Rikmach

One small warning: When doing this on flashback, you can't call the contacts anymore, since flashbacks remove all your contacts except the one you're working for, meaning you have to physically go to each contact, making acquiring this badge a bit more painful. If you can, get it the first time you run this mission chain.

Some additional pointers on getting the badge here: Don't ask West about your team mates or otherwise ask too probing a question, and don't be too servile or flirty, that seems to detract points.

...Right. Something I planned on doing, after it was discussed here. I brought up the idea to see if anyone had any better phrasing.

Maybe it could be made clearer. "Trial, Hazard, PvP and Co-OP zones are not safe to run tip missions in, wait until you're back in a city zone to follow these tips." might be something still relatively sensible in-universe while making it clearer what the problem is?

Reading that, Dreck *did* get close to the defenses, but I was sure I landed the killing blow. Is it a problem if he takes *any* damage at all from the defenses? If so, not great.

Out of curiosity, is it possible to make a bind that selects a random person in my team (or league), and then casts mystic fortune on them, so I can just hammer that button until I hit someone? I want to buff my team, but checking if they have that specific buff is tedious, but being able to just hammer a button would be much easier. Edit: I tried /macro_image "MysticFortune" "Random Fortune" "target_friend_next$$powexec_name Mystic Fortune", but that doesn't seem to work- it selects friendlies near me, but doesn't cast the power. Any ideas?

Ok, finally got around to doing this on live... and I didn't get the bonus mission? I dunno what I did wrong, I *mostly* played it like I did back on Beta... Maybe it was leaving the lab before the countdown completed? Maybe it was going to fare forward and delaying the spawn? Whatever it is, it's super not clear what the problem is.

Some other useful info: We know the fates of a good chunk of the Praetorian leadership, but there's some unknowns, so future followups might focus on those. Dead: Anti-matter (Blew himself up to drive back Hamidon) Chimera (His corpse is found in the redside Insider Information tip mission, killed by out-of-control clones. Presumably he was trying to activate them to fight Hamidon, but they turned on him) Diabolique (Deader than Dead- her soul was destroyed by the Dream Doctor during the event of Dilemma Diabolique) Neuron: (Dead, Bobcat murdered him when he attempted to sacrifice her to the Devouring Earth to save himself.) Uncertain, Likely Dead: Malaise (Deafeated during the Minds of Mayhem Trial, then Possessed by Mother Mayhem and defeated again- his fate is not spelled out, but the wording implies his mind is gone, and her never appears again, so him being dead is a safe bet.) Mother Mayhem (Her mind is sealed into a part of Praetoria's psychic network that has no living minds connected to it, trapping her indefinitely- she also spoke as if this fate is a death sentence, so a bodiless mind might die without a brain to inhabit, so likely dead.) Siege (Defeated during the BAF, his body later taken over by Metronome, and never shows up again. He's described as a sapient computer program that can take over robot bodies, so it's *possible* he might still exist, but with Praetoria's infrastructure collapsed, he's likely unrecoverable.) Nightstar (Same situation as Seige) Alive: Battle Maiden (Captured during her attack on Primal Earth, then freed and recruited by Malta) Bobcat (Captured after her attack on Primal earth, then freed by the PC villain- is now part of the PC villain's crew, if you did that arc.) Dominitrix (In captivity in Primal Earth, facing trial for war crimes- likely to see Clemency due to her help taking down Tyrant) Marauder (On Primal Earth, working as a Hero) Pendragon (On Primal Earth, working as a Hero) Shadow Hunter (Exists as an optional fight in Praetoria's Last Gasp story arc, working for Hamidon- it explictly states he escapes, so he's still at large, working for Praetorian Hamidon) Tyrant (In prison on Primal Earth, awaiting Trial for War Crimes) Unknown: Black Swan (Defeated during the Magisterium Trial, but not in custody on Primal Earth afterwards. Possible she died due to Tyrant's Nuke, but the other three AVs in the Magesterium didn't die, so her fate is vague) Infernal (Unknown- He's only ever appears in Maria Jenkin's arcs, and referenced in Number Six's arc. It's suggested he's up to *something*, but since the Praetorian arc is over, it's never clarified what.) I think Black Swan, Infermal, and Shadow Hunter have some interesting possibilities to follow up on if the devs ever decide to revisit Praetoria.

Yeah, Number Six is super not-obvious, because the missions he gives aren't about Crey- you have to do an entirely different mission chain to find out his origin and backstory- which one I can't be bothered to look up. Yeah, it makes sense, his brain was inside a Crey supercomputer, and his profile does mention this, but very few people would have done the earlier arc or read his profile, so more clues to tip you off would have been nice. Like, Kelly and Tavish were pretty easy to figure out, since they explicitly work for Crey and send you on missions on their behalf. Six? Not so much.

The fact that you can't get Kelly's number if you didn't get her as a contact leveling up makes the clue-gathering sequence a bit annoying, since you have to take a detour to Nerva. Not a huge deal on it's own, but with all the existing complications, it's another irritation piled on a big heap of irritations.

There is, of course, another option: Remake it from the ground up, like Positron's TF. I vaguely recall reading that Rebirth has already done that, though no idea on the details. Something worth considering- Really, all the Issue 0 Task Forces are a bit long in the tooth these days, so remaking them with the new tech available might be a good idea.

That might be it- I brought back the hostages one at a time, and I got the bonus mission.

D'oh! So that's what I was missing! I figured out Tavish and Kelly as possible contacts and talked to them, but completely forgot Six's association with Crey, and didn't talk to him!

I think you're guaranteed to get it rapidly if you're the right alignment and level range, similar to previous tip-introduced contacts.

I have pirate characters that would kill for a shoulder parrot.

I can tell you with certainty that it did not appear, at least for me.

Hrm, the fact that lower-level quests vanish before her max level is bit of an incongruity to how other contacts work.

Recently made a new character, and found myself locked out of Twinshot's arc at level 10, despite the wiki stating her level range is 5-19, and me recalling getting missions from her at those levels both on live and earlier versions of homecoming.

I know one of them is gotten by persistently asking a reporter about something they don't want to discuss, but not sure on the other one.

Ok, so you only did it back in live? Fair enough, I can see the memories fading after that long. But yeah, the Council is one of the major enemy groups in Sharkshead- the only contacts that *don't* send you to fight them are Crash Cage, Vince Dubrowski and Henri Dumot (Since they're focused on Cage Consortium stuff), Diviner Maros, Vincent Ross, and Archmage Tarixus (Since they're concerned with the mystic going-ons in the island) and Dean Macarthur and Leonard (Since they're part of the newer Protean story arc that was added issue 17), And Darrin Wade (Since he's a Signature Story Arc contact)- and four of those were added after the zone's initial release. Captain Petrovich, Lt. Chalmers, Lorenz Ansaldo, Operative Vargas, Operative Kirkland, and Doc Buzzsaw all send you after the Council there, and both the Operatives are Arachnos representatives, and discuss the conflict between Arachnos and the Council there. To be fair, most of these are one-off misions, and not full story arcs about the conflict itself, so I can grasp it slipping the mind easily. As for the base itself, if you want to check it out, it's in the southern part of the "The Pit" area- They built it in the open-pit mine in the area. There's actually an exploration badge "Unwelcome Guest" at the entrance, referencing the fact that Arachnos (and others) don't want them there. Like, to be fair, the entire "Destined One" scheme did turn out to be a scam on Recluse's part, but it does provide benefits for those that go along with it, so most of my villains see it as exploiting Arachnos to their own benefit- but I entirely grasp the idea of villains being suspicious or disdainful of Arachnos' seeming generosity and reject it- the devs did intentionally make it so it's possible to level 1-50 Redside without ever working for Arachnos. Also, in regards to the Industry/civilian operations on the Isle? They're "Independent" depending on what you mean by that word- Yes, most of them are privately owned and operated, or corporate entities- but remember, Arachnos is the de facto government on the isles- they're under arachnos' rule, and pay them taxes.

Have... have you not played redside in a while? Because- well, not to be rude, you're completely wrong here- it's stated- multiple times- that the Council and Arachnos are actively at odds with each other, and Arachnos sends to you attack the Council multiple times. and the Council is absolutely messing with Arachnos, they've forcefully created a base on Sharkshead, and it's open knowledge that Arachnos does not consider them welcome, and has attempted to evict them multiple times, and only still exist there because of their dogged persistence and the fact that Arachnos has higher priorities at the moment. Heck, go look at the Council page on the wiki! The first paragraph states that Arachnos and the Council are in conflict! Ok, at the level Striga takes place at, the villains are still ostensibly Chosen Ones, meaning that even if they aren't actively working for Arachnos, they still have Arachnos' backing, and access to their information networks, meaning they'd be aware of the situation there, and have access to transportation to and contacts there. and I'm not sure why you think that villains and rogues wouldn't be interested in plundering the secrets, resources and equipment of a fascist paramilitary organization. That doesn't seem like "no profit" to me. Bad guy's money steals just as good as everyone else's, after all. You're... missing the point I was making. I was saying, "Isn't that the in-universe reasoning behind it?", not the mechanical/gameplay reason. I thought that was obvious from context, since we were discussing in-universe logic of why Rogues are tolerated in Paragon.

Honestly, I find Longbow's existence hilarious. They're technically all criminals because they're an extralegal organization operating in blatant defiance of international law, but everyone overlooks it because the person running them is the granddaughter of the most famous superhero in the world, and no one likes the person they're targeting.

Well, I'm not exactly asking for a mechanical system that dynamically changes viable targets based on your character's individual knowledge (though if that could be implemented mechanically, that's a pretty cool idea and have some neat potential!), I'm more asking for a more clear lore justification of what's currently possible.

My understanding was always that Rogues are willing to do good if you pay them, so they're tolerated in Paragon City because while they have the potential to commit crime, their reputation is enough for the city to tolerate them on the belief they'll on the balance, do more good than harm. I mean, that's the point of the reputation system, isn't it? You building up your rep over time so people know what you're about? Heck, the Rogue arc in the zone is all about you being paid to be a representative of a heroic force! Yes, it's all a lie, but that's besides the point. (also, while Rogues are *hypothetically* capable of committing crime in Paragon City, there's very few ways for them to actually commit crimes there, mechanically speaking.) That said, I look forward to the Lore expansion in the future, because right now it's rather lacking and confusing- Like, the two story arcs there for the villainously-inclined are story arc helping the Freakalok, and becoming a PR shill for Crey. While the later makes some sense, since, as noted, Rogues are tolerated in Paragon, but the former is explicitly helping a criminal organization, so it currently doesn't make much sense for villains to be allowed there. The implication that BWI might be a front for another organization isn't made clear, especially since all the history, explorations, and missions paint them as being largely beloved. (And by extension, it makes it a bit weird that heroes can attack them and their giant monster, since they're not depicted currently as secret villains)

It's not a *mechanical* game term, no, but several times, various contacts have refereed to places as a "Free-Fire Zone", so it's an in-universe term, and it's not too hard to grasp what is meant by it. Striga is run by the Council, an organization that is openly hostile to Arachnos, and a direct competitor to it's agenda, and the isle itself is not guarded or otherwise blockaded by Paragon city or other heroic forces (like, why would they?), so to me, it makes complete sense for villains to want to go there and fuck the Council's shit up and/or steal their stuff.