Drug Report: PARADOXINE

Ok, here it is. An analysis on the item Paradoxine and its effect on your monster. This item is considerably stronger than its cousin Troron and its side effects are correspondingly higher. Here's what I found.

OBSERVATIONS

Under the effects of Pardoxine, the monster gains a whopping 30 pts to Power and 30 pts to Skill per successful drill in addition to the normal stat gains! However, the monster also LOSES about 9-12 points in both Speed and Defence per successful drill. The effect lasts for 1 month. NOTE: As with Troron, you will not be notified of these additional gains and losses. You must look at your monsters stats after the drill to see the effects.

EFFECTS ON LIFESPAN

As you can see, the effect of Paradoxine is considerably more dramatic than that of Troron. Unfortunately, the lifespan hit is also higher. Again, I used my saved games with the newborn of Gali to test the effects.

Subject: Gali (Gali/Gali) Age: 0 weeks.

Hold for effect items held: Sculpture

Regimen: Light drill, Light drill, Light drill, rest (none, Mint Leaf, none, none) I did not scold it for Failure or Cheating. I fed it Tablets every month (which it liked).

In the Control Save I did not give the monster Paradoxine and raised it under this regimen. In the Experimental Save I gave it Paradoxine in its first week of life. The objective was to see how long it took for the monster to reach Stage 2 with and without Paradoxine. The longer it takes to reach Stage 2 (see RNA's Monster Life Stages thread for details on the stages) , the longer it'll supposedly live.

MY RESULTS

The Gali in the Control Save took 74 weeks to reach Stage 2

The Gali given Paradoxine took 52 weeks to reach Stage 2

CONCLUSIONS

The Gali not given Paradoxine spent 22 more weeks in Stage 1 than its counterpart. Therefore it appears that Paradoxine takes approximately 20 weeks off your monsters lifespan. Is it worth the lifespan hit? You decide.

As shown, Paradoxine is much stronger than Troron but also has stronger side effects. Any trainer worth his/her G should know the possible benefits and disadvantages of the various items in order to use them to maximum effect. Will you risk the large lifespan hit Paradoxine offers in exchange for its effects. Hopefully now you can make an informed decision. Happy Ranching!

-- Dark Phoenix (Arax7@aol.com), December 26, 1999

Answers

Huzzah! I applaud your analysis Dark Phoenix. Well Done!

-- Slick McFavorite (gte306i@prism.gatech.edu), December 26, 1999.

DECISION: paradoxine usage

note: brackets -> (, ), do not imply mathematical multiplication. They simply give a note to where the number preceding it comes from.

- Using (shoot,shoot,shoot,shoot) (NO,ML,NO,ML) with a monster that gets an average of (3pts) on shoot drills.

In 4 weeks time(with paradoxine): You can get [3pts of SKI(shoot drill) X 4 weeks] + [30pts of POW(paradoxine) X 4 weeks] + [30pts of SKI(paradoxine) X 4 weeks] - [10pts of DEF(avg loss of paradoxine) X 4 weeks] - [10pts of SPD(avg loss of paradoxine) X 4 weeks] = 12 + 120 + 120 - 40 - 40 = 172pts (132pts SKI, 120pts POW, -40pts SPD, - 40pts DEF)

In 24 weeks time(without paradoxine): you can get [3pts of SKI(shoot drill) X 24] = 72pts to SKI.

- Using (shoot,shoot,shoot,shoot) (NO,ML,NO,ML) with a monster that gets an average of (10pts) on shoot drills.

In 4 weeks time(with paradoxine): You can get [10pts of SKI(shoot drill) X 4 weeks] + [30pts of POW(paradoxine) X 4 weeks] + [30pts of SKI(paradoxine) X 4 weeks] - [10pts of DEF(avg loss of paradoxine) X 4 weeks] - [10pts of SPD(avg loss of paradoxine) X 4 weeks] = 40 + 120 + 120 - 40 - 40 = 200pts (160pts SKI, 120pts POW, -40pts SPD, - 40pts DEF)

In 24 weeks time(without paradoxine): you can get [10pts of SKI(shoot drill) X 24] = 240pts to SKI.

Similar to troron, the lower your average on a respective drill, the more effective paradoxine is. As the average increases, paradoxine becomes less useful, and will eventually be of negative usefulness.

Example: A wracky gets an average of 2pts in stage 1 of it life(4 years).

If you simply train for these 4 years, you'll get [2pts of SKI (average) X 48 weeks(in 1 year) X 4 years] = 384 SKI.

If you use paradoxine every month, you'll have only 30 weeks to train plus an addtional remainder of 2 weeks training without the effects of paradoxine. So, that will get you [2pts of SKI(average) X 30 weeks (duration of paradoxine)] + [30pts of POW(paradoxine) X 30 weeks (duration of paradoxine)] + [30pts of SKI(paradoxine) X 30 weeks (duration of paradoxine)] + [2pts of SKI (average) X 2 weeks (remainder period without paradoxine)] - [10pts of DEF(avg loss from paradoxine) X 30 weeks] - [10pts of SPD(avg loss from paradoxine) X 30 weeks] = 60 + 900 + 900 + 4 - 300 - 300 = 1264pts (964pts SKI, 900pts POW, -300pts SPD, -300pts DEF)

This wracky has just maxxed out POW and SKI within the 1st stage of its life! Also, a wracky never starts off with very high SPD and DEF so not all the negative points will be applied. If a wracky starts off with 150 SPD and 50 DEF, then they will be at 1(both) by the time you finished with your paradoxines and the extra 400(negative)pts won't even be applied. So the above example will have a net total of 1664!

One bad thing though, by doing this with the above example, you'll shave off 3yrs 2m off your lifespan. Well, since wrackys can live to 10yrs, it'll still be possible to get those silver peaches.

After seeing this result, I may just raise another 1st gen wracky to 4000+ pts. Also, I will probably incorporate paradoxines with my 3rd gen phoenix to make a super(but short lived) phoenix. The difficult part, is to acquire so many paradoxines.

Thanks for the results, dark phoenix. This info really helped.

-- RNA (RNA@Ribosome.nuc), December 27, 1999.

More examples: # = average gains on a drill.

In 4 weeks time(with paradoxine): You can get [# of pts(average in drill) X 4 weeks] + [30pts of POW(paradoxine) X 4 weeks] + [30pts of SKI(paradoxine) X 4 weeks] - [10pts of SPD(avg loss from paradoxine) X 4 weeks] - [10pts of DEF(avg loss from paradoxine) X 4 weeks] = (# X 4) + 160

In 24 weeks time(paradoxine): you can get [# of pts(average in drill) X 24] = # X 24

With # = 1: Paradoxine = 164pts, No Paradoxine = 24pts.

With # = 2: Paradoxine = 168pts, No Paradoxine = 48pts.

With # = 3: Paradoxine = 172pts, No Paradoxine = 72pts.

With # = 4: Paradoxine = 176pts, No Paradoxine = 96pts.

With # = 5: Paradoxine = 180pts, No Paradoxine = 120pts.

With # = 6: Paradoxine = 184pts, No Paradoxine = 144pts.

With # = 7: Paradoxine = 188pts, No Paradoxine = 168pts.

With # = 8: Paradoxine = 192pts, No Paradoxine = 192pts.

With # = 9: Paradoxine = 196pts, No Paradoxine = 216pts.

With # = 10: Paradoxine = 200pts, No Paradoxine = 240pts.

The effects of paradoxine usage and not using paradoxine intersect at # = 8. So if your average in drills is 8, then using/notUsing paradoxine has the same effect on stat gains. However, with the example in my previous post, it can be seen that not all negative points will readily be applied. You must also consider that SKI is difficult to train(more so than DEF and SPD). Therefore, using Paradoxine may be an alternative to training SKI/POW manually.

Statwise, you should not use paradoxine if # = 8 or more. However, with the other factors(shown above) considered, # can be set at player's discretion. I would not use it during the prime though.

-- RNA (RNA@Ribosome.nuc), December 27, 1999.

In my opinion, I think Paradoxine is far greater than Troron and that it will prove useful in any raising method (especially in a monster's infant stage(stage 1)) whereas troron's effects are too little to be significant.

Too bad it's not easy to acquire....

-- RNA (RNA@Ribosome.nuc), December 27, 1999.

Thanks for all the hard work guys. Sorry my first post was a little jumbled, but it got the ball rolling. The holidays have put a crimp in my Monster Rancher 2 playing and exploring time. Two more interesting points about paradoxine and toron: 1) they both work on errantries with results almost identical to the drill sequence mentioned above. 2) I think the negative stat effect is lessened with each use. I may be mistaken on point 2. I'll have to check my notes again to be sure.

Most of the time I did have this weekend was spent trying to kill my Mock. I was trying to research the lifespan effects by establishing a low end on the life of Gonzalez. Despite my best efforts, my mock lived to 8 years 10 months after being fed three paradoxines, two torons, many rough battles, errantries, and expeditions. I shudder to think how long he'll live if I treat him well from age 5.

Again thank you to RNA and Dark Pheonix for all the work involved.

-- Farmer Jimbo (honcho7@excite.com), December 27, 1999.

CORRECTION from above example: In 24 weeks time(paradoxine): you can get [# of pts(average in drill) X 24] = # X 24

That should be read: In 24 weeks time(NO paradoxine): you can get [# of pts(average in drill) X 24] = # X 24

Don't forget about yourself, Farmer Jimbo. You worked on this stuff as well.

-- RNA (RNA@Ribosome.nuc), December 28, 1999.

i've tried Paradoxine with a maxed-out Zuum (i am only after the stat deduction) and my report is this:

1st wk: fed troron and trained in Domino (no failures) lif-999 pow-999 int-999 ski-999 spd-999 def-999

2nd wk: trained in domino lif-999 pow-999 int-999 ski-999 spd-900 def-900

3rd wk: trained in domino lif-999 pow-999 int-999 ski-999 spd-810 def-810

4th wk: trained in domino lif-999 pow-999 int-999 ski-999 spd-729 def-729

My conclusion is: Paradoxine deducts 10% from SPD and DEF. Not worthwhile, if your monster has high starting stats in SPD and/or DEF.

Hope this helps!

-- MaJoBeRiDiOmEn!. (organomd@hvisions.com), March 25, 2000.

Unbelievable! I can't believe I couldn't see that earlier. I knew that the loss in SPD and DEF lessened as your overall SPD and DEF lowered, but I couldn't put my finger on how much it lessened by. I never did reach 1pt in either SPD or DEF while using paradoxine. The lowest was probably 5 or so points.

Very nice analysis, MaJoBeRiDiOmEn!.. Yes, it does help.

-- RNA (RNA@Ribosome.nuc), March 26, 2000.

UPDATE: I found the EXACT amount of lifespan lost with Paradoxine. The amount of lifespan lost is 18 weeks.

-- Dark Phoenix (Arax7@aol.com), March 26, 2000.