How to Get “One in a Million”

“One in a Million” is one of the most popular badges in Wizard101. Unfortunately, without the proper setup and strategy, you may fail at your attempt to earn it, wasting time and gold. So, here are my tips and tricks on how to achieve “One in a Million.”

Prisms

If you use a prism in your setup, you can double the number of traps used for your big hit. By using your counter school traps first (for example, a Fire wizard applying Ice school traps) and then casting a prism before placing fire traps, the fire traps will be triggered followed by the ice traps. This will double the damage your school traps can provide!

You can easily get treasure card traps for your opposing school at the Bazaar. With the help of a friend from that school, you will also have access to the regular trap and regular potent trap.

 Universal Traps and Blades

Bringing a Balance wizard along will make your life a lot easier. They can layer you with many blades, you could even end up doing 50 Million if that was possible! You also can get a few balance blades by using treasure cards.

Feints are super important to this strategy. If you use regular feint, potent, treasure card, potent treasure card, item card, pet feint, and mass feint, you’ll have a huge advantage in getting your damage up to one million!

All The buffs!

It’s really easy to forget a couple of blades or traps when you’re assembling over twenty, so try to write a list and quintuple check that you have packed everything. You may forget that one last sharpen or an elemental trap which could result in you not reaching your goal.

Some schools get especially useful spells like Supercharge and Backdraft that will make hitting a million much easier. Be sure that you include these in your setup if you can!

Some extra tips

You need to remember to bubble and aura. Combined, these provide a significant damage bonus.

Also, remember to pack a heal or two. Even max-levels may get too low on health. you don’t want to die and lose all of those carefully stacked blades.

Don’t forget to attempt this on an enemy that your school boosts on. It’s a free, easy damage bonus you wouldn’t get from a different creature. Also remember that if you’re using the prism as I previously suggested, you’ll want to face a creature of the same school that you are to get this boost.

Go to an empty realm if you are attempting this in an open area! I cannot stress this enough. Otherwise, unknowing or inexperienced players may run in and wipe out all your progress. Take preventative measures in advance.

That said, go out there and earn your “One in a Million” badge!

Shields101

Shields are a type of ward and are the exact opposite of traps. While traps add damage to a spell, shields detract damage. Charms and blades trigger first, and wards go second. So any shielding you do will affect the spell with the charm buffs.
 
There are three different types of shields: Absorbs, Universal Shields, and School-Specific Shields.
 

ABSORBS

Some absorbs absorb a set amount of damage.
Life gets absorb 400 damage at level 16
 
Other absorbs take damage based on the number of pips the wizard has when it was cast.
If the wizard had 3 non-power pips, the absorb would absorb 375 points of damage. Ice learns this spell at level 18
 

It’s important to note that any damage will be absorbed by this shield, making all absorbs also universal shields. If there is a boss that takes universal shields, they will take absorbs that are individually cast. (Rebirth users, rejoice! Some bosses won’t take your absorb, but some will. Depends on the boss)

UNIVERSAL SHIELDS

These are the shields the Ice school is known for. You guessed it; the tower shield. The other, slightly less common one is the legion shield. A universal shield takes a certain percentage off of any school-type damage before it hits you. A tower shield, specifically, halves the damage. A spell that does a 100 damage will only do 50. The legion shield takes off 30% damage.

SCHOOL SPECIFIC SHIELDS

These are the most numerous. There are school shields for every school except balance. There are different amounts of damage they take off as well. Everyone, starting at level 10, can get a -80% shield of their school for no training point cost. Others can be trained for one point each if you wish. Sabrina Greenstar, in the Commons, by Hilda Brewer, trains these spells

Each school, except for Balance, gets a spell with two -70% shields of the other members of its trio. The elemental trio (Storm, Fire, and Ice) can get the Glacial (Fire), Thermic (Storm), or Volcanic (Ice) shield. The spirit trio (Life, Death, and Myth) can get the Legend (Life), Dream (Death), or Ether (Myth) shield.

As you can see, the Volcanic shield gives the user two shields; one-70% storm, and one -70% fire.

Just because Balance isn’t a part of a trio, doesn’t mean it gets left out. Balance wizards get two different spells. One spell has the spirit trio shields, all at -50%. The other spell is the elemental shield.

NOTE: Damage over time’s (DOTs) do count as incoming damage, meaning that any shield placed will be used by the DOT. This is either helpful or just a nuisance.

Be careful, and pay attention.

LAYERING SHIELDS

Just like traps and blades, shields can also be layered. However, two shields of the same kind will not stack. Three of the same type of tower shields won’t work better than one tower shield. However, it is worth noting that different types of shields can be stacked. For instance, a trained tower shield can be stacked on top of a treasure card tower shield to increase its protection.
The rule of layering: First thing on, last thing off!
 
When it comes to layering shields, you should watch carefully. A tower shield placed before an absorb will only trigger after the absorb has been broken. A tower shield placed after an absorb will trigger as soon as you take damage, halving the damage the absorb takes. If you’re in charge of shielding think about whether you want an absorb as the last line of defense, or if you want standard shields last.
 
Consider this scenario, you place a Spirit Armor (400 absorb) on a teammate. The teammate suffers no damage, and next round you place a -80% Storm on top of it. The enemy casts a Storm Lord (690 base damage) and ends up doing a total of 0 damage. This is because the -80% storm shield lowered the damage to 138. The absorb had enough to take the damage, lowering the amount left to 262.
 
Now, consider the reverse, with the storm shield on first, and the absorb on second. The opponent hits. The absorb takes 400 damage, leaving 290. The -80% shield pops, damaging the wizard with 58 points.
 
These two scenarios are basic, but, as you can see, layering shields so you can get the best advantage out of them is important. Keep track of the shields going off and on.


GETTING RID OF SHIELDS

Ice has this handy little spell called Steal Ward. It takes a shield off of the chosen target and places it on you. However, this only works for the most recently cast shield. If a wizard places a tower shield followed by a -80% Myth shield, the spell will take the -80% shield off.
 
Myth’s infamous Earthquake will take every ward off including any traps. If there are important traps that need to stay in place, Shatter can be used instead on a single target for 3 pips. After reaching level 100, Mystic Colossus will do a mass shatter, taking all unused shields and leaving behind any unused traps. Myth can also use Pierce to remove the last shield cast in much the same way as Ice’s Steal.
 
Another way of taking shields off is with small spells. Wand charges, for example, will take a tower shield off, or a school-specific shield. A decent DOT will be enough to take off most absorbs. Having a teammate hit before you will also be semi-helpful if they can pull the absorbs and universal shields.


CONCLUSION

Shields are just as important as blades and traps. When soloing in attack gear shields can save you. They can give you enough time to save pips for that one-shot. When shielding others, keep in mind their health and resist. Don’t just shield one person, pay attention to every Wizard. Properly used, shields can make all the difference in your quest for victory.