Instead of any unofficial bonds of friendship, why not solidify it with mechanics and bonuses to those who want to teach those Apprentices better ways to play?
The basic idea would be to open up a menu on the Social Menu, and pick out which options you would be most interested in teaching/learning about.
Such as:
Swordsman
Gunner
Bomber
Guardian
Striker
Recon
Explorer(?)
Next, you would select whether or not you want to be a Mentor, or are looking for one. Once a match is found, then you are bonded to that other Knight as Mentor and Student, giving them a seperate category in your Friends List for easy communication, and other benefits!
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Other Ideas:
Party Spectate:
Like the function to spy on Lockdown/Blast Network games, Mentors and Students have the opportunity to head into the Clockworks with their partners, to give or recieve some hints or tips on their playstyles. Or maybe spectate on random parties if you're bored, to watch those 4 2* knights wipe on RJP. This would be a non-active role, so there would be no way for the Knight to physically join in. Possible incentives during Mentor/Student Spectating could be a percentage of crowns/heat crystals or a chance to also earn whatever orbs and sparks their partner finds. But only when you're actively spectating.
I'm not quite sure if anything else would be needed, but if it's thought up, I'll edit this.
I do indeed say yes to this, as a person who runs a guild mainly focusing on teaching new players different aspects of the game, what they should be on the lookout for, what recipes they should consider buying etc I am definitely in full favour of this
(the long version)
reasons for doing it? well how about just crowns for being bound as mentor and student and a bonus like for every 3 people you help you get I dunno like 100 energy or 1000 crowns and maybe you get different bonuses/rewards
for being the student and accepting a mentor you receive bonus crowns on missions, just a bit of energy (200 max) for every "mentor" you accept and maybe I don't know a 2* piece of armour/weaponry depending on your which mentor you took? (EG: for choosing the gunner you can choose to get a autogun or a alchemer, for bomber you can choose a piece of demo armour or a 2*bomb, Guardian you can choose platemail/plateshield etc etc)
for being the mentor and accepting a student you receive a drop bonus towards rarities and crowns, a little more energy (50 max every week?) for every student you accept and for helping a student get past a mission you get a environment token (Primal, grim, forge sparks) based on that mission
I think this should be disabled after hitting Soldier/Knight, just to stop people abusing the same person for rewards
you could accept as many mentors as you want however you only get rewards for up to a max of two
I think it should also involve a form of voting system, after hitting Soldier/Knight you are asked to give a review of that mentor
If the person says "Yes this mentor was good" the mentor gets 500 crowns and 10 energy or something, if they say "they were okay" mentor only gets 100 crowns and if they say "this mentor was terrible" you get a 'Strike' on your mentor record, the strike makes it harder for people to get you as a mentor and when you get 3 strikes your mentor status is disabled for like a month or something
oh and only Vanguards who have reached the 5000 prestige badge and champions who reached the 10000 prestige badge can become mentors
(only say that because a Recruit teaching a Soldier would just be silly now wouldn't it)
(the short version)
I Like this idea, +111!