A few Spymaster tips
When Spymaster originally launched I instantly hated it because of the default set up to spam the crap out of your friends on twitter. I really hate anything that does that and to get spammed by something that was in private beta so you couldn’t even follow through if you wanted to was extra annoying. I started blocking and banning anyone who was playing it. I guess a lot of people had that problem and they corrected some of the issues and I kind of forgot about it. Recently Joi talked me back into checking it out and it’s actually kind of fun, even though it still rewards you for being a douche by spamming your friends. If you want to check it out, the very first thing you have to do is turn off all the notifications, it’s not worth annoying everyone you know for a small cash bonus in game. This is actually my biggest problem with it and I wish they would just kill that option all together. Other than that, here are a few tips and tricks I’ve figured out:
- Level from 1-10 doing MED level tasks. This will give you good experience and a little cash to get started and you’ll level pretty quickly.
- Don’t buy any weapons except what you need for the tasks until you hit lvl 10.
- At 10 sell everything you have and buy only the top tier item for attack/defense, try to get one for each spymaster you have.
- Also, ignore the bank. Depositing anything in there is useless because of the fee, a better place to store cash is in safe houses because they don’t depreciate at all and also make you money.
- At level 10 switch to PVP/assassinations. Focusing solely on MED level opponents will bring you in much more cash than doing tasks can and about the same experience. This will keep your cash level high enough to constantly sell off and upgrade your weapons to the highest level you can buy.
- Attacking LOW targets is a waste of time and attacking HIGH targets can be fun but it’s risky. MED is fairly safe and pays off.
- When you get the opportunity to buy cars, DON’T! They are not a good value for the most part and are easily lost in losing battles.
- Take a second and do the math on equipment upgrades too, just because something new is unlocked doesn’t always mean it’s the best value. To determine how much a given item is worth take the price and divide it by the number of points it gives you and that gives you the price per point. Buy the items that have the lowest point per cost ratio to get the best bang for the buck
- At around level 35 the cash payoff on attacking MED targets drops to nothing, so if you want cash you need to switch to HIGH targets. That said, the experience payoff for attacking LOW targets multiplies considerably, so if you want to level quickly switch to them. Sorry LOW peeps.
- If you want to kill a director, buy the suicide attack option with your points.
- Transfering cash via the bank sucks because they take fees each way and there s a $1MM limit each day. If you want to transfer a bunch of cash to another player, say just before you go elite and all your stats are reset, sell all your weapons so your stats are stupidly low and then attack a high level friend. You’ll loose obviously and they will get a huge chunk of cash from you. You can keep doing this all day, even dying several times. This method will allow you to transfer tons of cash.
That’s just a few tips off the top of my head that I wanted to jot down for friends. If you have any others, please post ’em in the comments.
Don’t Tase Me Bro
My friend Noah got Tased for an article on Wired. I’ve been hit with stun guns and with a very very very early version of a Taser which I’m sure is nothing compared to the X3 he got hit with. He got a 1 second shock and it took him out and made him scream. You can follow the link and watch the video, but this is the best part of his article and something I think should be asked more often:
By the company’s estimate, Taser-wielding police and troops have blasted more than 750,000 men, women and children. On average, they received a five-second shock. Which means I got off relatively easy: Mine was just a one-second blast, at 19 pulses per second…
What I keep wondering is: Who would inflict that kind of pain? And under what circumstances? We all know that our tools change our behavior. Give us cars, and we’ll go new places; give us iPhones, and we’ll check our e-mail way more often. So when we hear stories about grandmothers and kids and handcuffed prisoners and even runaway sheep getting tased, I asked Smith, what does that say about the stun gun’s impact?
The question wasn’t answered, but I think enough research has been done with things like the Stanford Prison Experiment to indicate what happens when one person has power over another. I know from my own experience being a bouncer that when you know you have the authority and can get away with anything because everyone else on staff will back up your story, the rules and what is “legal” get very gray and flexible. It’s not a pretty situation and I think tools like Tasers are not the deterrents they are touted to be, I think they give people who are already a little drunk on power the excuse to hurt other people and get away with it pointing to policy and “non-lethal” tools at their disposal. Billy clubs leave marks and break bones, guns have the potential to kill you. Tasers are seen as a much safer option than those to, but because of that they are used much more often. When people are forced to think about the long term results of their actions they are more cautious, when they aren’t… well, they aren’t.