T/SC >>> Everything

Hi everyone, I've been busy with school works again this week so I rarely can spend my time to write here. During this week there were a lot of big updates in GT, including the assist loot, the devoted ID for common goal, the monsterslayer attribute and the midnight mission. I'm pretty sure you are aware of those things, hence I need not to touch that part anymore :D

Now moving on to the topic. As stated in the title, this is the postulate that I always keep in my mind in choosing my setup.

"T/SC >>> Everything"

(cooldown time is much much important than everything else)

Why is that so? First reason, of course, I am an impatient person. LOL. I don't like waiting more than 10 minutes in my setup. Of course this is not a valid reason. The valid reason is, grinding XP and money is way better using t/sc rather than the XP or money modifier... Take example 15 min hunt with +50% XP, in the same 15 mins if your setup t/sc is 5 mins you can get +200% XP since you catch 2 more ghosts. Same argument goes for money and loot.

Since the minimum t/sc is capped on 2 minutes, now we are moving on how to achieve that. When I started playing GT about one year ago, the most important item to reduce t/sc is of course

NESSY'S GOLDEN RESERVE (-5 t/sc)

But the cost of nessy was very cheap back then, unlike now :D. With the advancement of GT now the most important thing to reduce your t/sc is

MIGHTY CHRONO CRYSTAL (-2 t/sc, costs 250 CCF)

This strategy that I will share with you revolved around this MCC. So if you haven't got your MCC, I strongly suggest you to farm it first before reading this article :P

We have six components in our setup, which is mechanism, circle, contract, pet, bait, and ID. With MCC we already have 13 min cooldown, add Cosmic ID we have 12 min cooldown. Hence we need to cut 10 more minutes to achieve 2 min hunt. As a rule of thumb, then, each component of the setup must have around -2 min t/sc to do so. Of course some adjustment and variations will be explained below.

1. Bio
   Unfortunately as of now, bio type mechanisms are terrible in terms of t/sc. Be it Lucky Rabbit (bio's highest mystic) or Doomshroom (bio's highest raw), both are neutral in t/sc. Same goes for contract, only EPH and Lorelle have -2 min. This neutrality in t/sc cannot be covered by the other parts of the setup, unless you use NESSY as bait. Hence, the most possible setup for bio is
   
   
   Lucky Rabbit/Black Dragon's Breath/Nessy/EPH/Dragon Whelps/Cosmic ID/MCC
   
   which gives around 66 mystic, 1 min cooldown. However this is not really a good choice since the mystic is only 66. You can't be sure to get 100% catch rate.
   
   
2. High Tech
   High tech traps are known as raw-based and not mystic-based. With the introduction of Biochemist Dana Hunter contract from Ghost Puzzlers, now 2-min hunts with high-tech is possible. Of course you need to have the BDH contract first. If you don't, go play ghost puzzlers now :D The setup will be:
   
   
   Slapping Machine/Neon Lights/Dana Hunter/Cosmic ID/MCC
   
   while the choice of bait and pet may vary. That is, we have 3 minutes that we need to reduce. You can use dragon whelps (-3 min) and any bait, or you can also use nightcap (-3) and any pet. Do pay attention though, that SM has a +1 burner, which means Diamond Whelp will be better here. Or you can use -2 pet and -1 bait, the choice is up to you. Also if you want to switch the cosmic ID with twilight ID, you have -4 mins to reduce, which can come from anywhere. Play around with this arrangements and find your optimal setup.
   
   Before I move on to next type, just a quick reminder that this SM/NL has the power of about 266, of which you can hunt safely until R3.2 Dormont Cemetery.
   
   
3. Traditional
   Traditional setups are good for t/sc hunting, especially after the introduction of SHQ contract. A lot of mechanisms from traditional type got the -2 min cooldown, such as Time Warper (as well as its platinum edition), and Danse Macabre, which is the 2nd strongest trap available at the moment. The setup will be:
   
   
   Danse Macabre/Neon Lights/SHQ/Cosmic ID/MCC
   
   Of course the choice of pet and bait I have explained in the high-tech part above. It is just the same for the traditional contract, but without the burner, which makes this is the best possible raw-t/sc setup at the moment. This setup can reach the power of about 344, of which you can hunt safely until R4.1.1 Kirkyard Cemetery.
   
   
4. Arcane
   The usage of arcane type setup is split into 2 categories, the raw and the mystic. This separation is mainly because there are no -2 circle other than Neon Lights (raw based) and no -2 arcane trap other than Magic Maze (mystic based). A hybrid combination of MM/NL will yield a so-so setup which is not powerful in both raw and mystic, hence it is not effective.
   
   For raw arcane setup, there are many choice of traps available, since all the traps only give -1 t/sc. Xkaliboo, Abyssal Phone Booth, or Ether Portal will be used. Choose one depending on your current location and the raw power needed. The setup will be something like
   
   
   Ether Portal/Neon Lights/Countess/Cosmic ID/MCC
   
   which leaves us with 5 more minutes which we need to reduce. Hence the choice will be -3 pet and -2 bait (Dragon Whelps and Black Widow) or -2 pet and -3 bait (Nightcap and Little Nessy). However the problem here is, -2 bait are not common: Jesperian Way and Black Widow come from donation, and Midnight Rider is not really that popular. Same argument goes for -2 pets: Little Nessy has no loot multiplier and Little T-Rex or Triceratops are hard to get.
   
   Do pay attention to the raw power too:
   Xkal/NL will give about 248 raw - safe until R3.1 Wellsington Tower
   APB/NL will give about 280 raw - safe until R3.3 Castle McDonohan
   Cow/NL will give about 350 raw - safe until R4.1.1 Kirkyard Cemetery
   
   Moving on into mystic arcane setup, we will use Magic Maze for the trap. However the circle needs a good mystic with some t/sc reduction, where Black Dragon's Breath comes to play. With 20 mystic and -1 t/sc, it is a big deal! The setup will be something like
   
   
   Magic Maze/Black Dragon's Breath/Countess/Cosmic/MCC
   
   which also leaves us with 5 minutes to reduce. Same argument as above applies, but one more thing here. Since this setup can yield around 70 mystic, it is really good for nessy hunting, which can be exploited. If you use Nessy's, the 5 min problem is solved and you can use whatever pet you like. Furthermore you can change the ID to Twilight, and arm your -1 pet to ensure the 2 min cooldown remain intact.
   
   This mystic-based setup is practically safe to apply anywhere on Scotland.

It is really a wall of text, but I hope that you can find some insight and new ideas from this post :D Also I need to emphasize that this guide will suit more on the higher-level players. However for the lower-level players, you can use this article for your future reference. You can still use this article as a guide though, for example using PC/Lava Lamps for high tech with less raw power. You got the idea :D

See you on the next post!