KoL - PVP Season 2

Kingdom of Loathing's PVP Season 2 has started! ... Which came with your hippy stone fixed so you're not forced into PVP's new set of minigames, which is good and bad. It was bad for me because I had some PVP fights banked for when the new one started to get a head start on the flower picking minigame, but the game only gave me 10 PVP fights after breaking the stone again. x_o;

Anyway, this season seems to be more balanced and active than the 1st season, encouraging people to ascend into other signs for a change.

The mini-games for Season 2 are...

• Deepest Diver - Who is the best diver?
• Flowers Picked - Whose thumb is the greenest? (Most flowers picked this season)
• Least Boring Slideshow - Whose travels are the most interesting? (Most zones visited in the past 5 days)
• Most Murderous* - Most bosses defeated
• Mystery Contest - It's a mystery! (The one's digit for how many characters your active familiar's name)
• Purity - Who is the purest of them all (fewest effects)
• Saltiest Mariner* - Whose blood is saltiest? (most slugs of vodka consumed)
• Snootee Customer Loyalty* - Most items eaten from Chez Snootee
• Space Tripper - Highest Space Trip score this season.
• Spelunker* - Who's the best spelunker? (Most basement levels cleared this season)
• Who Runs Bordertown?* - Most adventures spent in the Thugnderdome this season.
• Wine Tasting Contest - Who appreciates the finest of wines? (Most different booze items drunk in the last 30 days (or since the start of this season))

* Score increases are multiplied by 2 during a Hardcore run, and 0 during a casual run (for the first 1500 casual turns).

As you can see, there are mini-games for many different elements of KoL. For those in aftercore, the best thing to do would be to basement dive and play Space Trip, even if it's just once to get a score. All that takes is one Game Grid Token which can be bought from the mall and 5 adventures. Other than that, I'm sure the rest of the things are obvious as to what's available to you depending on what moon sign you ascended into.

I have yet to find out what the Mystery Contest is, however, so I'll update this whenever I find out. 

As far as equipments go, things that "makes you a better diver" is good for the Deepest Diver mini-game. Otherwise, just focus on maxing your buffed stats for the stat test. Don't forget to cast Donho's Bubbly Ballad if you have access to the buff, unless you'd rather focus on Purity.

I had planned to cover the first season as well, but things have been fairly busy, so the PVP update post ended up getting delayed til the 2nd season.

Edit: It seems like the Mystery Contest has finally been spaded, and it turns out it is related to what your active familiar is named. The one's digit is the key in who wins this mini-game, and to maximize it, you want your familiar to have a 9 in the one's digit of your familiar name's character count. Say you named your familiar, "Firebrand". There are 9 characters in that name, so that familiar will help you win the Mystery Contest. You can also go for 19, 29, 39, characters to achieve similar results.