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MAG 101: A Beginner's guide.


squish

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Hello everyone.

I decided one day, that HEY! I should totally make a few guides to help new players achieve their potential; what a better way to start than to help them understand mag making. To make it easily accessible to everyone, I shall refrain from using technical terms and divide it to sections so you can view what YOU want, whenever you want it. Grab a cold one, you might be here a while. :D

Table of Contents: (Just so you can read the parts you want)

Introduction
Mag: Locations
Mag types
What type of Mag should I use for my Class?
How to make a MAG (using a Sato as an example)
MAG Gallery
Feeding Charts
FAQ
Credits


Section 1: Introduction:

 



This part of the guide will focus on the basics of MAG-ing. I shall divide this section into little itty bits.

What is a MAG?
A MAG is your companion; think of it as your pet, a pet that adds stats to your character and does other special things like grant you invincibility at certain situations.


Why is a MAG so difficult to raise?

A MAG grows as you feed it items, depending on the item you feed it, and sometimes it evolves! Usually a mature mag has 4 evolutions; at level 10, 35, 50 and 100.

A MAG has certain properties to it that makes it grow, and that depends on which class feeds it, their section IDs, and what stats it has. To make this simpler let's look at it from a different point of view:

1) The stats you give the mag (Defense, Power, Dexterity and Mind) are what determine the photon blasts it gets and the the type of mag you can get as an end result.

2) When it comes to mag feeding, the section IDs plays a role, that role includes what formula (more on that as you read on xD) you use to make a "rare Episode 2 mag" generally there are three section ID types those are:
i) Viridia, Bluefull, Redria and Whithill (Section ID type A)
ii) Skyly, Yellowboze and Pinkal (Section ID Type B )
iii) Greenil, Oran and Purplenum (Section ID Type C)

3) The class (such as Force, Hunter, Ranger AND their gender) you choose to evolve a MAG also determines the photon blast, the MAG (as in name) you get.

This is not to be confused with the Section IDs A,B and C that are used to evolve Common Mags.


What is a Photon Blast:

MAGs, after level 10, get something called a "Photon Blast", and right next to your HP/TP Bar is a semi-circle that starts getting filled up, you can get up to 100. The Photon Blasts you can get include:

  • Estella: A dolphin creature that fires in front of the caster with a handgun range (more or less)
  • Farlla: A serpent creature that does damage in a circle around you.
  • Golla: A reindeer creature that only hits one target but packs a punch
  • Leilla: A mermaid creature that casts level 7 Resta and Anti. If you donate to this Blast while dead, you get revived.
  • Mylla & Youlla: Adorable pair of little gemini's that cast Shifta and Deband on the caster. If you donate to this blast when dead, it will also revive you.
  • Pilla: A wizard looking celestial type thingy (honestly no way of describing it) that also does circular damage but much more than Farlla.

What can I do when my PB gauge reaches 100?

With those Photon Blasts you can do A LOT of awesome things, like “Chaining” them which means YOU and 3 other players in a full party all have 100 on the Photon Blast Gauge and each do a different one.
The chain increases the overall level of the Photon Blast. Say for example you and your buddies decided to chain, one person did Mylla & Youlla while the others did whichever other Photon Blast; the shifta and deband level becomes 81, yes 81 (if all the MAG IQs were at 200).

What is a Photon Blast Donation?
Say you didn't reach 100 on your Photon Blast Gauge but you have more than 10, what can you do to help your team out? That's right something called "Donating". Hit End repeatedly (that's the default key, if you have rebinded or are using a controller, it's the symbol chat key), you give some of your PB points to make the blast stronger!

What is a MAG cell?
A MAG cell is an item that can be obtained through events or drops that can be used on any mag depending on certain criterion. Most famous ones include the “Rappy Beak”, “Dragon Scale” and D-Photon Core.

What can a MAG do under certain conditions?
There are 4 conditions that a MAG can do awesome things, and depending on what MAG you have, a different combination of these things can happen. These conditions include:

  • At full PB bar
  • At 1/10th Health
  • At a boss fight
  • At death (only for offline dc/gc/xb, blue burst always online)

When these conditions are met, certain MAGs can do one of the following:

  • Cast invincibility on yourself
  • Cast Shifta/Deband
  • Cast Resta
  • Revives (Only when dead, only for offline dc/gc/xb, blue burst always online)

Therefore, any fully evolved MAG can have any combination of the aforementioned “Skills”.
Some MAGs when equipped (Episode 4 MAGs mostly) affect certain weapons. Most famous example is Tellusis with Excalibur (light (ELT) and dark (EDK) resistances are boosted by 10; animation speed of the Excalibur will be increased by 20%), Striker Unit with Striker Plus and Heaven Striker for Divine Punishment.

What do the stats on a MAG actually mean?
When you take a look at the MAG screen, you find it has different stats, these include:

  • Level: The MAG’s level is the addition of how many points it has in DEF/POW/DEX/MIND. Max is 200.
  • IQ: Max value is 200, this determines the strength of your defensive PB Blasts, such as Mylla & Youlla
  • Synchro: Max Value is 120%, this determines how often the MAG does its invincibility etc when fulfilling the conditions outlined right above. It also determines your offensive PB blast strength as is proven by this video:
  • Def: This directly adds 1 Def on your character for every point on the MAG
  • Pow: This directly adds 2 ATP points on your character for every point on the MAG
  • Dex: This directly adds 1 ATA point to your character for every 2 points on the MAG
  • Mind: This directly adds 2 MST to your character for every point on the MAG




Section 2: MAG: Location

 


You can find MAGs anywhere technically but some places have a higher likelihood than others such as MINES on episode 1 on Normal/Hard at one of the boxes you can break.
The MAGs you find will always be Level 5 with 5 Defense automatically put in. Those are termed “Baby MAGs”. The MAG you also get automatically when you create a character has the same property.
Baby MAGs have a variety of colors they can have, the ones you get at MINES on episode 1 are random but the ones you get at character creation are pre-generated from the costume color you choose.

This link shows the MAG colors you get from Costumes 1-7 http://www.pso-world.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=1017 and this link shows costume 8-9 http://www.pso-world.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=2258.




Section 3: MAG Types.
 

 


A MAG can have different types depending on how you group them. This can make it easier to choose the type of MAG you might want.

Grouping by Stat:
A MAG can predominately have a STAT it’s completely invested in, for example 180 mind, etc. Those are termed Stat MAGs. Therefore, when you see someone asking for a MIND MAG they mean a MAG that has most of the points it has invested in MIND at level 200.


Grouping by Episode:
With the introduction of Episode 2 and Episode 4 back in the day, extra MAGs were added.
The Episode 2 MAGs include:
Deva, Sativiri, Rukmin, Sato, Nidra, Pushan, Rati, Bhima and Dwari.
Most popular of those are “Sato” MAGs (since they kind of look adorable lol). Getting those is a bit complicated as they are based on 3 criterion, these criterion are:

  • MAG level at Evolution more than or equal to 100. You can evolve at increments of 10 levels after 100 if it fulfilled the formula. (that means at 110 if you used a Whithil ID the MAG should have the stats 5/55/50/0 for a Power MAG)
  • The correct Class and Gender
  • The correct Section ID to match the formula you’re going to use. Those Formulas include:

2u5al38.jpg

So what do these formulas mean?
Say you have a Female Force (Pre-Requisite for a Sato) with the ID of Whithil, which earlier I mentioned was SECTION ID A. From the table above the formula is “Def + Dex = Pow + Mind”. That means to make the Sato; at level 100 the MAG should have the Stats 5 Def/50 Pow/45 Dex/0 Mind (for a Power Sato) or 5 Def/0 Power/45 Dex/ 50 MIND (for a Mind Sato) if the Female Force ID was Viridia. It’s a matter of simple maths.


The Episode 4 MAGs include:
Agastaya, Gael-Gil, Geung-Si, Morolian, Pioneer 2, Puyo, Rappy, Striker Unit, Tellusis, Yahoo!.
Those are much easier to make, much, much easier to make since they require MAG cells and certain conditions. Those include:


2lm82ki.png

 



Section 4: What type of MAG should I use on my class?

 



This section is not based on facts, but rather opinions. Each person is unique in their play-style but choosing the MAG to suit you can be different at character level 100 and 200.
With that being said, the best thing a MAG can do for you is Invincibility to be completely honest. So, when choosing a MAG try to have as much Invincibility as you can. Rangers, Hunters and Forces (Especially Forces) benefit greatly from it. Case in point, say your MAG grants you invincibility at 1/10th of your health, to use a Dark Flow special your health needs to be below 12.5% of your health, being invincible for 10 seconds allows you 10 seconds of rampage xD (when invincible at the start of a boss). Other forms of invincibility lasts 30 seconds. So in essence, Invincibility = good.
In general, having DEX on a MAG is always a good idea, regardless if it’s a MIND MAG or not. The amount varies from one class to another. Hunters usually don’t need as much ATP as they need ATA so a “Hunter MAG” is one that has approximately 70 DEX on it. Rangers need more ATP than ATA therefore a “Ranger MAG” is one with at least 145 POW. All these approximations are also used to try and max out the class’s stats (no mats give ATA). Most Forces however are a bit tricky to build, since they have the potential to Melee (Especially FOmar/FOmarls); Generally FO’s while leveling use a MIND MAG to learn as many Techs as possible and at 200 sometimes switch to a POW/DEX MAG and feed them lots, and lots of Mind Materials.

 



Section 5: How to make a MAG using the knowledge we gained thus far.
 

 


Disclaimer: This is not the most effecient way to make a MAG, it's a culmination of the knowledge gained thus far.

There are lots of ways to make MAGs but all follow general steps. The example I would use is a Power Sato MAG (since it incorporates all the hard parts of raising a MAG):

  • Get a Baby MAG which will be at level 5 with the stats 5/0/0/0
  • Feed it Antidotes till it gets to level 10. Depending on the class that was used to evolve it, it will get :

Hunter will get the MAG “ Varuna” and learn “Farlla”
Ranger will get the MAG “Kalki” and learn “Estilla”
Forces will get the MAG “ Vritra” and learn “Leilla”

  • Feed it more Antidotes till it becomes level 35. Depending on the class was used to evolve it at level 10, it will get:

Hunter will get the MAG “Marutah” and learn “Pilla”
Rangers will get the MAG “Mitra” and learn “Pilla”
Forces will get the MAG “Ashvinau” and learn “Pilla”

This part is where it gets tricky so I am going to break it down in terms of what class is feeding it:

  • If the feeder is a Hunter feed the “Marutah” Antidotes (this will increase both POW and Dex) till it gets to level 49 which you will give it to a Ranger that has any of the following ID’s: Greenill, Blueful, Pinkal, Oran, or Whitill. Let them feed it a few more Antidotes so it can become level 50 and evolve into “Kathaiba” and learn “Mylla & Youlla”
  • If the feeder is a Ranger feed the “Mitra” Anti-Paralysis (this will increase DEX but a lot) till it gets to 49 which then you will need the Section ID Greenil, Blueful, Pinkal, Oran or Whithill to be able to evolve it into “Kathaiba” and learn “Mylla & Youlla”
  • If the Feeder is a Force feed the “Ashvinau “Antidotes (this will increase both POW and Dex) till it gets to level 49 which you will give it to a Ranger that has any of the following ID’s: Greenill, Blueful, Pinkal, Oran, or Whitill. Let them feed it a few more Antidotes so it can become level 50 and evolve into “Kathaiba” and learn “Mylla & Youlla”

Now that you have “Kathaiba” depending on the stats you have on the MAG (Dex will always be greater than Power in this case).

  • You will need to feed it Antidotes and alternate it with Antiparalysis till you get DEX to 40. The Antiparalysis is used to increase the IQ of the MAG since antidotes drop it. If you find the Defence is getting a bit too High that's where you feed it Antidotes.
  • You will then need to feed it Dimates till you get POW to 40. Note even if it does change MAG names (an error that sometimes occurs on Ultima) don’t be afraid, at this stage, it’s the stats we need.
  • Feed the MAG you have Antidotes/Anti-Paralysis till you get DEX at 45
  • Feed the MAG you have Dimates till POW becomes 49. At this stage you should have a level 99 MAG with the stats 5/49/45/0. Ready to become a Sato.

We’re almost there! Bear with me as this part is also a bit tricky.

  • Give the MAG you have to a FEMALE FORCE with the Section ID of Viridia, Blueful, Redria or Whithil. Feed it a few more Dimates till Power is 50 and congratulations, you have a Sato!

Whew, that was intense! However if you may have noticed, this encompasses ALL the criterion we spoke of earlier, as in the role of class, section ID, gender and MAG stats. Think of it as a culmination of ALL of your MAG knowledge.
There are also many, many other ways to make a rare episode 2 MAG however the principles are always going to be the same.

For efficiency sake, the best MAG to feed, the 3rd evolution is Ila, and is basically the counterpart of Kathaiba but evolved with a Hunter. If you require more information, I shall post it.

On Ultima Server, sometimes, you get a few bugs when it relates to giving the MAG to another player to evolve. The stats maybe lost or one stat maybe more than anticipated. My advice is, always have a character slot free for the purpose of getting the MAG you want. As you can recreate as many times as you want!




Section 6: MAG Gallery

 


Want to know what each MAG looks like? Including MAG cells? Look no further than this link:
http://www.pso-world.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=1016



Section 7: Feeding Charts

 


Don’t know what to give your MAG to get the stat you want? This link should help you:
http://www.pso-world.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=1021



Section 8: FAQs

 


This part will always be updated with new questions as soon as people ask them xD. You may contact me through the forums PM system however, let me get the ball rolling!

Question: Why is MAG feeding a terrible chore?
All good things come to those who wait for them. A level 200 with a level 5 MAG is not ever going to be as efficient as a level 200 with a level 200 MAG. They had to make that aspect harder/tedious.


Question: Is there a way to know when I can feed a mag?
In the old days, people actually had stopwatches with an alarm every time 3 minutes and 30 seconds have passed. In Ultima though, entering the command /magtimer x (press spacebar to start chat and add that command) it will give you an on top message (like those saying it’s Happy Hour) telling you it’s time to feed your MAG.


Question: Is there any tool I can use to see what MAGs I end up with out actually messing up in game?
Yes, there is, a nifty program called “MAG Farm” is an invaluable tool.


Question: In your humble opinion, what PB Blasts shall I go for with my MAG?
I always prefer having Mylla & Youlla in any MAG, the other ones, well, they could be anything but Pilla and Farlla seem like good choices.


That’s all I can think of at the moment, so keep those questions rolling!





Section 9: Credits and Legal Stuffs.

If you find any faults, or any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me through the forum PM system.
This guide was made to illuminate the way for newer players to get familiar with making MAGs. It can not be reproduced without my permission.


Credit where credit is due:
I, ofcourse xD
PSO-World for its extensive player made guides on MAG-ing.
PSOBB: Ultima Server forums, for hosting the guide.
Omega9988 for making a guide that provided basis on the section “How to make a MAG”.

-Saith/Fyrewolf5 for giving me a few suggestions and things needed to clarify things more.

Shranko for pointing the DF special requirement and to avoid invincibility confusion (10 seconds at boss, 30 outside)

Version History

1.0 ---> Finished Guide, minor edits

1.1 ---> Edited Costume color correlation with MAG color, clarification on Synchro and IQ, minor edits.

1.2 ---> Fixed a confusion with Kataibha and Antiparalysis.

Thank you very much for reading, and I hope it helps. Good luck on your MAG endeavors!

Edited by Fyrewolf5
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Well done Sir Squishy! Well done indeed... and thanks for the tools links! :onion-head11:

You're absolutely welcome! I love this community and want to help out as much as I can. :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mag farm doesnt work for me and once i got to "Kaitabha" feeding it Anti-Paralysis on raised Def while Antidotes raised Dex.

I wrote this guide using MAG Farm from that website specifically, however, when trying it now, the task manager kills the program before starting, so if anyone with more technical knowledge can help out; would be great. It's not to do with the Antivirus, Firewall, or compatibility issues.

The reason you feed the Kaitabha Anti Paralysis is to raise the IQ of it, Antidotes decrease Def and IQ hence why you should alternate them. If DEF is getting to high, next few feeds should be Antidote, finding the IQ going a bit too low feed it one Antiparalysis :). However I added that part just to avoid future confusion. :)

Edited by squish
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  • 1 month later...

Hello. My ingame name is Artemis.

I have a question if anyone would like to (spec. @thread) help with a few. My problem is this: I can't tell if I will miss out on a 3rd PB from turning a lvl 38 Rudra mag into ELENOR (aka Ashura Mag Cell). And i can't find anything on the internet about it.

Summing up, 2 questions:

  1. How do you basically get more Photon Blasts with a 2nd evol. ELENOR?
  2. How does it grow? And if possible, in terms how would it look/be after level 50 or 100? Thanks. =)

P. S. If anyone would care to share how to get a 175-180 Pow/25-20 Dex mag with say Elenor, please let me know; or devolve from ELENOR.

Or well, can you at some point (Not on-topic but) develop the mag backwards in levels? Mine for a Hucaseal are: 14/23/2/1 (Def, P, Dex, M) :D

Thanks! ^_^

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Hello. My ingame name is Artemis.

I have a question if anyone would like to (spec. @thread) help with a few. My problem is this: I can't tell if I will miss out on a 3rd PB from turning a lvl 38 Rudra mag into ELENOR (aka Ashura Mag Cell). And i can't find anything on the internet about it.

Summing up, 2 questions:

  1. How do you basically get more Photon Blasts with a 2nd evol. ELENOR?
  2. How does it grow? And if possible, in terms how would it look/be after level 50 or 100? Thanks. =)

P. S. If anyone would care to share how to get a 175-180 Pow/25-20 Dex mag with say Elenor, please let me know; or devolve from ELENOR.

Or well, can you at some point (Not on-topic but) develop the mag backwards in levels? Mine for a Hucaseal are: 14/23/2/1 (Def, P, Dex, M) :D

Thanks! ^_^

Well, the 3rd PB is at level 50 so if you evolve it, at 38, you won't get the 3rd PB. Mag Cells don't get new PB, so you always should evolve them at 50. Elenor is a magcell whatever level it is, it will remain the same. Elenor feeds the same way as mag cells, so find the one at that section of the guide. Devolving mags is a GM thing. SO I am not sure how you will do it. Tip, try to redo it, it's pretty easy.

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Well, the 3rd PB is at level 50 so if you evolve it, at 38, you won't get the 3rd PB. Mag Cells don't get new PB, so you always should evolve them at 50. Elenor is a magcell whatever level it is, it will remain the same. Elenor feeds the same way as mag cells, so find the one at that section of the guide. Devolving mags is a GM thing. SO I am not sure how you will do it. Tip, try to redo it, it's pretty easy.

Very helpful. Thumb up and thank you vm.

OMW new mag and mag cell!!! >xD

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  • 4 months later...

I wrote this guide using MAG Farm from that website specifically, however, when trying it now, the task manager kills the program before starting, so if anyone with more technical knowledge can help out; would be great. It's not to do with the Antivirus, Firewall, or compatibility issues.

The reason you feed the Kaitabha Anti Paralysis is to raise the IQ of it, Antidotes decrease Def and IQ hence why you should alternate them. If DEF is getting to high, next few feeds should be Antidote, finding the IQ going a bit too low feed it one Antiparalysis :). However I added that part just to avoid future confusion. :)

I still highly disagree with making the mag Kaitabha, even though you were just using it as an example. It's a bad example, because it feeds really badly and using it as example suggests people should use that evolution, which is the worst of the three feeding groups for level 50 mags. It is much much better to evolve at level 50 to an ila mag with viridia skyly purple red yellow hunter dex>pow>mind for pow mags.

Asparas, Vayu, Varaha, Ushasu, Kama, Kaitabha, Kumara, Bhirava feeds at

Dimates : +2 sync 0 iq +11 pow -10 mind 0 dex 0 def

Difluids: +2 sync 0 iq -10 pow +11 mind 0 dex 0 def

Antidote: +2 sync -1 iq -5 pow -5 mind +16 dex -5 def

Antiparal: -2 sync +3 iq -3 pow -3 mind 0 dex +7 def

Moon: +3 sync 0 iq -20 pow +21mind +5 dex -5 def

Sol: +4 sync -2 iq +21 pow -20 mind -5 dex +5 def

whereas

Ila, Garuda, Sita, Soma, Durga, Nandin, Yaksa, Ribhava feeds at

Dimates : 0 sync +1 iq +16 pow -15 mind 0 dex 0 def

Difluids: 0 sync +1 iq -15 pow +16 mind 0 dex 0 def

Antidote: 0 sync +1 iq -6 pow -5 mind +6 dex +5 def

Antiparal: -1 sync +1 iq -4 pow -10 mind +14 dex 0 def

Moon: +2 sync 0 iq -20 pow +21 mind +5 dex -10 def

Sol: +4 sync -1 iq +17 pow -15 mind -5 dex +4 def

This is just plain better. The synchro is less important than the IQ and makes a lot of gains before 50 already, often maxing or near enough. Even though it appears kaitabha gains 2 more dex than ila, you don't have to tank the IQ while doing so and save yourself from having to constantly alternate to another food that gives it IQ but nothing for stat gains, thus actually being faster to raise dex. It is also significantly faster to raise the power and mind as well, 16 vs 11, which also gains the much more valuable IQ while doing so. If a person does want to raise synchro after, then ila still does it better because sol atomizers lose less iq and gain less def while doing so, and moon atomizers lose much more def to lower def when necessary. The ila feeding group is simply better than the kaitabha feeding group in every important aspect and feeds significantly faster, with nearly 50% more gain from dimates/difluids and ~15% more on dex gains when you factor in feeding an extra antiparalysis to regain IQ. Even the third feeding group (which usually isn't obtained at 50 because there is no dex>other stat evolutions for) which feeds similar to the kaitabha group is arguably better, because of its moon atomizer gains of +2 IQ +20 pow +5 dex, even though it doesn't have good ways to increase dex a lot.

Edit: I had to make this detailed post about this because I wanted to refer someone who wanted to know how to raise a mag to this guide, but after I went to check up, I could not in good conscience do so while the section that is literally titled How to Make a Mag, which should be a good suggestion of how people could do so, contains this error of using the worst feeding group possible for part of it. I told you not to use that for several reasons; it's much slower, it tanks the iq down to nothing, and it's needlessly confusing and much more complicated for people to understand why they have to use the two different foods, especially without any visual representation of what those foods do. This is an excellent guide about mags for sure; sorry to be so critical but I still just can't refer people to the guide for 'how to make a mag' as long as that is in there.

Edited by Fyrewolf5
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