Yo-kai Watch Wibble Wobble Update Analysis — Infinite Inferno and How Not to Run a Wibble Wobble Event

11/24/16

Due to the controversial nature of NHN Playarts' recent actions, the following article is more opinion-based than usual.

As expected, two new Circles for the Infinite Inferno have been added. The 5th and 6th Circles have been added. Players can fight Dr. Nogut and Spooklunk on the 5th and 6th Circles respectively. They are just stronger recolors of Phantasmurai and Dr. Maddiman, so that is not particularly exciting. Anyone that does not have Daiz yet should be on the lookout for him; he is the Infinite Inferno's Noko.

The main draw to play these new Circles is the promise of two new Soul Secrets. As usual, beating each Circle's Boss will give a first time reward of one Soul Secrets; perfect for leveling Legends and Event Yo-kai like Sproink S.

Also added is the new Thanksgiving Event. A lot of excitement has been drawn to this Event, and for good reason: Komajiro S is one of the most powerful Yo-kai in the game now. Him, Beelzebold, Elder Bloom, and Sgt. Burly are now the four Yo-kai anyone wishing to compete in Score Attack must have on their team. Komajiro S is an entire two Soultimate Levels stronger than Siro, so they are not interchangeable.

Normally, having such a powerful Yo-kai would be a very exciting event, especially with the drought of content in the past couple of months; however, NHN Playart has completely messed up this Event. The month of Login Stamps back in June was a disappointment to players hoping for Terror Time, but it did nothing to detract from the actual game. This Thanksgiving Event is different.

Komajiro S is only available through Thanksgiving Coins. This alone would not be an issue, but only 11 Thanksgiving Coins can be obtained during the Event period: Five from Scoring 300,000 or more on one Stage, and six from popping a total of 30,000 Wib Wob. These Thanksgiving Coins function exactly like normal 5-Star Coins, except they have Komajiro S added to their prize pool; NHN did not even bother adding Demuncher and Kingmera to them.

With only 11 shots at pulling a Yo-kai that is rarer than Soul Secrets, few players will pull him. With a completely MAXed Crank-a-kai, Soul Secrets only have a 1/10 chance of being pulled. The chance of passing the Soul Secrets check, moving on to the Komajiro S check, and passing it is frustratingly low.

Testing has found that the chance is likely less than 1%, but Yo-kai Watch Community Manager Carlos Lopez claims that a 1.5% chance for Komajiro S' rarity tier sounds “about right” because NHN uses the same probability for similar rarities in their other games. If any of this Crank-a-Kai rarity talk is confusing, do not worry; a complete guide to how the Crank-a-Kai works will be published on Mt. Wildwood soon.

If this 1.5% chance is true, keep in mind this only applies to the few elite players that have a completely MAXed crank. This means the most dedicated players in the game that have invested hundreds of hours into it only have a 16.5% chance of obtaining Komajiro S this Event with their Thanksgiving Coins. Any casual players interested in him should give up hope, because they will not pull him without extreme luck.

This is an enormous issue. Previously, all Score Attack competitors could be on an even playing field if they were willing to put in the effort to pull enough Soul Secrets to MAX out their team. Now, it is different. If a competitor is not lucky enough to pull Komajiro S, they will be demolished by anyone who has due to the 14pt Attack Up difference in their teams. At a high level in Score Attack, every Point matters, meaning anyone who does not pull Komajiro S is done for.

The Filthy Goat, who has MAXed nearly every single Yo-kai in the game, failed to pull Komajiro S in his Thanksgiving Coins. Evil nobu may be a slightly Score Attack player, but The Filthy Goat is the greatest Wibble Wobble player by far. He is insanely committed to the game, and has almost reached his goal of MAXing every Yo-kai, which is a great feat in itself. He also creates YouTube videos and is an active member of the Mt. Wildwood community, sharing all of his strategies to help grow the Wib Wob fanbase. He does not keep anything to himself; he shares everything he finds to help and encourage everyone to be more competitive.

Why should such a wonderful, dedicated, passionate player of Wib Wob be prevented from continuing to play the game as he wishes because of bad luck? This type of Event is completely unprecedented. Yo-kai Watch Puni Puni, the Japanese version of Wib Wob, has never, in its over a year of operation, had an Event with a set limited chance to get any Yo-kai, let alone the currently most powerful Yo-kai in the game. NHN needs to fix this as soon as possible; until they do, Score Attack's competition will be skewed.

The most frustrating part of all this is that NHN could have avoided this issue through a number of actions. There are some Yo-kai that need to be added to the Crank-a-Kai. One of these Yo-kai is Unikirin, an S-Rank Attack Upper with an equal Soultimate to Komajiro S and Beelzebold. Only two Attack Uppers are used on each team, so if Unikirin was in the Y-Money Crank-a-Kai, not being lucky enough to pull Komajiro S would no longer be an issue; anyone that wants a strong Attack Upper could have unlimited tries at Unikirin.

There is, of course, an easier solution that should be proposed instead: Just add Komajiro S to the Crank-a-Kai. Darkyubi, Illuminoct, and every single other limited Crank-a-Kai Event Yo-kai in the history of Wib Wob has always been available from the Y-Money Crank-a-Kai. There is absolutely no reason why NHN should not have put Komajiro S in there as well. This entire Event just makes no sense.

Why would they limit a Yo-kai to Coins? The entire purpose of Events is to generate revenue, so by preventing players from paying money to get a chance at Komajiro S, NHN is not only messing up dedicated players by doing this, but they are forgoing a huge chance at pulling in additional revenue. Adding a must-have Yo-kai to the game for only a few days is a big pull for many players, and there is no doubt that some of these players would have bought Y-Money had NHN given them a reason to.

In addition to the Thanksgiving Coins, there may six more chances at Komajiro S with a promotional campaign that has begun with the Yo-kai Watch YouTube channel. LEVEL-5 has been posting every single episode of the Yo-kai Watch anime dub's second season. A large portion of the Yo-kai Watch fanbase consists of original fans who watched the anime when it first aired in Japanese.

There is nothing wrong with this, but now that LEVEL-5 is making the English version freely available online, everyone should show their support support and watch it. Everyone's views contribute numbers, and numbers matter, especially in situations like these. Whether someone is a sub fan or a dub fan, they should do their part in growing the Yo-kai Watch franchise.

Watching the anime is not the only exciting part of the episode uploads, though; episodes 13-18 will contain a password that gives a Season2Campaign Coin in Yo-kai Watch Wibble Wobble. These Coins seem to be reskinned 5-Star Coins, but there has been an unverified claim of someone pulling Komajiro S in a Season2Campaign Coin. If true, the chance to get Komajiro S with a MAXed crank increases to 25.5%. One episode will be uploaded each day at 6PM CST, with episode 13 being uploaded today. Check the YouTube channel every day for a new code, or check back here, where they will all be listed. Codes can be redeemed on the Wibble Wobble website.



Episode 13 (Campaign 1): XXXXJIBANYANXXXX

Finally, Mt. Wildwood and the rest of the Springdale Data Sciences team, a team of elite Wibble Wobble players dedicated to researching the math behind the game, have been working with Community Manager Carlos to better Wib Wob as a whole. NHN, the Wibble Wobble developer, has both a Japanese and Korean branch, so getting things done can be a little difficult.

Thanks to Carlos' efforts, a bug reporting spreadsheet has been created and can be visited here. Anyone that has encountered a bug in Yo-kai Watch Wibble Wobble should enter it according to the guidelines on the spreadsheet. Their bug report will be reviewed by Springdale Data Sciences to make sure it is a proper report. Then, it will be given directly to the Wib Wob developers. Report bugs and help better Wib Wob. Please note: This spreadsheet is not for suggestions or complaints. Constantly pulling snakes and owls from the Crank-a-Kai is not a bug.