Today marks the beginning of a new, long Event in Yo-kai Watch Wibble Wobble: The Happy Holidays Event. This Event has been teased for a very long time, and is the cause of the big drought in Wib Wob action for the past few months. Not everything is known about this Event yet, but it is promising a fresh, wonderful new beginning for Wib Wob after NHN's repeated poor treatment of players.
This week's festivities begin with the announcement of new Score Attack Big Bosses. As expected, this week's Big Boss is Red J, but the next few weeks' are a little more unexpected. Camellia, Orcanos, and Sailornyan follow Red J as Big Bosses, with Mighty Dog finishing off the Event from January 3-9.
Camellia and Sailornyan being Big Bosses is surprising considering they were available through Secret Codes and, later, the Y-Money Crank-a-Kai in Puni Puni. After the this and the Fruitnyan, it seems NHN will not be implementing Secret Codes for Yo-kai in Wib Wob.
As usual, Red J, Camellia, Sailornyan, and Mighty Dog are all available as prizes for placing in the Top 250 places on the Score Attack leaderboard for that week; however, this time, there is a twist: these new Big Bosses are all-new Yo-kai, meaning that only 250 skilled players will be able to add them to their Medalliums. Placing in the Top 250 can seem like a daunting task, but anyone that truly wants these Yo-kai can get them by investing some time in the game.
It is great to see NHN encouraging competition. Wib Wob has had a lack of reasons to try for the uppermost spots on the leaderboard since the Whismellow Event, so the addition of more exclusive Big Bosses should usher in a resurgence in Wib Wob's Score Attack. This is a fantastic decision that will liven up the competition and make Score Attack much more intense.
Most notably about this announcement is the fact that it is an announcement. NHN has never announced Events this far in advance before; the most notice they have ever given was a few days, and they rarely gave an announcement at all. Knowing what is coming will allow players to plan their Soul Secrets spending wisely. It is nice to not be completely left in the dark regarding what is to come for Wib Wob. Players should always be given something to look forward to in an Event-based game like Wibble Wobble.
With three out of five of the upcoming Big Bosses being Charming and the other two being Brave and Tough, most players should spend their Soul Secrets on Chymera while making sure to grind Blandon to Soultimate Level 7 if they want a competitive advantage. Chymera has Tribe Advantage over Charming, while Blandon has it over Brave and Tough. Users of The Filthy Goat's trio flooding method should instead invest their Soul Secrets in Komashura and Sproink S.
There is one more notable Yo-kai this week: the Random Popper Kyubi Awoken. He is SS-Rank, but the announcement claims that he is easy to pull from the Y-Money Crank-a-Kai, and Springdale Data Sciences member has backed this up with data. Out of 119 cranks he pulled 15 Kyubi , giving Kyubi about a 12.6% pull rate with a MAX crank. This is far better than Whismellowman's pull rate, which was so low that it could not be accurately measured.
Despite being SS-Rank, Kyubi Awoken is slightly worse than Illuminoct with 20 less Attack and 100 less HP. Their Soultimates are equal in power. Kyubi Awoken is not amazing, but he has a few interesting effects that make him worth getting: When used against Red J, he awards a 10% Score Bonus, making him a must-have for Mysterious aggro teams. Also, when used against Gargaros, Kyubi Awoken deals double damage and doubles Gargaros' chance of being befriended.
This second Bonus is particularly important because the Gargaros Terror Time Event has been announced to be launching next Monday, December 12. It is very similar to the Orcanos Terror Time Event, but it has different Maps. The evolved Yo-kai High Gnomey and Badude appear on the Gargaros Terror Time Maps, which will help out players looking to MAX every Yo-kai.
While Kyubi Awoken gets double damage and recruitment rate against Gargaros in Puni Puni's Gargaros Terror Time Event, the Camellia announcement claims that she will be players' “strongest ally against Gargaros”. This could mean that Camellia will be getting the Bonuses instead of Kyubi Awoken, but it is also possible they will both get the Bonuses. NHN has a history of leaving Bonuses from Puni in without mentioning them, so the same may happen here.
Either way, everyone has something to gain from this Event, because Gargaros is a must-have. After the Komajiro S controversy, Gargaros has come to solve the problem. Just like Komajiro S and Beelzebold, Gargaros' Soultimate is a 100pt Attack Up. This means that anyone who did not manage to pull Komajiro S from the 16 Event Coins given out in November will have unlimited tries to get a Yo-kai of equal power.
The announcement for Terror Time is marked with, “[ANNOUNCEMENT]” and claims that another Event will be announced next Monday. This is setting a fantastic precedent that NHN needs to continue following up on. They have left their players without any form of communication for far too long, but it is not too late to change; hopefully, NHN continues these perfect Event announcements throughout the rest of Wib Wob's lifetime. Knowing what Event will come next and when to expect the next Event announcement is reassuring and makes the Wib Wob experience feel much more worthwhile.
The Event announcement also claims that Christmas Coins can be obtained through Events, Event Missions, and Score Attack rewards. None of these three options have been implemented yet, but they will arrive in a few days. The absence of Christmas Coins in this week's Score Attack reward listing is a mistake, and Score Attack competitors should expect to receive Christmas Coins come next Monday.
While their pool is not completely known yet, Christmas Coins have been stated to have all Fruitnyan available in them, including Oranyan and Kiwinyan, who have been added to the Medallium. Oranyan is a Healer, while the Defender Kiwinyan reduces damage taken from attacks. Both of them are entirely useless in Score Attack and completely outclassed by offensive Yo-kai in Stages and against Bosses.
The final announcement is easy to gloss over: Venoct Awoken will be released during the week of Mighty Dog's Score Attack from January 3-9. He gives a 10% Score Bonus against Mighty Dog like Kyubi Awoken does against Red J. His Soultimate is the first of its kind: A combination Single Attack and Single Stun. Its power is completely unrivaled at 120pt, a whole 20pt above Demuncher and Chymera's Soultimates. With 630 Attack and a 13 second Stun, Venoct Awoken is a true SS-Rank. Unfortunately, while he is a wonderful choice in Stages and against Bosses, Venoct Awoken is unusable in Score Attack.
While his Stun might seem like a blessing at first, the 13 second Stun is more like a curse. It means he can not gain Soul Meter for 13 seconds after using his Soultimate. As a result, Venoct Awoken can not be used for flooding, which forces players to wait until Last Bushinyan is released for a proper 120pt Single Attacker. Venoct Awoken's Stun was purposefully implemented by NHN as an inhibitor, so it is a mystery why they did not do the same to Last Bushinyan, Hinoshin Awoken, Robonyan 3000, and Sesshoumaru Awoken as well. NHN has modified Yo-kai in the past when they have been added to Wib Wob, so they may implement a stun on these Yo-kai as well. The entire Springdale Data Sciences team feels this would be the best decision to help keep the game's balance in check.
Particularly dedicated Wib Wob players will be excited to hear that six new Class levels have been added. Class levels are gained when certain amounts of real life money have been spent on Y-Money in Wib Wob. When a new level is reached, a reward is given. The rewards and approximate USD ($) costs of the new rewards are as follows: Super Soul Secrets ($1320), Emenyan S ($2288), three Special Coins ($2640), Sapphinyan S ($2904), two Super Soul Secrets ($3520), and Rubinyan S ($4400).
Super Soul Secrets count as using two Soul Secrets at once on a Yo-kai. The S-Rank Gemnyan are just weaker versions of Jibanyan S. Unlike the powerful Pandanoko, these rewards give no reason to spend money just to get them. They are meant to be side bonuses for “whales,” a term used for players that routinely spend large amounts of money on a game with microtransactions. Players should feel no pressure at all about not having access to these Yo-kai; they have no use in competitive play and are for collecting purposes only.
Two other Medallium slots have been added in addition to the new Fruitnyan slots, hinting at what kind of Event may be announced next Monday: Robonyan F and Robokappa. Robonyan F's Soultimate makes him disappear from the board like Beetall and Whismellowman. Yo-kai with this Soultimate have little viability in any play mode and should be exchanged for a more offensive Yo-kai. Thankfully for robo fans, Robokappa is a Random Popper with almost equal power to Jibanyan A. While his Attack is 30 points lower, Robokappa's Soultimate is the same, making him a good choice for aggressive Charming teams early in the game.
Finally, this Event's Login Stamps are by far the best Wib Wob has ever had. Every single day except for the last five awards a Crank-a-Kai Coin from a past Event. While Thanksgiving Coins would have been more than welcome, it is still incredible to see the varied selection of exciting Coins available on this month's Login Stamps.
NHN seems to be doing an all around outstanding job with this Event, and once the proper Event festivities really get rolling next week with Gargaros Terror Time, Wib Wob will hopefully begin its first steps into becoming a far better game than it has been since its release. The close compaction of Events that will follow in the next five weeks closely resembles how Puni Puni has always been, so hopefully NHN has decided to treat their international players a little better from here on out. Community Manager Carlos has stated that this was NHN and LEVEL-5's intention. They hope this will mark a new beginning for Wib Wob and signify more great Events to come.
Screenshots in this article are courtesy of SDS Robbett, game8, GameWith, and Gameobera.