If I haven’t mentioned in a while how much I love this game, allow me to remedy that: I love this game.

The last few times I’ve played, probably spaced out over the last year or two, I realized that I’d come to the “grind” portion of the game. I’ve finished the main storyline and now have to take guide, photograph, and salvage requests to build up the currency — Pelagos, in the game parlance — I need to return to the site of the story’s climax and get access to the grandest treasures and rarest creatures in the game. Thankfully I can also now take dolphin show requests, and they’re a nice source of fairly steady Pelagos, besides being pretty easy to do, with no travel required.

So I need 1 million Pelagos, and I’m up to just over 800,000. *pant, pant, pant* As I’m slogging through the requests, though, I’m earning a few little in-game extras like new diving equipment, decorations for my private reef (so posh!), or new functionality for existing equipment. One of the latest ones I’ve gotten is the ability to develop my photos in black-and-white instead of only color, and that’s been pretty fun — and I got some incredible shots of grey whales while diving in the Zahhab Region.

The final expedition to the Cavern of the Gods is in sight now, and I’m pretty antsy to get in there!