The new Wib Wob 4th of July Event has two major parts to it: The Lucky Crank-a-kai and the Liberty Way Event Map. At 4000y a crank, the Lucky Crank-a-kai can be accessed on the Crank-a-kai menu and features a completely new selection of Yo-kai and cranking mechanics. The Lucky Crank-a-kai apparently has increased pull rates for rare Yo-kai, but this has not yet shown to be true.
Cranking the Lucky Crank will fill 10% of the Fever Time gauge, a mechanic imported from Puni Puni's Dream Roulette. Once filled, the next crank will have an extremely high chance of pulling something rare. Fever can not decay, so there is no pressure to charge it quickly or crank immediately once Fever Time is activated.
There is more to it than that; unlike the regular Crank-a-kai, where maxing all Yo-kai in a rarity tier makes it easier to crank rarer Yo-kai and Items, maxed Yo-kai can still be cranked in an Event Crank-a-kai. If a maxed Yo-kai is cranked, they will drop a Soul Secrets corresponding to their Rank: B-Ranks drop Mini Soul Secrets, A-Ranks drop Small Soul Secrets, and both S-Ranks and SS-Ranks drop full Soul Secrets. Super Soul Secrets can not be cranked. While maxing an Event Crank-a-kai in the Event period is a difficult task, doing so creates a pure Soul Secrets machine because Exporbs are not present.
There are no desireable B-Ranks in the Lucky Crank-a-kai, but there are a few good A-Ranks present: Nul is a Rare, Shady Single Attacker that is much more powerful than Blandon. He is a good pull for Score Attack weeks where Shady and Eerie get a Tribe Advantage. The same goes for Faux Kappa during Charming and Heartful weeks, but Happierre Awoken is the strongest choice for those.
Sailornyan and Robokappa are also finally able to be cranked with Y-Money. They were previously only available in the limited Christmas Coins distributed during the Happy Holidays Event, so many players did not befriend them. They are quite common in the Lucky Crank-a-kai, so anyone looking to complete their Medallium should have no problem befriending them this time around.
Pookivil is a brand new A-Rank Popularity Yo-kai. This is unremarkable on its own, but he inflicts a 50% damage reduction on Libertynyan S, the super boss of Liberty Way, just by being present in the fight. Libertynyan S deals 600 damage per attack, so Pookivil is essential for players without an elite team. Despite being an A-Rank, his pull rate is lower than SS-Ranks'.
There is a wide selection of S-Rank Yo-kai in the Lucky Crank-a-kai, with most of them being good pulls. Illuminoct is a strong, Brave Random Popper with more Attack than Shogunyan, and Devourer is a powerful Center Popper. These are both top additions to an aggressive Brave team. Gargaros returns as well with a 100pt Attack Up; not as strong as Blazion Awoken or Mass Mutterer, but still a decent pull.
Kyryn, while not as strong as the new Libertynyan S, is one of the best money makers in the game as an All Attacker, and Unikirin can be cranked with Y-Money for the first time. He unseals Slurpent, an essential part of optimal Y-Money making and clearing even the hardest Stages with ease.
Although Unpleasant can be recruited conventionally, he is a Rare S-Rank, making it incredibly time, money, and Spirit-consuming to do so. He is pretty common among the S-Ranks available in the Lucky Crank-a-kai. Unpleasant is a Score Upper only one Soultimate Level weaker than Elder Bloom, making him a suitable substitute for those who have not cranked Peppillon yet.
There are two SS-Ranks in the Lucky Crank-a-kai: Happierre Awoken and Hidabat Awoken. Happierre Awoken's 630 Attack and Single Attack + Heal Soultimate Move makes him the best Awoken Yo-kai in the game, while Hidabat is one of the worst as a Line Popper. Unfortunately, this means that every SS-Rank crank only has a 50% chance of pulling a good one; the chance is evenly split among the two, since they are in the same rarity tier.
Finally, the main draw of the Lucky Crank-a-kai: the Liberynyan SS Pass. This functions exactly like Passes in Puni Puni. Anyone who cranks it will have it added to their inventory, and using it brings the user to a special Map with only one Stage: one with Libertynyan SS. Bringing Ice Cream, Libertynyan SS' favorite food, is essential, especially because its effect against Libertynayn SS has been drastically increased to make up for the lack of four heart Ice Cream in Wib Wob. Fun fact: the Map and Stage music for Libertynyan SS is from Yo-kai Watch 3, as are some assets for Event artwork. The 4th of July Event fittingly marks the first official instance of Yo-kai Watch 3 assets used in America.
Libertynyan SS is a Heartful Tracer with 730 Attack, the most in the game tied with Darkyubi. Tracers have never been seen before in Wib Wob. When a Tracer Soultimate is used, a star appears on the center of the screen and can be dragged around for the next few seconds, popping every Wib Wob it touches and applying a damage multiplier. This multiplier is so large that simply using a team of three Attack Uppers, a Score Upper, and a Tracer and using all five Soultimates during Fever Time results in a Y-Money making method that is wildly more efficient and fun than Flooding.
Players without a good Y-Money grinding team are in luck, because there is an entire second part to this Event: Liberty Way. As a reskinned Mystery Way the Map itself is not too interesting in itself, but it has a few aspects that make it worth playing.
Super Liberty Way and Ultra Liberty Way each have a Hidden Stage with new Yo-kai on them. The first Hidden Stage is accessed by completing Stage 19 in 65 seconds or less and features Sandmeh. Sandmeh is a Heartful Single Attacker, but as an E-Rank, his low Attack limits his use. Despite his low Rank, his recruitment rate is as low an an A-Rank's. The Sand Suit can be pulled from the Crank-a-kai at a very low rate, then fused with Sandmeh to create Mr. Sandmeh. As a B-Rank, Mr. Sandmeh's higher Attack makes him substantially more useful than Sandmeh, and his Tribe gives him more useful Unity potential than Blandon; however, Happierre Awoken's existance limits Mr. Sandmeh's applications.
There is a reason to want Mr. Sandmeh outside of Medallium completion: He gains an enormous damage multiplier against the second Hidden Stage Yo-kai, Libertynyan S. Completing Ultra Liberty Way will unlock Libertynyan S' Stage, but there are a few caveats that prevent it from being easy. First, this is the first Tribe Restricted Stage in Wib Wob. Only four Tribes can be used against Libertynyan S: Tough, Slippery, Charming, and Heartful. Second, the Stage must be completed without continuing, which is not an easy task; Libertynyan S has 600 Attack and a reduced Attack timer.
Thankfully, there are ways to deal with this. Using Pookivil reduces Libertynyan S' attack by 300 (-50%), Libertynyan A reduces it by 90 (15%), and Mr. Sandmeh deals roughly 4x damage to Libertynyan S. While using these Yo-kai is not essential to beating Libertynyan S, it makes the task much easier.
Other recommended Yo-kai for this Stage include: Happierre Awoken, Uber Geeko, Toadal Dude, Venoct Awoken, Slurpent, Gargaros, Ogralus, Venoct, Komajiro S, and Jibanyan S. Using Venoct Awoken is by no means mandatory, but proper use of him and Slurpent can trivialize the Stage.
Recruiting Libertynyan S can be difficult since his favorite Food is Ice Cream, and its effect has not been increased against him. Sticking with it and befriending him at least once before the Event is over is nearly mandatory due to how powerful he is. Libertynyan S is a Heartful All Attacker with 640 Attack, 5 more than Kyryn, the previously strongest All Attacker. This makes Libertynyan S the second best money maker in the game behind Libertynyan SS, with one key difference: Everyone can realistically get Libertynyan S. All it takes is persistence and the right team.
Players who would rather not deal with RNG can still find great value in this Event. Besides having challenging Event Stages to play through, the 4th of July Event also features the return of Event Points. Event Point balls will drop at the start of every Stage and occasionally spawn in place of Wib Wobs. Tapping them will break them, with larger Event Point balls taking more taps to break. Larger Event Points balls award larger amounts of points, with six sizes available: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and the incredibly rare 100 point ball.
Infinite Event Point balls can be spawned, so experimenting with grinding methods can yield good results. Poppers can break Event Point balls with their Soultimate Moves, so ones with controlled areas of effect are highly recommended. Libertynyan SS makes earning Event Points quick and easy thanks to his Tracer Soultimate instantly popping any Event Point balls it touches. He also grants a 100% bonus to all Event Points earned, which stacks with Libertynyan S' 50% bonus for a 150% increase in Event Points.
While Event Point prizes have been mixed in the past, the 4th of July Event features a wealth of great ones. Notable prizes include: Libertynyan A, Sailornyan, Mermaid Pearl, 4th of July Lucky Coin, Special Coin, Green Coin G, 5-Star Coin, Thrill Coin, Cheerful Coin, 1-Star Coin, Super Soul Secrets, Soul Secrets, Small Soul Secrets, Mini Soul Secrets, and a total of 5200y. Items and Y-Money can only be bought once.
The 4th of July Lucky Coin is a Coin used in the Lucky Crank, similar to specific Coins being created for the Dream Roulette. They have a much smaller pool of Yo-kai to pull and include the Libertynyan SS Pass, so there is a better chance of pulling it with a Lucky Coin than a Y-Money crank. As a result, 4th of July Lucky Coins should only be used during Fever Time to maximize their effectiveness. Unfortunately, only two can be obtained: One from Event Points and one from an Event Mission for collecting every Star on Ultra Mystery Way. One of the Stars is beating the Boss, Libertynyan, using Sandmeh, so he should not be fused into Mr. Sandmeh until after this Star is obtained due to how difficult he is to befriend.
There are other Event Missions, too. These are the first fully featured, ready to go from day one Event Missions since the Befriend-a-Boss Event last September. The notable Event Missions are: Raise Libertynyan S' Soultimate Move to Level 2 for a Small Soul Secrets and Level 3 for the Liberty Title, get Libertynyan SS to Level 30 for a Small Soul Secrets, get Mr. Sandmeh to Level 30 for a Small Soul Secrets, and crank the Crank-a-kai 15 times for a Special Coin.