning God with settings or other characters that are adept at using Fire or Lightning attributes, their main attack attributes would also be Fire and Lightning.

If the Fire God unleashes a powerful Fire Attribute strike but it can’t break through a Fire Slime’s defenses, wouldn’t that be absurdly humorous?

Maybe you’d like to take the Fire God’s place?

From a narrative standpoint, since the Fire God controls all Fire Element Power, then when facing a Fire Slime they should easily pinch it out.

Endless Fantasy Legend 2 handles this nicely.

Because attributes have strengths and weaknesses, and strong attributes suppress the weaker ones, characters like Gerlin, who possess top-tier Water Element Power, should naturally exert an indiscriminate suppression over other Water Elements.

So it’s totally logical he can damage water-immune creatures.

Of course, does that mean Gerlin doesn’t have any natural predators? Not necessarily.

In the game, there are Earth, Metal, Wind, and similar elements that don’t directly react with Water. When encountering these types of enemies, players need to find other methods, either using Time or Wood attributes to react or employing damage amplification or resistance reduction tactics to brute force it.

But either way, after the enhancement, Gerlin indeed underwent a transformation, rising from the bottom of the ranks to become a top-tier character for the version!

Following Gerlin’s enhancement, the online sentiment shifted again.

Besides Heilong, the "lucky perma-pool greatest beneficiary," many others also reaped the rewards.

With a 40% chance of deviations occurring naturally in the game, plenty of players had previously drawn Gerlin by mistake.

At first, they were devastated, not even wanting to keep playing.

Even accounting for the average number of draws, a featured pool character takes dozens of summons, which translates to more than the cost of a 648 pack, and drawing Gerlin amounted to money down the drain. Wouldn’t that cause a breakdown?

But now, they regretted it, regretted not drawing more of him!