The Birthday, Part II sent me back via VIA to home this past weekend, where I played the crap out of Mega Man ZX Advent and received a shiny new copy of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin for becoming a quarter-century old. Finally, the celebrations behind me, I can move on with my life... the first step of that included a serious trip to the gym and some assignment work. Yawn.

Anyway, I have to apologize for the half-assed update last time. I made a few hasty errors, but it's only because it took me FOREVER to do with Kharamain's F****NG IRRITATING Trivia Traps, and I had to rush or I wouldn't have made it to my train home. I didn't even have time to do the Obscure spell, which is why it was delayed to today... sorry, Raaj. I'm a dork. But I still blame it on Kharamain.

Unfortunately, the contest IS closed to new participants, and it has been for awhile. This is just a continuation of the contest that began back last May, linked through my Q&A columns. I apologize; thank you for your interest, and thank you also for your understanding! Perhaps there will be a future contest for you to get involved with.

Today's Tips:

• A friend of mine and valued contributor to Sound Test, Virtuoso, said it best to me this morning: In "real-life" MMOs, there are patches and such to deal with unforseen undesirable situations. If I had the chance to do the game over again, I'd change so many things, and I would eliminate the ability for Level-Up Stars to have "better" versions. But, this is the way things have turned out, so I say... "let's deal with this together, finish off the game, and have a decently good time doing so, despite its quirks." Right? Right.

Okay-dokay.

• Water Dragon-B
• Grand Serpent
• Steel Crab
• Equinox-A
• Equinox-B
• Equinox-C
• Equinox-D
• Stalacia (Summon)
• Gate Overmaster (Summon)
• Daemod (Summon) (Wild)

#199:
e) Confuse enemies (300 Gold)
Yeah, I'm sorry that this wasn't the best question. Clearly, Angelo doesn't actually STEAL things too, so I'll give you credit if you answered with "a" - though his Search ability does turn up items and Angelo certainly can't confuse things. I meant to go back and reword things, but I never got around to it, as I had to dash out the door. My apologies, really.

#200:
e) Any four-of-a-kind (300 Points)
This one was kind of a no-brainer to people who have played the game before. Getting those other things can be very helpful, but a four-of-a-kind grants you a free move, so it's almost always by far the most useful thing you can do in that Bejeweledlike game.

#201:
iF *h* *-igImaL qmE*iCaN 4eLE**e ** f8Nal rAnt**y Ii"w *jEoLY" mON**eR gaD * **Av0U4, eHiC* ***ld *t -_st oIkEky be? (250 Points)

a) bLUcKne-Ry
b) vlue**rrY
c) mint
d) PinrAp)l*
e) **spBe_rY

Honesty is important! Don't spoil the game. Keep in mind that masqueraders will be obvious, since two submissions under the same name will cause me to fire an e-mail to the true competitor based on my records, where I can verify their actions. Anybody caught cheating in this manner will be immediately removed from the competition!

Please fill out your nickname and your actions for the day! Place your answer choices in the respective boxes (don't worry about being precise with wording or anything), and write your action in the action box. You can equip or unequip stuff once per day without taking your action up, too. Examples of actions could be "I want to attack Li'l Ant!" or "I want to buy two Eye Dropses!" or "I want to buy a Wood Sword and Smelling Salts, and I want to equip the Wood Sword!"