Resistance story arcs inaccessible. Please help.

[huang3721]

My character, Mara, is a Praetorian. When she reached level 14, Calvin Scott became her active contact. Instead of introducing her to Crow, he gave her his mission arc. It turns out his story arc involves killing Crow. As soon as she accepted Scott's mission, Crow's and Dr. Helix's story arc became inaccessible. 
I thought I had an easy fix for Mara. I got her level up to 22, ask someone to open Ouroboros Portal. It's not working. The portal said that it rejects her. Come on! I know she has done many dirty/questionable things, but she is level 22. Why would it bar her from entering? 
Later I realized her supergroup has a Pillar of Ice and Flame. How stupid I am. She ran the story arc, completed her first mission, and then got stuck. Because she is a loyalist, the resistance gate will not open and let her speak with Crow. She didn't have his number at that time.
I guess her last option is to ask one of her supergroup members. That member must belong to the resistance group and roughly at the same level as Mara, or higher. Let us imagine this. A loyalist is asking her colleagues if they are a resistance member. If they are, they will bring her into their hideout deep underground. I hope this is going well for her. 
If anyone has a better solution, please let me know. Thank you.

Edited September 19, 2020 by huang3721
typo

[GM Korvin]

Unfortunately, lock-out can indeed occur when completing some missions before others - generally consulting a guide such as this one beforehand so you can plot your course is recommended.

[huang3721]

I'm still wondering why Calvin gave her the mission in the first place.

He should either:

• rejects Mara because of her low level, or
• introduces Crow -> Dr. Helix to start the story arc.

Instead, he gave Mara his story arc.

But I think it's amusing. Now Mara has to ask every member of her SG. Basically, "Hey, are you a resistance member?" and then "Bring me to your leader..."

 

-edit-

In my case (level 14) Scott didn't introduce Aaron. He didn't introduce anyone. He simply gave Belly Aching mission. Maybe I should ignore him, level up to 15, and then get introduced to his proper contact. Sadly I didn't do that.

Edited September 19, 2020 by huang3721
additional info

[Lines]

Larger Praetorian arc level ranges has been high on my wishlist from the start. It gets really messy really fast when you outlevel a contact.

[Oubliette_Red]

7 hours ago, Lines said:

Larger Praetorian arc level ranges has been high on my wishlist from the start. It gets really messy really fast when you outlevel a contact.

One of my biggest pet peeves within the game.

 

Having a Praetorian contact give you the cold shoulder as soon as you outlevel them, even though you are currently progressing within their arc. -.-  Primal Earth contacts will at least let you finish.

 

(ノ°Д°）ノ︵ ┻━┻

 

[EmmySky]

At one point I was running two arcs in Praetoria.  One had me kill Crow.  Okay, done.  Other arc, next mission, talk to Crow.  Yeah he wasn't available lol.  There should be warning labels sometimes, to protect me from my own stupidity 😁

[huang3721]

Today I found out that Heroes can open the Resistance's underground base. I got my blue side character killed in the underground. He respawned at the Resistance base.

 

Therefore the other solution the problem above is to go through the rift enclosure, then select blue. You can run that arc as a flashback via ouroboros.

[huang3721]

18 hours ago, EmmySky said:

One had me kill Crow.  Okay, done.  Other arc, next mission, talk to Crow. 

You got the order wrong, too?

Maybe this particular story arc is bugged. 

[EmmySky]

3 minutes ago, huang3721 said:

You got the order wrong, too?

Maybe this particular story arc is bugged. 

I think it was my fault for running two arcs at the same time.  I would hope that progressing normally would lock out any need to talk to Crow if you killed him already, but it could be a bug.  If there hasn't been a ton of people with the same problem then I suspect its just a glitch.

[huang3721]

14 minutes ago, EmmySky said:

running two arcs at the same time

 

If I am not mistaken, talk to Crow mission belongs to Calvin Scott's arc once a character hits level 15. Then, Crow's story arc will follow. 
Dr. Steffard's, on the other hand, runs parallel with Kang's. So, unlike Dr. Steffard, we can't miss Crow unless we out level him.

[Lines]

Not sure how you managed that, Emmy.

Spoiler

 

You kill crow in Calvin Scott's arc, which is two contacts down the crusader story from Crow.

 

AFAIK, Crow is contained in the crusader story and doesn't appear elsewhere.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Lines

[EmmySky]

36 minutes ago, Lines said:

Not sure how you managed that, Emmy.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

You kill crow in Calvin Scott's arc, which is two contacts down the crusader story from Crow.

 

AFAIK, Crow is contained in the crusader story and doesn't appear elsewhere.

 

 

*shrug* I am just talented that way.

[Apogee]

It is possible to begin Calvin Scott's arc at level 15 before you do Crow's and Helix's arcs. The problem is that you have Calvin in your active contacts since the first time you joined the Resistance. This allows you to contact Calvin for undercover missions while a Loyalist. If you are not aware of the correct order for doing the Neutropolis missions (as well as Steffard/Kang missions in Imperial City) it is possible to lock out a contact. Redlynne made an excellent guide to Praetorian content here.

[Aberrant]

Yeah, it was a weird decision for the devs to make Calvin Scott a mission contact outside of his introduction role. They didn't make the same mistake with Loyalists, Provost Marchand other than his introductions only gives the Rift mission to leave Praetoria which is well labelled as a point of no return and only at level 20+. They should probably have made the final Crusader contact someone other than Calvin Scott, maybe using him as a Task NPC during those missions and setting up the final moral choice mission.

[MTeague]

7 minutes ago, Aberrant said:

Yeah, it was a weird decision for the devs to make Calvin Scott a mission contact outside of his introduction role. They didn't make the same mistake with Loyalists, Provost Marchand other than his introductions only gives the Rift mission to leave Praetoria which is well labelled as a point of no return and only at level 20+. They should probably have made the final Crusader contact someone other than Calvin Scott, maybe using him as a Task NPC during those missions and setting up the final moral choice mission.

I like that they made him a mission contact.  And I do like that when certain characters have things happen to them, they vanish from the world.

But when A forever after locks out arc B from happening, it should, bare minimum, be possible to do it via Ouroborous.

[huang3721]

18 hours ago, EmmySky said:

I am just talented that way.

Oh, I understand. Silly me. Emmy could talk to Crow prior introduction, run some missions, then speak to Scott for the introduction mission. Finish all crusader's story arcs and Scott's introduction arc becomes unfinishable.

[huang3721]

This:

12 hours ago, MTeague said:

when A forever after locks out arc B from happening, it should, bare minimum, be possible to do it via Ouroborous.

 

Also I am wrong again:

On 9/20/2020 at 5:33 PM, huang3721 said:

the other solution the problem above is to go through the rift enclosure, then select blue.

It turns out heroes can not enter the Resistance base. However, when someone defeats them, they will end up at the Resistance hospital. It is inside the Resistance base. Villains, unfortunately, will end up at Loyalist Hospital. So, you will need to die once or twice until your contacts give their numbers. Not bad.

 

At least the resistance story arcs are doable via ouroboros.

[huang3721]

Oh dear, I have no idea about how a  team works in this game. It turns out you can not team up with a character from a different faction. So, this option will not work:

 

On 9/19/2020 at 11:44 AM, huang3721 said:

I guess her last option is to ask one of her supergroup members. That member must belong to the resistance group and roughly at the same level as Mara, or higher.

^WRONG!!

 

Why none of you guys tell me earlier?😅

Edited September 22, 2020 by huang3721

[Apogee]

For future reference huang3721, you do not need to be introduced to a contact to start their arcs. Once you know the contact order for each part of Praetoria you can initiate contact on your own. Each zone is level locked as well, 1-10 for Nova, 10-15 for Imperial, and 15-20 for Neutropolis and contacts in those zones will no longer give missions once you exceed those levels. If you are trying to run all missions from all contacts (there is a badge for each zone) you will need to shut off XP at levels 10/15/20. Resistance Crusader contacts are almost all locked in the Underground Resistance bunkers and can only be accessed when you are actively siding with the Resistance (you have the blue Resistance chevrons). The Loyalist Deputy Assistant of Information is locked in a building only accessible when you are an active Loyalist (you have the gold Loyalist star). 

 

If you want to run all missions for all contacts, you can run three of the four zone contacts at once if you careful (some contacts will be killed during other contact arcs as you know, read the guide/wiki for spoiler info). Starting as Resistance you can run missions for Robert Flores, Ricochet, and Chief Interrogator Washington. You cannot run missions for Deputy Assistant of Information (and rest of Power) until you turn to Loyalist. Starting as a Loyalist you can run missions for Robert Flores, Chief Interrogator Washington and the Deputy Assistant of Information, but need to turn Resistance to run Ricochet (and rest of Crusader) missions. Basically you can do either Warden/Crusader/Responsibility or Warden/Responsibility/Power depending on your initial loyalty when starting a zone. I usually run the three arcs up until the final morality missions then figure out what order I want to do the final missions to get the right loyalty for starting the next zone (or for the finale).

 

[RogerWilco]

On 9/19/2020 at 10:28 AM, Lines said:

Larger Praetorian arc level ranges has been high on my wishlist from the start. It gets really messy really fast when you outlevel a contact.

Yes, we're now going trough the story arcs with a group of 4 friends, some who have never played the game before. The stories are awesome, but making sure you do them in the right order, and that you stop XP gain before you out level the arcs is a huge pain. XP gain is completely out of whack with progression.

[Mister Mass]

2 hours ago, RogerWilco said:

Yes, we're now going trough the story arcs with a group of 4 friends, some who have never played the game before. The stories are awesome, but making sure you do them in the right order, and that you stop XP gain before you out level the arcs is a huge pain. XP gain is completely out of whack with progression.

The story arc completion rewards are relatively huge.  I have been burned a few times, outleveling contacts, by not shutting off xp before completing a contact’s story arc.  Sometimes it has just been from mindlessly forgetting that I need to shut off xp - but all too many have been from thinking “no way the arc completion bonus is more than 5 bubbles of xp!” 😛

[huang3721]

Problem SOLVED. No need to die, this works on resistance and loyalist faction.

You only need a Supergroup with Pillar of Ice and Flame.

That's it.

 

Because you can teleport right next to a contact, you can bypass that resistance gate (or that loyalist bouncer). 

Once you finish your first mission, simply run back to your base, access that pillar, teleport again to that particular contact inside the hideout.

Yay! Get the next mission and repeat until you get their phone number.

 

Why none of you guys tell me earlier?😅 I feel so DUMB.

 

[RogerWilco]

On 9/27/2020 at 12:36 PM, huang3721 said:

Problem SOLVED. No need to die, this works on resistance and loyalist faction.

You only need a Supergroup with Pillar of Ice and Flame.

That's it.

 

Because you can teleport right next to a contact, you can bypass that resistance gate (or that loyalist bouncer). 

Once you finish your first mission, simply run back to your base, access that pillar, teleport again to that particular contact inside the hideout.

Yay! Get the next mission and repeat until you get their phone number.

 

Why none of you guys tell me earlier?😅 I feel so DUMB.

 

How do you get a Pillar of Ice and Flame in your base?

I can't find it in the placable items, and the hcwiki on it seems outdated.

[huang3721]

4 hours ago, RogerWilco said:

How do you get a Pillar of Ice and Flame in your base?

 

Type "pillar" to narrow the list:

 

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by huang3721
typo