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Waterworks Guide

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Most of us have done this dungeon, whether you were farming for mastery amulets, mega snacks, or your level 60 Legendary gear, Waterworks is your friend for all of that. In this article, I will explain how to beat Waterworks, what you’ll encounter, and what to expect. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Entrance

When you first enter the dungeon, you’ll be underwater. No enemies are present here. Pull the lever and go on to the first room. Stop at the entrance to plan out your strategy for the fights that follow.

Room 1

In this room, you will encounter four enemies. Two Fintooth Warlocks (Death, 2,560 health) and two Slithering Eels (Storm, 2025 health). They do not cheat, but they do have considerable resist toward their same school. The best strategy for this first fight is to have your team prepare blades for a hard-hitting hit all spell. They’re easy mobs that you can kill in 2 to 3 turns, max.

The next fight is a little harder, but it’s doable. Here, you will face two Hydromatic Drones (Ice, 2,735 health) and two Rivershell Guards (Storm, 2,095 health each). The Hydromatic Drones love to spam Frost Giant and Tower Shield to make your life a little more difficult. The best thing to do is to blade up as usual and use hit all spells. After you’re done with this battle, this concludes the first area. Pull the lever and you’ll be ready to move on to the next area.

Room 2

Puzzle: Here, you’ll be met with a puzzle. It’s fairly easy, but you must move fast. You will need to open all the blue clams to advance to the next floor. Avoid the yellow clams at all costs or you’ll summon four enemies, and while they aren’t hard, you will waste valuable health and time. After solving the puzzle, you will be granted health wisps, which are very handy for the boss ahead.

Boss Fight: After the blue clams have been opened, you’ll encounter the first boss in Waterworks, Luska CharmBeak. He is a balance squid with 21,150 health, but he has some pretty massive fire and death cheats. He drops the Waterworks Hat and occasionally, mastery amulets. How this boss works is pretty simple.

You can’t put any traps Luska or he will remove them and follow up with a massive Power Link or Skeletal Dragon that does 1100 per turn for 3 turns. AOE Traps such as Windstorm are fine, and pet traps will not trigger this cheat either. Multi traps like Fuel are not allowed by Luska. Only the first trap gets removed but it will still trigger the Skeletal Dragon.

You can only attack Luska if you have been “inked.” The wizard who is inked can hit Luska with any type of spell, but if you’re not inked, you can only attack with hit all spells. The wizard occupying the first spot will immediately be inked and as Luska’s health drops lower, he will ink the second wizard and soon enough, the third wizard. The fourth wizard will never get inked, so your best idea will be to put a support wizard last since they don’t need to hit. He can be an easy, straightforward boss if you have a hitter in the first spot and avoid traps. After defeating Luska, pull the lever and move on to the third area.

Room 3

Fight 1: Here, you will face two Fintooth Marauders (Death, 2,715 health) and two Wingfin Slicers (Fire, 2,190 health). They do not cheat. Blade up, use a hit all spell, and the mobs should be dead. After they’re dead, you’ll proceed to the next battle.

Fight 2: Here, you will face two Stormtide Elementals (Ice, 2,705 health) and two Rivershell Shamans (Balance, 2,430 health). Just as before, they are an easy mob battle. Blade up and use a hit all spell to eliminate them, then pull the lever and head into area four.

Room 4

Puzzle: In this room, before you battle anything, you’ll be met with a puzzle. It’s a simple puzzle to solve. When you read the instructions they will tell you “Start here to play follow the leader.” An eel will appear and will start touching various levers. Follow the eel and pull the levers in the same order. If you fail at the puzzle, you will face 4 Slithering Eel enemies, they are storm with 2,025 health each. After this puzzle is done, proceed to the next phase of Waterworks.

Fight 1: Here, you’ll face your last set of mobs. You will face two Riverclaws (Ice, 2,690 health) and two Celestian Constructs (Moon, 2,670 health). There’s nothing special to it, blade yourselves and use a hit all spell, but do remember that the Ice Riverclaws can use Frost Giant and Tower Shield. After defeating this set of mobs, pull the lever and head back to the main room to drain the valve.

Main Room

Final Fight: Pull the lever and you’ll be greeted by three bosses. Sylster Glowstorm (Star, 24,980 health), Water-Wing (Fire, 8,190 health) and the Spellhammer Sorcerer (Death, 6,560 health). The enemies might look easy enough at first, but they have some nasty cheats that you must consider.

Sylster Glowstorm: Sylster drops the Waterworks Robe and Boots, as well as mastery amulets. When the battle begins, Sylster will put up a Doom and Gloom bubble and say, “Traps go undetected in the Light”. This means you can’t hit Sylster (or any of his allies) unless there’s a trap on them. It’s important to note that the trap doesn’t have to match the school of attack you’re using. For example, I won’t trigger Sylster’s Ra cheat if there’s a Myth Trap on him, but I choose to hit him with Leviathan instead. Any trap will prevent the cheat.

After four turns pass, Sylster will change the bubble and say, “The blade goes unseen in the dark.” Just like the trap cheat in the previous cycle, you can’t hit Sylster (or any of his allies) unless you have a blade on. If you fail to abide by Sylster’s rules and use a trap or blade in the correct cycle, he will hit you with a powerful Ra at 2,000 plus damage. The Water-Wing uses a weak Rebirth that doesn’t give absorb, and the Spellhammer Sorcerer uses a weak Scarecrow, so their cheats are less of a threat. I recommend counting the rounds so you know when to use Blades or Traps. Hit all spells will not trigger Sylster or any of his allies’ cheats during either cycle, so if you lose track you can safely cast that.

Spellhammer Sorcerer: He will take over Sylster’s Doom and Gloom cheat cycle if you kill Sylster first. He uses a weak Scarecrow if you fail to hit him with a Trap or a Blade.

Water-Wing: He will take over Sylster’s Doom and Gloom cheat cycle should both his allies be defeated. His cheat is a weak Rebirth if you fail to hit with a Trap or a Blade.

Bonus Glitch

Are you tired of running Waterworks, again and again, hoping to get your gear?

In Waterworks there is a glitch to make Sylster re-spawn without running the entire dungeon again. In order to do this, the entire team must remain in the dungeon together. All you have to do is have three of your teammates wait in the room where the battle just completed while the fourth goes into another room inside Waterworks. When the fourth Wizard returns to the team, Sylster will return for another battle. If done correctly, you can have infinite attempts at Sylster’s drops without having to run the dungeon each time.

Final Thoughts: Overall, Waterworks is a fairly simple dungeon with a decent drop rate. Most get their Waterworks gear within a day of farming, which is good because Waterworks gear is crucial to have. That said, I wish everyone the best of luck in farming Waterworks and getting their Legendary gear!

 Written by Ross Shadparvar

The Celestian Orchestra

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Celestia, world of the shining stars, the reflecting moon, the powerful sun -and crabs- we invite you to the recently discovered in-tact ruins of the Celestian Opera House. Archaeologists have inspected the theatre to be in safe enough condition for public entry. Our finest Marleybonian musicians have decided to hold a special performance of a collection of works held by the Archivist for hundreds of years to play for you tonight.

Main Theme

Celestia’s main theme is divided into two primary sections. These two sections highly contrast with one another, changing tonalities when going into the second section. This divide between an A and B section is called binary form. One common attribute binary form has is that the A and B section are equal in length (read: duration), as they are here.

We begin the piece off with two contrasting timbres of the low brass and flute. Instruments add in building the piece’s momentum, such as the harp, glockenspiel, and horns.

The texture becomes stable as the horns completely take over the melody and a back-beat ostinato, or repeating figure, in the strings and percussion is added.

At 00:51 seconds into the piece, the key changes into the minor mode, giving us a mysterious mood change in stark contrast to the adventurous mood in the primary section. The repetitive ascending lines in the strings give us tension, leading us upward into the mysteries. The descending eighth note line propels us forward into the next ascending row. At timestamp 1:12, the horns come in with a melody.

Each time the horns sustain a note before rhythmic trumpeting, the woodwinds play a quick descending line as counterpoint. At 1:20, the harp takes that idea and develops upon it. The harp is the main focus and the section lacks any punctuating rhythms, unlike the previous moment. Timestamp 1:25 brings back the punctuation as well as syncopates the rhythm for the thrilling tensity. Above this is the violin, borrowing from the themes of Marleybone. Using a theme to represent the people of Marleybone is a leitmotif. This makes the music coherent with the world, showing how the Marleybonians have brought their musical voice and how it effects the world of Celestia.

Mysterious Theme I

Like sea life swimming in and out of the corals in a reef, the orchestral texture solemnly and constantly shifts, phasing in and out. The high piano keys and harp accompany the echoing solo, like a sea creature seeing another silhouette off  in the distance.

The texture shifts at 00:26 seconds, coming in with the timpani strike. The texture solidifies to be more traditionally orchestral. The cellos play the melody with the celesta doubling. The horns play an ascending line in the space of the melody. When it repeats, the strings and trumpets take over this counterpoint. At 00:42 seconds, the horns come back in lower, playing the melody as the trumpets play the counterpoint. The trumpets then lead us into the next section with their soli.

The next section at 00:52 seconds brings in a colder texture with the piccolo, harp, and celesta. The piccolo, as the highest voice, is the most noticeable to our ears. This develops a motif in different harmonic contexts that form a melody. The harp and celesta play arpeggios along with the bassoons. The horns play to lead into the different chord changes.

The unstable harmony builds tension, leading to the climax at timestamp 1:08. The horns and choir sustain their tones, giving the orchestra a full, supported sound. The celesta doubles the melody of the horns, adding a mysterious timbre. The timpani pluck of the harp marks the end of the adventurous section and leads us back into the cloudy mystery of the harp and celesta. The celesta plays the piccolo’s melody from before, giving an eerie tone.

Mysterious Theme II

Check out Maleficent’s transcription of this piece on Musescore! 
We begin with a very light and airy texture, utilizing the smooth and cold sounds of the flutes, harp, and celesta. The flute and violin harmonize with each other as the murmuring harp supports the overlaying texture.

The flute section plays two variations on a harmonized five-note melody. At 0:12 seconds, the cello enters as the celesta continues its overlying waltz figure and the harp continues its arpeggio pattern. The slight texture change effects the mood, becoming more peaceful and melancholy than mysterious.

At 00:24 seconds, the cello’s descending figure in the melody leads to a brief stop in the harmony of the music as the suspended cymbal leads us into the next section. This technique is common in dance music, where a brief break after building tension makes us desire a resolution.

The celesta and piccolo double the melody as the violin takes over the harp’s function from before. The horns and strings sustain chords, implying the dorian mode (a specific kind of minor mode). We sway back and forth between two chords, the tonic and the major IV chord. Typically a minor iv chord, the raised scale degree in dorian gives us the unique and regal harmonic colour presented in this section.

In stark contrast, our next section has modulated to the major mode, giving it a brighter mood. The upbeat waltz pattern in the horns and strings mellows the tone. The light melody on the flute is uplifting and delicate. The music paints a picture of the fragile crumbling ruins of Celestia and the delicate breeze in the leaves of the Floating Lands.

The glissando in the celesta at 00:50 seconds leads us into the contrast of orchestration in the section. The melody is carried to the violin, still being supported by the underlying waltz figure in the horns and pizzicato strings. Timestamp 0:58 gives us a cadential point, or rest within the music. The low strings and brass come together to play a descending figure, which as the tonic gets lower in the orchestra, the more at rest we are with it and the closer to the end we seem to become. Like Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, the piece ends with a quick sixteenth note run in the celesta.

Calling back to the themes of Marleybone again, we are given a Mary Poppins-like texture with quick descending arpeggios in the celesta. The low strings and brass begin the melody as both sections high ends add in gradually, building the tension. Mysteriously, we end quietly with the celesta and violin in a cute and peaceful duet, calling back to the cello solo at the beginning. The flute ends the piece on the leading tone, which when harmonized with the pizzicato strings, implies the lydian mode, a mysterious and airy major mode.

Tribal Theme

The Tribal theme begins aggressively with a swift tam-tam (gong) strike and men’s choir. Hand drums accompany the singers primitive-sounding vocals in the intrada leading into the next section. Percussion of many colors adds vibrance to the flute’s main melodic line 00:11 seconds into the piece.

Timbres such as the marimba and xylophone are essential to the tropical sound of the piece. The bassoon takes over the flute’s melody in its mid-high register 00:21 seconds in. The xylo adds in, like a bandage to patch the transition.

At 00:34 seconds, the texture becomes more mysterious with a strong modal shift occurring at the same time. The flute takes over the melody, bringing a colder texture upfront in the ensemble. The harp has a glissando over a sustained chord in the vibraphone.

We come back into our happy texture at 00:38 seconds with harmonizing high strings and xylophone doubling a melodic line. As they fade out, the bass drum strikes, empowering the marimba’s ascending arpeggiated line.

Timestamp 00:43 brings us a hefty cadence point into the next climactic section. We see the return of the tribal voices in counterpoint of the strings and mallet percussion. In other words, the voices sing where the other melody’s voice is sustained on a note.

This thick orchestral texture relaxes into a flute solo at 00:56 seconds. This time, the melodic line is played in a lower register, bringing a sense of familiarity, but closure to the piece. Most pieces feel resolved in lower registers and more tense in the higher ones and this piece exemplifies that.

Finale Theme

The crash in the percussion initiates the orchestra. The woodwinds scramble together from motifs, or recognizable fragments in development. This continues as an ostinato as the low brass comes in with a simple melody. The high brass comes in at 00:19 seconds, continuing where the low brass left off. This melody introduces the main thematic material used in the piece, categorized by its short-long-short-long rhythm. This section ends with a bass drum hit as the ensemble plays a dramatic chord.

The suspended cymbal leads us into the next section at 00:32 as the rhythm changes into a triple meter. The woodwinds’ downbeat is emphasized more than the other two beats in each measure, giving the feeling of a waltz. The melody stated beforehand in the brass develops with this meter change. The short-long-short-long pattern shortens the longer note by a single beat so that the long note plays on each downbeat. As this occurs, the horns and trumpets have a call-and-response pattern with each other. As one group sustains a note in their melody, the other repeats it in the meantime. The melody is given to the flute, continuing the same rhythmic pattern

The melody climaxes at 00:52 seconds, as the timpani strikes. The high strings emphasize the downbeat of the melody the as the brass plays. All the while, the harp plays quick, descending arpeggiated runs while the flute rocks back and forth between notes.

In the transition section at 1:15, the flute and the harp duo together to create a mysterious ambiance before jumping right into the grand finale of the piece at timestamp 1:29. In the meantime, the mysterious mood distracts us from the fact that the rhythm is changing to duple meter, giving us four beats per measure. In this section, we see the full development from the short-long-short-long motif become short-long-short-up-down-up-down.

Thank you, Starlights, for joining me on this musical adventure through the music of Celestia.

Click here for more of our Music Guides

Disclaimer:

All transcriptions of the music are from the original/classic mode music scrolls. Not all of my transcriptions are 100% accurate, but they are close and the rhythm is properly notated.

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Fishing: Code Wands

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After the Zafarian fish were updated, chests containing precious code wands that don’t exist anymore as drops from bosses. The code wands are found in various lakes in Zafaria, but let’s focus on a single area in Zafaria that is well known as Elephant Graveyard.

Location

Zafaria In order:

Baobab Market / Stone Town / Waterfront / Drum Jungle / Elephant Graveyard

The Wands

1.Amaranthine Staff

2. Staff of the Querent

3. Fog Staff

4. Staff of Imperator

5. Warpwood Wand

6. Blue Raptor

7. Dragonclaw Blade

8. Viridian Scepter

9. Galvanic Hammer

10. Goldenbeak

 11. Umbra Blade

How Do Get Them

There are many methods one can use to catch these wands, but we must first mention that the chests are in all ranks, schools, and categories like the common, rare and epic fishes. So the best method is to go there and catch what you see. However, doing so will waste a lot of time and energy to a more efficient method would be, having in mind that the right pond has more chests from the left, and in the second phase, that most fish are a school of death, we use a middle bait of this school, mostly.

  1. Reveal Fish School: See if a death fish appears and cast bait Lesser Repose Lure or Minor Repose Lure and catch what you can from what you have in front of you or all, even sentinel fish.
  2. Winnow Death Fish / Banish Sentinels 1: Use after Lesser Repose Lure or Minor Repose Lure grab you can first on the right side of the lake and then on the left after you repeat the Banish Sentinels 1 spell again.
  3. Use Minor Repose Lure and catch all sentinel fishes. These fish contain chests like all fish and all categories. But they differ in how to catch them. Do not wait to pull the lure into the water to hit the space bar, but once they touch the lure, press the spacebar right away.
    Note: If 15 minutes have passed, repeat with Summon Fish and re-do Method 1, 2 or 3.
  4. If you have the Buoy Chests 1 spell, you don’t need to use the Summon Fish spell because it resets along with a 50% greater chance of returning to chests. So then you have two options:
  • Make Winnow Death Fish / Banish Sentinels 1 by using Minor Repose Lure and catch what’s left.
  • Make Winnow Death Fish and catch all the sentinel fish and then what is left of the school of death.

Do not forget that there are no fishing spells that scare aware the sentinel fishes whatever their school, except Banish Sentinels 1.

The whole collection together:

Thank you for reading, please don’t forget to let me know if this article helped you by leaving a comment below! 

Good Luck!

Mathew “Sparck” Anderson

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Recently the Wizards of Ravenwood Academy brewed up a batch of exciting questions for our amazing, Senior Community Manager Mathew “Sparck” Anderson. Our goal was to get answers to some questions the community has been asking, and Mathew did not disappoint. So, let’s get to it, we are excited to share this exclusive interview with you!

What do you like best so far about your position at KingsIsle?  

The team and players, all-in-one! Everyone: all Wizards, Pirates, baby animal fans, etc. I haven’t been a part of such a great team and community as what I’ve experienced here at KingsIsle. Everyone on the team participates in some form in developing and promoting our community programs, which makes it faster to get fun things out to you. The best part though is working with the community on their own events and projects, so please do keep creating those! 

What can you tell us about your responsibilities at KingsIsle? 

Oh my, well, where do I begin? A nice summary is that I ‘take care of the community’. This of course means several things, but first and foremost it starts with listening to your ideas and concerns about our games, then relaying that feedback to the development team. I also help to ensure the community is a safe place to be, working with our development and customer support teams.

Other responsibilities include taking development updates from our team and putting them into easily digestible forms on public sites like producer’s letters in the forums, as well as social media posts and patch notes on the main website. I also oversee all public areas, so that means monitoring (and moderating) the forums and social media sites. 

One of the more fun things I do is create events and contests, though we much prefer to support community-driven ones. They tend to end up being better and more fun anyway.


What has been your biggest challenge as a Community manager at Kingsisle?  

The KingsIsle community is now over 10 years old! That’s a lot of history built up that I have to understand in order to be an effective leader. This has been my biggest challenge: understanding your needs, the games themselves, and developing and supporting programs that fit those needs. I hope I’m on target so far.

What interests you the most about your position as KI staff? 

I love working with such a fun and high-spirited community! I wouldn’t have it any other way, which is why I consider myself extremely lucky to be working at KingsIsle. I also get to see the day-to-day development of the games, and I work with an extremely talented marketing team that helps to get the many promotions we have out the door. 

What has been your best experience as a community manager at KingsIsle?  

Seeing the community help each other out, especially for new players. This includes the flood of new players we got for Wizard101’s 10th Anniversary events, Pirate101’s recent 6th birthday, and even for Animal Cove upon its global launch! Anytime I see a tweet on Twitter or a post in the forums about someone helping a new player out, it truly makes my day. Please do more of that everyone; it’s noticed!


What is your goal as the community manager at KingsIsle and what are some things you yourself would like to change?  

My primary goal is to ensure that your feedback and interests are being communicated to the development team. The team reads that feedback and let me know what they are currently working on, what they will potentially work on in the near future, and what they will not be able to work on for some time. There’s a bunch more things that are in my bucket of goals as well, but communicating feedback is definitely the most prominent. 

I really want to see more livestreamers, both on YouTube and Twitch. If players are uncomfortable about streaming, I want to encourage them to seek out currently active livestreamers and get tips and suggestions on how to get started. It’s a really fun way to participate in the community. If you are a new streamer, let us know and we’ll stop by your channel to say hi! 
 
What gaming company did you come from before and how does that experience compare to KingsIsle? 

Portalarium, which also resides here in Austin, TX. It’s actually quite a parallel experience on the more basic levels of community service. Portalarium’s MMORPG, Shroud of the Avatar, has some similar concepts that Wizard101 and Pirate101 have such as housing, crafting, pets, guilds, and so on. While the game is a touch more ‘hardcore’ than Wizard101 in some aspects, these are still general concepts of all MMORPGs that I enjoy getting involved in. That’s one of the reasons why I came to KingsIsle. 

What has been one of your biggest surprises working for KingsIsle? 

We have regular monthly food days! From Cheese Day to Cake Day, it’s really exciting to anticipate a Friday afternoon snack of some kind after working hard during that morning. I’m the kind of person to nibble on sweets all day long. And I’m of course still hoping for an ice cream day.

2018 was arguably one of the best years for Wizard101, with all the member benefits, updates and additional content like bundles. Going into 2019, how does KingsIsle plan to maintain the momentum? 

We’ll be keeping up the member benefit momentum, introducing tons of additional content, and developing more opportunities to play the game with each other! I’m most excited to also be focusing on several new community initiatives yet to be announced, including several contests and events. Keep watch for those in the months ahead. And please do send us your own contests and events so we can share them on the game’s social channels. 

Will Wizard101 be receiving quality of life updates outside of the usual quarterly updates this year? 

While this question is a bit outside of my purview, I can say that we plan to stick to a stable schedule of updates. Above all else, we want to ensure we are adhering to a process and schedule that produces quality content. Changing it too much too quickly and releasing more frequent updates just to announce ‘something,’ even quality of life updates, can result in delays and unhappy community reception of the content. 

How does Kingsisle plan to further connect to and implement the players’ thoughts and wants for Wizard101? 

For 2019, Instagram is a new social media channel that we’ve quickly ramped up. This isn’t exactly a discussion platform though or one that is good for receiving gameplay feedback. For all of those needs, we’ll continue to monitor the community’s feedback in the usual channels and more actively respond to those posts. 

We are also taking a look at using new tools like Trello, which may prove useful in organizing and presenting community concerns to our team. Trello is a posterboard of sorts that can show items of interest with ease, instead of those items being buried in a calendar or a response somewhere deep in the forums. Let us know if you have ever used Trello, we’d like to know what you think of the program. 

With the game reaching 11 years old this year, a lot of drive has been put forth to expand the current free to play areas to allow new players to “get into” the game more. Is this a possibility or just fantasy? 

This is certainly a possibility, one we’ll be continuing to evaluate in 2019 and beyond. We’ve seen the regular community feedback on this point. We promise, it hasn’t been lost on us! 

What led to the sudden drastic increase in member benefits throughout 2018 and can we expect it to continue? 

We wanted to test out some new processes. We quickly found that the increase of benefit offers was well received by the community, so why not continue that success? 

Can you give us any details or hints as to what’s to come in 2019 in Wizard101? 
 
 We’re working on some dev diaries on just this point, keep watch for those on www.youtube.com/kingsisle :). 

 
You’ve mentioned to the community many times that if they have any events, or livestreams going on that, and they want KI to know about it, what would the best way for them to reach you? 
 
 If the event has a definitive date and is coming up in the proceeding days or weeks, we would appreciate a direct email to [email protected] with all of the details. As the event approaches or if it’s something happening ‘now’, then a tweet and even a post on Facebook to get our attention works well. The community is also free to search for me on Discord and other channels (Sparck/Bat Masterson) to send a quick update of events and activities. 

Contest Winners

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What a wonderful time we had looking at all of the entries! It was fun for the whole team. 

Here are the winners of the Christmas Decoration contest, prizes will be sent to the email you provided: 

 

- 1st Place -
Austin Death: Aero plains Bundle

- 2nd Place -
Jeffery Shade: 5,000 crowns

- 3rd Place -
Laura Battleblood: Yuletide Parade Truck!

- 4th Place -
Jerry Tom: 7 packs of your choice

- 5th Place -
Nathan Darkblood: 4 packs!

Take a look at these other amazing screenshots

We tired to add many of your pictures as we could, sorry if we missed yours. There might be a special surprise coming from Santa for all of you who worked so hard decorating your homes for the season! Keep a close eye on your emails!!


Thanks to everyone who entered, we will be having more contests like this in the year ahead and would love to hear your feedback or suggestions. Please email us with any thoughts at [email protected] or comment on this post.

The Music of Mooshu

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Intended for Musician and Non-Musician

As the emperor falls ill, the factions of Mooshu wage war against each other and there is no way of knowing how it will all play out. Mooshu’s people are hesitant to trust us wizards because of Malistaire who stole their spiral key  in an attempt to resurrect his beloved Sylvia. Let us delve into the atmosphere and take a closer look at how the music of Mooshu is used to aid the story.

“Main”

From the first moment, the texture is established through a high-pitched gong. The plucked strings set the serene tone and give the land of Mooshu a musical identity. We feel the authenticity in relation to our own world. The flute comes in, sustaining a single tone with an embellishment, queuing the plucked strings to play a phrase in a soli. A soli is the musical action of having a single section play together, similar to a solo, but with more people playing the same phrase.

After that, we dive into the first melody. Syncopated and fluttering with notes, this is our driving theme of action. The finger cymbals add percussive texture. The flute plays it first, before the plucked strings, giving us continuity in the established musical texture, as well as creating a call-and-response pattern between these instruments.

By 00:32 seconds, we have our second melody. This melody contrasts with the first by being calmer, less syncopated, and having fewer notes. After the flute plays, the bowed strings make their first appearance, adding grandeur and excitement to the texture. The flute climaxes in a beautiful solo, with the same melody as before, except the notes are more sustained. This leads to the calming down.

Our call-and-response pattern continues as the plucked strings and percussion lead us back into the hardy bowed strings. The strings play an ostinato as the flute develops the melody sustaining notes whilst adding a flutter, combining the two melodies we have heard previously. The next section calms us down, phasing in and out the different instruments and bringing us back to the beginning.

 

 
 

“Plague”

The Shoshun village is one of the most memorable parts of Mooshu, acting as a major crossroads of four paths. Guarded and maintained by monks, here is where we find the healing waters that will save the plagued waters of Mooshu. The plucked strings take the majority of the piece with a motif before the erhu plays the melody at 00:49 seconds. This is the same melody as the second theme in the piece before, but the piece recontextualizes this theme to the current events of the story. This theme represents Mooshu’s ongoing troubles.

 

Next, at timestamp 1:25, the brass plays. This is a new instrument that hasn’t been in the first theme, and the majority of this piece is over when the brass comes in. The entry of the brass, ascending in pitch, represents the wizard uplifting Mooshu from its troubles. The high strings come in as the harp plays descending lines. This minor tonality represents the struggle of saving Mooshu from the plague.

“War”

Starting with the dark brass, there is new context to this timbre. The factions of Mooshu are waging war against each other and our wizard is the one who must be swift as the coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, and mysterious as the dark side of the moon.

Spontaneous and erratic, the deep drums signal the driving emotion of the high stakes in this section. The bowed strings and flute play, queuing in the hardy, pulsing plucked strings and percussion. This music represents how the attack occurred at Hametsu village, pillaging it to ruin.

The war theme contrasts with the plague theme in style and orchestration, but the pulsing melodic ostinato emphasizes the first three out of three-and-a-half pulses in each measure, similar to the melody heard in the plague theme. I say “three-and-a-half pulses” because the entire piece is in an “unusual” time signature to our western ears. The piece is in 7/8, meaning we must divide the number seven into three pulses, making one of them unequal to the others.

The brass enters again, signaling the devastation to the village with their minor tonality and descending tones. Afterward, the pulsing ostinato in the plucked strings continues as new elements are added to the texture. The plucked strings mimic and develop the brass’ line as a motif to tie the end together.

“Haunted”

The Haunted Theme plays in the Yoshihito temple that serves as a crossroads to the final areas of Mooshu. Serving as the grey area between life and death, the tone is melancholy and almost sorrowful.

We begin with the high strings harmonizing in a minor tonality, with the plucked strings and percussion responding to the high string’s cry. The erhu plays the melody, heard from the Plague and Main themes. The major harmonies and wind chimes give the theme new light. This thematically represents peace and the finality of death.

We glissando into the climax at 00:39 seconds. This glissando places the strings to play the highest notes an octave above the erhu. The erhu then walks down the scale in eighth notes, giving us resolution into the next phrase.

The ostinato heard in the Main Theme comes back, then, we jump around notable themes from the other three pieces. This alludes to the haunted theme acting as a recapitulation of the theme we heard before which brings resolution to this chapter of the story.

“Mystical”

This selection from Pirate101 is heard in the Skyways and is one of the most simple in orchestration. We begin with the koto playing a simple line. From the placement of the pitches, it feels syncopated, despite it being completely even eighth notes. This is accompanied by finger cymbals, blocks, and unique drums, fitting into the timbre of the previous pieces.

The erhu comes in, slightly thickening the light texture, adding sustained notes that stabilize the orchestration before the flute comes in. At 00:42 seconds in, we are greeted with a familiar element heard in the previous pieces of descending arpeggios. The flute seems to dim away as the tam-tam crashes, giving drama to the texture.

The plucked strings and flute play the melody in unison, emphasizing its importance. The brass come in, adding counterpoint in the pause of the melody. This calms down into a flute solo with the plucked strings having a wonderful glissando, giving a magical effect. The plucked strings come back in as the flute plays the main melody of the piece before the percussion, strings, and flute changes the texture into a climactic tutti, or the entire orchestra, before we calm down to start again.

Thank you, Starlights, for venturing through the music of Mooshu with me. Have a wonderful night.

Disclaimer

Please note: I transcribed the music from the original/classic mode music scrolls. Not all of my transcriptions are 100% accurate, but they are close and the rhythm is properly notated.