JWA Weekly Events Jan 18 to Jan 24: Lunar New Year

Hello explorers! Lucus1355 AKA Luke and Kelly AKA Kelociraptor here and welcome to “Weekly Events”. This week is all about the Lunar New Year Celebrations.

The Lunar New Year is the beginning of a calendar year, whose months are moon cycles based on the lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar. The Lunar New Year is a celebration observed by numerous cultures according to their respective calendars. Each year in the lunar calendar is named after an animal, derived from Chinese folklore. The zodiac animals follow one another in an established order and are repeated every 12 years: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

What is the Lunar New Year animal for 2023?

Hope characterizes the Year of the Rabbit in 2023, but no Rabbits in JWA, yet… so, without further ado, let’s talk about Luke’s recommendations of which creature to dart before Kelly breaks down the rest that this week, and the start of this Lunar New Year has to offer.

Before we dive in to the week, we'll break down how the weekly event calendar works. First, each day is considered started at 10am Eastern on that day. It is possible that wherever you live, it might actually be the previous or next day, so we wanted to help clarify how they determine what day it is. At this time, event creatures & strike towers will be updated as applicable. This information is also noted on the calendar.

Ever wonder why some weeks we’re given 45 attempts on commons and others only 18 or 27? The reason for this is that the volume of attempts is a simple math calculation based on the rarity and number of options. Take the rarity base number and multiply by the number of options and voila, you have your total allowed attempts! Having more variety in the options yields that many more attempts. The flip side is it may be more difficult to find the creature(s) you favor. Below details the number of attempts assigned to each rarity which is used to determine how many attempts you receive (though occasionally, they stray from this math). This is the total you are allotted across all options, so it is important to select your choices wisely.

• Common = 9 per
• Rare = 6 per
• Epic = 3 per
• Legendary/Unique = Varies but tends to usually be 2 total

They recently started putting the number of attempts on the calendar again and sometimes stray from the above. Refer to the calendar for the confirmed counts. Each rarity has a different length of time the spawn lasts followed by a different length of time until respawn after despawn. Commons and Rares will last about 35 minutes with about 5 minutes between. Epics last about 30 minutes with about 5 minutes in between. Legendaries & Uniques last about 27 minutes with about 3 minutes in between. Many thanks to Lilikoi of Dom Tuoretto for helping us nail down those cycle times!

All strikes and trials are represented on the calendar with the level of difficulty along with how long they last (1 day or 2 days). The trials are shown along the very bottom in gray boxes.

Wednesday - Thursday: 27 attempts

• Deinocheirus (Global Anytime) (Diloracheirus)
• Monolophosaurus Gen 2 (Local 4 Anytime) (Monolometrodon>Monolorhino, Scorpios Rex Gen 2>Scorpios Rex Gen 3)
• Sinosauropteryx (Local 3 Anytime) (Sinokotaraptor)

Deinocheirus is one of the fastest commons in the game with a speed of 131, only second to Velociraptor. This makes it a great takedown artist in common tournaments and to top it off, its ‘Rampage’ ability can be used twice in a row if its ‘On Revenge’. It can out speed most opponents if its aloud to get off a ‘Minimal Speedup Strike’ but it hasn’t resistances to anything. This could be a problem against the few that can take on this creature and live to tell the tale.

Monolophosaurus Gen 2 is probably best known for being 1 of the main ingredients in making the Scorpius Rex Gen 2 and 3 hybrids. With another hybrid line also, it’s a creature with quite a few choices so a lot of DNA may be needed from this creature to be able to create both evolution lines.

Sinosauropteryx is 1 of 2 flock creatures in the common rarity class. It only has a single resistance and that’s to rend damage, but in a common tournament, it may not be too much of an issue. It can give out quite a bit of damage in 3 turns but it also can’t heal so it’s a bit of give and take with this creature.

Out of these common creatures and their hybrids, here is a tier list showing their usefulness in PvP battles:

(left to right: most to least useful)

 As of Wednesday morning:

Friday - Saturday: 12 Attempts

• Ailurarctos (Event Exclusive)
• Microraptor (Local 2 Anytime) (Segnoraptor)
• Rinchenia (Regional Anytime) (Rinchicyon)
• Woolly Rhino (Event Exclusive) (Keratoporcus, Monolorhino)

The epics featured this week contains a rhino, 3 small birds, an ostrich and a panda.

The Microraptor can be one of the strongest and weakest epics in the game. With continuous hit abilities allowing 2 strikes and 3 strikes in a row, along with 136 speed, it can be a troublesome opponent. However, it also has the lowest health of all creatures in the game, equal only to the Velociraptor so using this creature must be used correctly.

The Woolly Rhino is the veteran of this group, coming into the game back in v1.11. It’s a creature that is an ‘honourable mention’ when it comes to being used in epic tournaments. It has great defence in the way of shields, has a strong ‘Resilient Impact’ and a solid swap in strike with a 67% chance to stun, bypassing armour.

Oviraptor Gen 2 has a unique ability pool; on swap in, it will dodge 67% of an attack 100% of the time and when hit, will counter-attack and get a speed boost. It’s abilities make it able to attack with 100% crit chance, boost its own crit chance while reducing the opponent’s damage. A creature with diverse moves if ever we saw one, and also yet to obtain a hybrid.

The Ailurarctos is an extinct genus of Panda that lived in China around 8 million years ago and is also still yet to obtain a hybrid. It seems best described as a ‘self-healer’ with its ‘Counter Power Heal’, ‘Swap In Heal’ and its ‘Ferocious Shielded Heal’ which also gives it shields and a damage boost. An Ailurarctos can also slow its opponents down or when threatened, this changes to a 75% chance to stun. Either way it will cause vulnerability. This coupled with its ‘Fierce Rampage’ seems a deadly combination.

Out of these epic creatures and their hybrids, here is a tier list showing their usefulness in PvP battles:

(left to right: most useful to least useful)

As of Wednesday morning:

Sunday: 1 Attempt each

• Panthera Blythae (Event Exclusive)

• Dsungascorpios (Event Exclusive)

There is no need to break much down because there are no decisions to make here, just make sure you dart your single attempt on each. However, we did have some things we wanted to say about them for your reading fun and pleasure.

Only one legendary creature featured in this week for darting, but it’s a doozy. Panthera Blytheae is the ancestor of the modern snow leopard that lived in the mountains of Tibet roughly 6 million years ago during the Pleistocene Ice Age. It was top of the food chain then and not much has changed now, especially in legendary tournaments.

Just by swapping in, Panthera Blytheae can cause good damage, reduce opponents speed and cause a little damage over time. If this creature’s hit, then it nullifies all its opponent’s positive effects and those aren’t even its main 4 abilities.

With ‘Cunning Rampage’ and ‘Debilitating Strike’ causing reduced damage and hitting the opponent twice with precision, this is hard on any creature with low to no reduced-damage resistance.

Finally, there’s its ‘Evasive Hunt’: increasing its speed, its damage output and even giving it 100% chance to dodge 100% for 2 attacks, for 1 turn. Panthera Blytheae may be even able to give some higher rarity creatures a run for their money.

The sole Unique for this event is Dsungascorpios, an ancient scorpion-hybrid able to grow more than 2 feet in length and would probably have lived in an environment similar to that of the carboniferous period. With the yellow barbs on its back and tail, containing a venom capable of paralyzing at the slightest touch, this creature deserves its high tier ranking within all the unique creatures.

Its strongest attributes are most likely its “Shattering Antidote” and its “Enfeebling Rampage”. Dsungascorpios’ “Shattering Antidote” not only breaks shields, slightly slows its opponent and deals damage bypassing armour, but it also cleanses it completely of negative effects. Its “Enfeebling Rampage” on the other hand, nullifies any positive effects its opponent has, causes damage over time and an inability to swap out. But the real big kicker is that it has a 100% chance to stun its target.

Dsungascorpios has one of the higher armour stats of the unique creatures and the highest of all the flocks, except for its scorpion decedent. It also has abilities able to give it increased damage, priority shields and the inability for its opponents to swap out. Finally, it can cause a small amount of damage over time, and in return, recover some health with its “Devouring Stinger”. The phrase ‘that’s a sting in the tail’ doesn’t even cover how unpleasant it can be if you were to come against this creature unprepared.

Monday - Tuesday: 24 Attempts

• Dire Wolf (Event Exclusive) (Aenocyonyx>Indolycan)
• Fukuisaurus (Local 3 Anytime) (Fukuimimus)
• Therizinosaurus (Event Exclusive) (Segnoraptor)
• Tuojiangosaurus (Global Anytime) (Diorajasaur>Ankylos Lux, Tuoramoloch)

In a rare tournament, Fukuisaurus is a flock’s worst nightmare, with 2 out of its 3 abilities causing group damage. Trying to reduce its damage and setting up dodge won’t help keep Fukuisaurus at bay either. What’s more is that each time it’s hit, its damage goes up a bit. Finally, its “Shelter” ability not only cleanses it, heals a little below half of its full health but gives Fukuisaurus a 30% speed boost. It’s described as a relatively small ornithomimid, but great things come in relatively small packages.

Therizinosaurus is probably best known for skewering a huge carnivorous dinosaur in that Jurassic film franchise people seem to be talking about. It’s also something to consider for a rare tournament as its fast and can get faster; great at finishing off weakened foes. It can also increase its damage output, remove any opponents damage and/or critical chance buffs, while also reducing the opponents damage and critical chance. The surprise comes when it is threatened, as then its “Delayed Precise Rampage” becomes a priority ability which can be nasty if forgotten about.

Tuojiangosaurus is a creature who seemed to be that one you just didn’t have enough DNA of to create its hybrids and strengthen them. However, its also a great creature for slowing down opponents thanks to its “Decelerating Counter”, “Swap In Slow” and its “Group Decelerating Strike”. If you’re short of creatures to battle flocks with, Tuojiangosaurus is your creature. It’s can also remove dodge, cause vulnerability, cleanse its reduced damage and hit hard with “Precise Rampage”. Not a creature you want to meet if you can’t counter being slowed down every turn.

DireWolf is featured here again to be darted for another week. This Pleistocene prehistoric pack predator is able to increase its and its allies damage and speed. It can also reduce the armour of its opponent and can devour heal. DireWolf is very much a pack animal and so, does better in a group of creatures such as raids. However, its hybrids do this and are also able to fend for themselves.

Out of these rare creatures and their hybrids, here is a tier list showing their usefulness in PvP battles:

(left to right: most to least useful)

As of Wednesday morning:

Strike Events and Trials are also be Lunar New Year themed and can reward the same Common, Rare, and Epic DNA found at Event Supply Drops (with the very rare but possible Unique).

We have a Moros Intrepidus strike on Friday as well as Boost Strikes on Thursday (Attack), Saturday (HP), and Tuesday (Speed).

Scents

Both scent strikes this week will be Lunar New Year (Thursday & Monday) and can draw the same Common, Rare, and Epic creatures found under Event Supply Drops (with one Rare guaranteed) when activated.

Treasure Chase

We have a treasure chase on Sunday where distance shouldn't matter. This appears to be a special Lunar New Year chase, so you might lower your expectations for it. We will have to see on Sunday what it entails, but you should be at least able to complete it twice (Sunday will run 11am Eastern to 8pm Eastern, then it will reset until 11am Eastern Monday) - this allows 2 total chances at the coins! 

Hybrid Pursuit

The Ankylodactylus pursuit begins with the very useful Preondactylus!

January continues with the arena seasonal reward of Albertosaurus while Diplodocus is our Daily Dino.

The third week of Lystrosavis Alliance Championships will be Rare/Epic/Lengdary/Unique All (No Restrictions) Skills tournament for BOOOOOSTS!

January 2023 Stat Boost Tournament

REQUIREMENTS

• Creatures
  • Rare
  • Epic
  • Legendary
  • Unique
  • Hybrids
• Level
  • All creatures are set to Tournament Level (26)
• Stat Boosts
  • Disabled
• Restrictions
  • None

GamePress is excited to be able to provide weekly cash links worth $50 cash in game! The code can only be claimed once a week and you must click on it using the device you play JWA with. It will be active from Wednesday, 12am Eastern - Tuesday, 11:59pm Eastern every week. This is a promotional code provided courtesy of Ludia, Inc and is exclusive to GamePress. We will post this link in an article we publish each week. We will post all articles on our Twitter so follow us at NewsJWA on Twitter so you don't miss out! 

If you enjoy our content, please help let others know this is the source of the cash links people just post for the taking all over social media. The same goes for YouTuber Gaming Beaver. All links have a purpose behind them, and that is to promote some kind of media and drive traffic. Most people simply do not know there is actually a purpose behind these links, and we'd like to try to educate as many as we can. Take a moment to politely explain this in these posts. It isn't free money some random stranger on the internet whipped up. Every time these links are shared, it is taking opportunity away from an intended purpose. Please think about that or maybe find some time to visit Gaming Beaver, GamePress JWA, and the Ludia social medias.

*We can not control when Ludia officially deploys these links, but these are the times they are planned to be active.

When choosing what to dart, it can depend on your player level. So, think about the creatures’ hybrids, working out which hybrid or future hybrids would be a best fit for your team or to help you achieve any goals you may have; how far these hybrids are away from being created for yourself and finally, by looking at ‘creature tier lists’, for example the ‘Popularity’ and ‘Community Rankings’ tier lists.

That seems quite the week in recognition of the Lunar New Year Celebrations. If you are celebrating, then we hope you have an amazing time and that the Year of the Rabbit starts off in the best way it could!!

What do you love to see during the Lunar New Year and what are your favourite parts about the celebrations? We’d love you to share with us, along with what you plan to dart and why? Join our Discord and get in the discussion today!

Next year is the year of the Dragon…exciting!!

And leaving you with that, from Kelly and Luke here at GamePress, thank you for reading and Happy Lunar New Year!!!