A Field Guide to SOS Training
hpwulola
Posts: 1,296Moderator › admin
With SOS Training now available, we’re offering up this overview of the new lessons to help you make the most of these powerful new skills waiting to be unlocked.
Getting Started
Open up your Suitcase and you’ll find that the Professions button has been replaced by a new button called Training. This is where you can now view everything related to both SOS Training as well as your selected Profession. The default view displays your SOS Training lessons in a skill tree format. These lessons are tied to your player level which means that you’ll have already unlocked a number of them all the way up to your current level. Your SOS Task Force Appraisal reflects your cumulative progress in SOS Training and is displayed both here and on your Ministry ID. Press the Toggle button to switch between viewing your lessons and viewing your Magicum Vitae, a useful summary of your overall SOS Training stats and unlocked bonuses.
Each SOS Training lesson has multiple potential upgrades that require various resources to unlock: existing Restricted Section Books, and three new resources—Field Guides, Ministry Manuals and Defense Against the Dark Arts Books. Defense Against the Dark Arts Books can be earned by participating in in-game events, Field Guides are obtained by returning Foundables and Ministry Manuals are obtained when you place images in the Registry.
Masters of the Magical Universe
The first SOS Training lesson is called Mastery and is unlocked at level four. Mastery refers to how powerful your spells are; the more you level up your Mastery, the easier it will be to overpower Confoundables and return Foundables. In addition to overall Spell Mastery you can also invest in Mastery for specific families of Foundables. If you find yourself frequently up against Magical Games and Sports Foundables, for example, you can choose to invest in Magical Games and Sports Mastery and you’ll be returning those Triwizard Cups faster than you can say “did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?”
Charmed, I’m Sure
At level five you’ll unlock the first of a set of three completely new spells, Field Charms, that you cast directly on the Map itself, no remedial lessons with Professor Flitwick required. Cast the Trace Charm, *Pario Vestigius*, on existing Traces on the Map and you’ll reveal additional Traces nearby. As you upgrade this skill you’ll be able to increase the number and rarity of Traces revealed as well as the number of Foundable fragments returned from those Traces. Cast *Tribuomnus*, the Inn Charm, on Inns to generate Spell Energy on the Map. As you level up this skill you can not only increase the amount of Spell Energy generated on the Map, but also boost the Spell Energy attainable when dining at the targeted Inn, though no guarantees that it will enhance the flavor of the food itself. Shout *Celescere* to cast the Greenhouse Charm on Greenhouses to conjure rare Potion Ingredients on the Map nearby. Make sure to mind your footing while doing so, trust us, Bubotuber Pus isn’t something you want to accidentally step in. By continuing to put resources into this skill you can increase the amount of ingredients created as well as increase the yield of any ingredients within the Greenhouses you cast it on.
After casting a Field Charm on a target, that target will have a brief cooldown period before another Field Charm can be used on it. Keep in mind that you alone can see the extra Traces revealed by your Trace Charms, but all nearby players can take advantage of the effects from anyone’s Inn and Greenhouse Charms, so coordinate with others to make the most of the extra Spell Energy and Potion Ingredients.
After unlocking your first Field Charm, you’ll notice a new button on the Map. Simply tap this button to see all of your Field Charms and then drag the desired charm onto its corresponding structure on the Map. Ineligible structures and Traces will appear greyed out. In order to use such powerful new spells you’ll first need to accumulate charges. Field Charm charges are granted as rewards from certain daily tasks and you can also invest in certain skills that will let you expand the number of charges you can hold at any given time.
Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog
No, these aren’t new Potion ingredients, but there are two new ways to boost your carefully-brewed Potions, the Potion Effect and Brew Time Reduction skills. Potion Effect boosts the effectiveness of specific Potions, so for example your Barrufio’s Brain Elixirs will give even more XP and your Healing Potions will grant even more health, effectively helping you, as some might say, put a stopper in death. As the name implies, Brew Time Reduction helps reduce the overall time required to brew any Potion, and you can invest in further Brew Time Reduction for specific Potions as well.
Stay for a Spell
Sometimes you actually wish that those pesky Pixies would pester you just a bit longer, at least long enough so you have another chance to return the Foundables they’re guarding. For those moments when you can’t afford to let a critical Foundable off the hook, the Departure Denial skill is just what Madam Pomfrey ordered. Departure Denial helps decrease the chances that a Confoundable departs after each cast. If you find a particular family of Traces giving you the slip, you can also invest in additional Departure Denial for specific Trace families as well.
Fortune Favors the Bold
Life may be more exciting with a bit of chance, but what witch or wizard is content sitting by without taking their fate into their own hands? The good news is there’s no need to run off to Professor Slughorn for some liquid luck; if you invest in the three Reward Upgrades skills you can help tip the scales in your favor on your own.
Certain Reward Upgrades grant you better chances at receiving hearty high-Spell Energy foods when dining at Inns, though our portly potions professor will be disappointed to learn that crystallized pineapple isn’t yet on the menu. Others can increase the chances that your Gifts earned from Inns, Greenhouses and Fortresses come with better rewards, including rare items like Spell Books. There are even some Reward Upgrades that turn regular Treasure Trunks from the Registry into a treasure trove of special rewards that can include XP, Spell Books, additional Map Charm charges and even rare Gifts that may contain Gold.
Whew, that’s a lot of new information to unpack! We recommend starting by opening up your Suitcase, taking a look at the new Training section, and seeing what kinds of skills you already have access to based on your current level. Think about which skills would be most useful to you based on your play style and then start saving up resources toward unlocking those skills first. With so many new skills at your fingertips it’s up to you to decide how to play.
Comments
very well written, thank you very much! :)
So far I am loving the new lessons, I did notice one bug though. I cast the trace charm on the map and three new traces appeared, but after I had returned the first one (on a single cast) the others had disappeared. Is that how it is supposed to work or are they supposed to stick around more than a few seconds?
I have the same question as KLC5048. Same thing happened to me. I was a bit disappointed that I had "wasted" the charm.
@Klc5048 We are hearing similar reports from players and looking into this, stay tuned on the Report a Bug section for any new info.
Hello! Hoping you can share the different Inn names... noticing on the SOS Training that there is a difference between "teashop" "restaurant" "pub" "B&B" etc inns, and I want to be sure I upgrade the skill that fits the inns near me! Is there an accessible list?
Inn Guide:
Purple: Restaurant
Brown/Orange: Pub
Pink: Teashop
Blue: Cafe
Green: Bed and Breakfast
Ups, had upgrade variety kind of inns. LoL
@hpwulola
on Hooked on worms... you have extravagant Barrufio ingredient gift in the description and under greenhouse gift booster you have increased chance to award Exstimulo potion...
I'm about as confused as the description
@hpwulola thanks for sharing the guide and screenshots. 😊
Also the Trace bug happened with me as well, hopefully it gets fixed soon.
Hiya :)
Enjoyed upgrading my skills, but noticed that it impacted reading my potion recipes' ingredients.
And as shared by everyone else, my trace charm new traces also disappeared.
Also not sure if this was related to the SOS upgrade or not? Was still able to cast the spell and obtain the fragment, so purely a cosmetic issue. :)
I am maxed on my professor training. When I first go into combat training, it says may appraisal is 37,544. If I switch to another profession and back it changes to 67,580.
@ParrishBlue I just had a look and the same is true for me too. Hopefully this bug can be looked into as well by the @HPWUTeam:
my potions currently seem okay. Have you guys restarted your game at all?
Did a cache clear and restart. Still looks the same.
BTW, just saw a similar screenshot of mdm. Hooch in the update thread. Thanks @WitchHiker ! Nice to know it's not just me. :)
We are investigating what happened with poor Madame Hooch, hopefully this can be fixed in our next release.
Thanks for the potions feedback @ParrishBlue, that does look tricky to read. I'll pass that along to team.
@Bormacska I restarted the game to see if that would do anything, but all the potions that have been modified through skills from SOS training are still affected by the bug.
Maybe i haven't read enough yet but i used a trace charm and now it shows 0/1. I am assuming it takes a certain amount of time to refresh. Does anyone know how long? It looks like through training you can increase how many you can hold but is it only time that refreshes the one you use?
The new charms are not active, and I can't figure out what makes them work.
I have completed several SOS lessons, wizarding level 51, completed Combat training Fundamentals Part I. Restarted the game since SOS training came out.
@Radicaldav I was wondering this too.
I pressed the info button next to the new charms and got this:
So I'm guessing when I do daily tasks tomorrow I may learn? Has anyone come across how to replenish trace charm?
Also wondering about how the professional appraisal is calculated?
It is very different from the numbers we had yesterday while fortressing.
Guess I am curious as @Hoosierfan, as to how this works. :)
@OwlSoul Were you able to do the tutorial on the Magicum Vitae page? I touched on one of the charms on this page (like where the red circle is near the greenhouse charm).
That seemed to open the tutorial for the charms on the map for me.
I am probably the only one who feels this way but, although in theory this all seems really cool, in practice I find it a bit overwhelming. I am finding it very hard to figure out where to start.
🤔
Since the update my game is very laggy/slow. My Google Pixel 2xl is up to date, game is updated, assets all downloaded. I can't figure out why it's so slow/laggy.
Other than that, the update is cool.
@CeruleanGirl
They might still be working on it, but this is an all-in-one sheet of all the new sos lessons
Massive thanks to @13121417 and everyone that chipped in!
it helps if i add the link 😅: https://bit.ly/hpwu-sos-lessons
@hpwulola a question thou,
the field guide book drop from traces seems based on chance?
on some traces (i think usually on not fumes one) there some is drop and some is not drop field guild book.
and our training is lowering traces as low as possible isnt it? kind of dilemma dont you think
@hpwulola Of course, if you say "Did you put your name in the goblet of fire?" nice and *calmly*, it will take a little longer.
Nice feature, definitely need to work on getting green books. The down side to playing three professions!
@Radicaldav we have an answer on replenishing field charms! :) let's get walking. Lol
So lots of cool new stuff - but are we all effectively nerfed on trace return? Before the patch and SoS (at level 46), severe/orange beam traces had some green in their cast bar. Now that all dark orange, even with the default benefits gained by level in SOS and spending on some trace mastery buffs.
Hello Lola,
why are almost all traces increased in difficulty? In one of your first pictures you see that Fred is an emergency threat level, previously it was a severe. So the mastery brings it just back to it former threat level...? Or do I see this wrong, please explain.
Same problem with low threat level foundables. All are now medium, which makes nothing easy to return.