Task Force Commander for the Solo Player

[Marine X]

Accolades and Badges are always nice to get, but some are harder, even impossible Solo. This one is not, however it does at times require a bit of pre-planning and a few purchases. Not all these are necessary, but for me they make it go smoother than trying to tough it out, and I look at this as not just a bunch of missions, but as one story. I prefer to do this as an Exemplared 50.

The Latest pass was Red Guard, INV/ Radiation Melee / Pyre Tank.

 

TFC Mission Kit:

Inspirations: I recommend the Largest of Each Type you think you will need, you can replenish from the Auction House as needed between missions, but I tend to buy enough for each TF, before I start it.

Envenomed Daggers, etc: Really handy to use between your attacks, a lot of this Process will be without key parts of your attack chain that you have been accustomed to, so a few extra tools can go a long way.

Summons: Warwolves, Shivans, whatever, you can even purchase Signature Summons from P2W ( Posi, Numina etc ). Your choice will need to counter whatever you may not have to take down an AV Solo, exemplared. In my case I used Posi, Damage and Debuff all in one.

Patience: You are Soloing, you can log out at anytime between missions without losing your progress. Some are a lot to do at one sitting, but it is nice to set a pace that will allow you to watch cut scenes and read dialog without feeling rushed, It will be done soon enough, and some of these have unique sets that aren't reused much in the game. 

 

Task Force Suggestions:

 

Positron; The Rule of Three / Dam Hero: Part 1/Part 2 total 13 missions. Level 15.

Tarses and the Shadow Simulacrum ( a black silhouette of you ) are not too tough and a few inspirations should get you past them.

Rollister went Quick but I know Dr Vazhilok can be a different story. I attacked him till he summoned his spawn, then went to the other end of the Catwalk and summoned Positron. this caused the spawn to create a buffer between me and the good Doc till I could reduce their numbers, then concentrate on him. It went slowly but he finally went down.

 

Synapse: Fall of the Clockwork King: 15 Missions. Level 20.

Long, repetitive but the final mission has a really cool look. The King is tough, and Psych Powered so have plenty of Escapes to pop and it will go pretty easy, no summon for me but use your judgement.

 

Penelope Yin: Clamor for the People: 4 Missions. Level 25.

Short, sweet and a great final mission set. Clamor can be a handful, so use a bunch of Resistance and Damage Inspirations to limit the debuffs, shut down the computers when she disappears and get ready for round 2. Not too bad, but was almost out of Inspirations when she finally went down.

 

Citadel: Citadel's Children: 11 Missions. Level 30.

Missions are not great but, well, they are also kinda repetitive, but at least it's quicker than Synapse. Vandal seems toward the low end of Arch Villain Strength, and at 30, your attack chain is starting to reappear. No big issues here, a few Inspirations and down he goes.

 

Manticore: Following Countess Crey: 10 Missions. Level 35.

I would like to say this one required the most strategy to get it finished. Attack chain at 35 is better but I found on a previous run the best thing to do after Hopkins goes down the 1ST time is book out to the mission door and exit. While outside, restock anything you used and reenter the mission, Countess Crey will spawn just outside the entrance room, whereas Hopkins will respawn where you fought him the first time and stay there. After a Positron summon we take her down, then head to back of the map and deal with Hopkins again. Both are AVs so two at a time is more work than I care to put in.

 

Numina: Soul of the Woodsman: 21 Missions ( 16 hunts ). Level 40.

The missions are pretty straight forward, the Hunts well, some are for something that are not all that plentiful where you need to hunt it, but are doable. The final battle with Jurassik, with Positron summoned and me glowing from all the Inspirations I used, went fairly quick, he doesn't seem to be the GM level Jurassik, but it still took a while to whittle him down.

 

Well hope someone finds something useful in this, I have a lot of Solo only Characters due to my playtime limitations and it has allowed me to use time when I can find a team to do things I can't alone. Good Hunting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Marine X

[Ukase]

Well...that's one way. 
An easier way is to get the invader badge on red side, then change your alignment back to hero or vig. 
 

Invader:  +Max Health Hero equivalent: TFC Badge

Earn all exploration badges in mayhem missions (9 in total, Atlas Park, Kings Row, Skyway City, Steel Canyon, Independence Port, Talos Island, Brickstown, Founder's Falls and Peregrine Island).
TIP: Lord Schweinzer, contact in PO that will give you on-demand mayhems. He's unlocked by getting the Hero Slayer/Bloody Hands badge which can be earned by completing the RSF ~2 times. An easier way is to do the Brickstown SSA from Dakota Berg with the third mission on -1x8. If you're on a less sturdy character, you can simply start this arc, and when you get to the third mission, just log off before it's complete, back on, and re-do it with a lower notoriety, like 0/4, or 0/2, whatever your character can handle. It will still be faster than sludging your way through those task forces, and you can do them solo, at your own pace. 

Granted - you won't have those tasty merits - unless you actually complete the arc, then you get 20 merits for your trouble. 

I have a character on each account that has Schweinzer unlocked, and the process of getting invader is easily less than 10 minutes. 

Edited April 27, 2022 by Ukase

[AboveTheChemist]

25 minutes ago, Ukase said:

An easier way is to do the Brickstown SSA from Dakota Berg with the third mission on -1x8.

A setting of -1x2 should be sufficient to get the required number of defeats to earn the Hero Slayer/Bloody Hands badge without repeating the mission. That same SSA episode is given by Tyrka in St. Martial for anyone that wants to run it as a villain/rogue (and the third mission -1x2 settings apply there too).

 

That being said, for those of us with characters for whom alignment-swapping isn't an option (for various reasons), the advice in the OP is quite helpful.

[RicoZaid]

Thanks for this post! Exactly what I was looking for :D

[Stormwalker]

On 4/19/2022 at 2:24 PM, Marine X said:

Accolades and Badges are always nice to get, but some are harder, even impossible Solo. This one is not, however it does at times require a bit of pre-planning and a few purchases. Not all these are necessary, but for me they make it go smoother than trying to tough it out, and I look at this as not just a bunch of missions, but as one story. I prefer to do this as an Exemplared 50.

The Latest pass was Red Guard, INV/ Radiation Melee / Pyre Tank.

 

TFC Mission Kit:

Inspirations: I recommend the Largest of Each Type you think you will need, you can replenish from the Auction House as needed between missions, but I tend to buy enough for each TF, before I start it.

Envenomed Daggers, etc: Really handy to use between your attacks, a lot of this Process will be without key parts of your attack chain that you have been accustomed to, so a few extra tools can go a long way.

Summons: Warwolves, Shivans, whatever, you can even purchase Signature Summons from P2W ( Posi, Numina etc ). Your choice will need to counter whatever you may not have to take down an AV Solo, exemplared. In my case I used Posi, Damage and Debuff all in one.

Patience: You are Soloing, you can log out at anytime between missions without losing your progress. Some are a lot to do at one sitting, but it is nice to set a pace that will allow you to watch cut scenes and read dialog without feeling rushed, It will be done soon enough, and some of these have unique sets that aren't reused much in the game. 

 

Task Force Suggestions:

 

Positron; The Rule of Three / Dam Hero: Part 1/Part 2 total 13 missions. Level 15.

Tarses and the Shadow Simulacrum ( a black silhouette of you ) are not too tough and a few inspirations should get you past them.

Rollister went Quick but I know Dr Vazhilok can be a different story. I attacked him till he summoned his spawn, then went to the other end of the Catwalk and summoned Positron. this caused the spawn to create a buffer between me and the good Doc till I could reduce their numbers, then concentrate on him. It went slowly but he finally went down.

 

Synapse: Fall of the Clockwork King: 15 Missions. Level 20.

Long, repetitive but the final mission has a really cool look. The King is tough, and Psych Powered so have plenty of Escapes to pop and it will go pretty easy, no summon for me but use your judgement.

 

Penelope Yin: Clamor for the People: 4 Missions. Level 25.

Short, sweet and a great final mission set. Clamor can be a handful, so use a bunch of Resistance and Damage Inspirations to limit the debuffs, shut down the computers when she disappears and get ready for round 2. Not too bad, but was almost out of Inspirations when she finally went down.

 

Citadel: Citadel's Children: 11 Missions. Level 30.

Missions are not great but, well, they are also kinda repetitive, but at least it's quicker than Synapse. Vandal seems toward the low end of Arch Villain Strength, and at 30, your attack chain is starting to reappear. No big issues here, a few Inspirations and down he goes.

 

Manticore: Following Countess Crey: 10 Missions. Level 35.

I would like to say this one required the most strategy to get it finished. Attack chain at 35 is better but I found on a previous run the best thing to do after Hopkins goes down the 1ST time is book out to the mission door and exit. While outside, restock anything you used and reenter the mission, Countess Crey will spawn just outside the entrance room, whereas Hopkins will respawn where you fought him the first time and stay there. After a Positron summon we take her down, then head to back of the map and deal with Hopkins again. Both are AVs so two at a time is more work than I care to put in.

 

Numina: Soul of the Woodsman: 21 Missions ( 16 hunts ). Level 40.

The missions are pretty straight forward, the Hunts well, some are for something that are not all that plentiful where you need to hunt it, but are doable. The final battle with Jurassik, with Positron summoned and me glowing from all the Inspirations I used, went fairly quick, he doesn't seem to be the GM level Jurassik, but it still took a while to whittle him down.

 

Well hope someone finds something useful in this, I have a lot of Solo only Characters due to my playtime limitations and it has allowed me to use time when I can find a team to do things I can't alone. Good Hunting.

 

 

 

I just wanted to say thanks for this guide.

 

I know you can just switch to Redside and get Invader for the same effect, but... I can't very well have Kitten America running around robbing banks, can I?  It just wouldn't do.  So I'll have to do it the hard way.

[Stormwalker]

And now that I've done it (did all six over the weekend), my own observations to add:

 

Kitten America is Claws/SR, which has an interesting effect on the difficulty of the various task forces (more specifically, on the difficulty of the AV's, which is the only hard part, really).

 

1). I definitely agree with the OP that Manticore was the most difficult, not just because of the potential of having to fight Hopkins and Countess Crey at the same time (thanks for the tip on how to avoid that), but also in my case because of an odd limitation - I had all my attacks at that level, and enough recharge to run my final attack chain, but I didn't have enough recovery to run it, because I took Conserve Power at level 41 and Physical Perfection at level 44, and my build is tuned such that it needs to have at least one of those to stay positive on Endurance.  As such, both Hopkins and Countess Crey proved to be real problems because I had a very narrow margin between "attacking too quickly and running myself out of end" and "not attacking quickly enough to overcome their regen", which made for really long fights.  I didn't bring any summons with me, because I wanted to see if I could do it without them.  Answer: Yes, but just barely.  To anyone else attempting this, I advise you to go ahead and bring a summon, even if you're not planning on using it, just in case.  Don't forget that you can't buy stuff from the P2W vendor when you are in the middle of a TF!

 

2). By the same token, Jurassik was a pushover because I did have those powers and could therefore go all-out on offense.  I did bring a summon on that TF, because of the lesson learned from the previous one, but I ended up not needing it.  Also, the hunts on the Numina TF were not nearly as bad as some people make them out to be.  None of the enemies are really that hard to find if you know where in the zones to look for them.

 

3). The third-hardest AV (behind Hopkins and Countess Crey) was definitely Clamor, for the simple reason that Scrapper SR doesn't have its AoE defense toggle yet at that level (you don't get it 'til 35!), nor did I have Weave or Tough or Combat Jumping yet.  So all the AoE defense I had was from the passive and a couple of set bonuses.  That made that fight... interesting.  I used my entire inspiration tray just to survive the fight.  Of all the AV's, Clamor was the only one that actually came close to killing me.  In all the other cases, any challenge (where there was any) was in the area of defeating them.   That said, the Yin TF was easily the fastest - I finished it in just under 23 minutes!

 

4). Dr. Vahzilok was a bit of a problem for similar reasons.  Spin was not quite enough to kill off all those exploding zombie waves, and without AoE defense I was having to constantly duck out of range to avoid getting blown up - which of course let Doc V regen a bit every time I had to do it.  Really, though, calling it a problem is overstating it; the outcome was never in doubt, it just took longer than I would have liked because of having to avoid the explosions.

 

5). The Clockwork King was surprisingly easy.  I expected more of a challenge from him.  Also, while the Synapse TF is definitely a slog, it wasn't quite as bad as I remembered it being.  Thanks to everyone on Torchbearer who showed up to help out with Babbage!

 

6). Just as I agreed with the OP about which of the AV's was hardest, I also have to agree about which was easiest.  Vandal really didn't put up much of a fight at all.  Also, I think the Citadel TF is unquestionably the most boring of them all, because it's basically the same mission over and over again.

 

Anyway, thank you again for the guide, it was helpful!

 

 

[Six-Six]

IIRC, the p2w in pocket d will accommodate you even when you're in a TF/SF.

As a slightly different tactic, you can visit RV and when you complete the round, you get a fairly strong temp summon. they're free, you just have to put in the work.

Edit: Forgot to mention.
There's also another tip to make your fight(s) with AVs easier. Do Who Will Die 2. it's a quick run with little effort and very soloable. at the end, if you choose the right option (hint, think like a villain), you'll be rewarded with a 3-use temp power to fully heal both you and your pet/summon. comes in handy.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Six-Six

[Stormwalker]

Another thing that I didn't use that probably would have trivialized it (at the very least, it would have made Hopkins and Countess Crey a lot easier) is Amplifiers.

 

Just the Survial Amp's additional recovery alone would probably have made that fight vastly easier.  To say nothing of the Offense Amp.

 

But, again, I wanted to see if I could do it without using any outside assistance... and as it happened, I could.  It was just a lot more work to do it that way.

[Energy Aura]

I would suggest doing old Posi through Ouro, no AVs and 66 merits for 1 hour of work. Sister Psyche through Ouro is also a great alternative to Yin.

[lemming]

To anyone else attempting this, I advise you to go ahead and bring a summon, even if you're not planning on using it, just in case.  Don't forget that you can't buy stuff from the P2W vendor when you are in the middle of a TF!

 

Pocket-D P2W will sell to any even if on TF, AE, Flashback.

[Stormwalker]

7 hours ago, Six-Six said:

IIRC, the p2w in pocket d will accommodate you even when you're in a TF/SF.

 

36 minutes ago, lemming said:

Pocket-D P2W will sell to any even if on TF, AE, Flashback.

 

Useful info, thank you!  I like to try to do stuff like this without relying on these powers as much as possible, so it's nice to know that I can try it without and then if I run into a brick wall, there is still an option to fall back on without having to restart the TF.

[Six-Six]

On 7/20/2022 at 12:25 AM, Stormwalker said:

I know you can just switch to Redside and get Invader for the same effect, but... I can't very well have Kitten America running around robbing banks, can I?  It just wouldn't do.  So I'll have to do it the hard way.

Of course she can. We villains have this thing called Honour among thieves. We won't tell if you don't. 😃

I personally enjoy Redside more. The Mayhem missions seem more natural in the flow of things. Not only that, it gives reason and rationale to the newspaper missions, as opposed to the blueside counterpart, the safeguard missions where the payoff or reward seems to be missing. Also, with each mayhem mission, you get a temp power (or 2 if you're diligent), some of which serve as previews to your accolades such as +max end, +max hp, etc.
 

[Stormwalker]

3 minutes ago, Six-Six said:

Of course she can. We villains have this thing called Honour among thieves. We won't tell if you don't. 😃

I personally enjoy Redside more. The Mayhem missions seem more natural in the flow of things. Not only that, it gives reason and rationale to the newspaper missions, as opposed to the blueside counterpart, the safeguard missions where the payoff or reward seems to be missing. Also, with each mayhem mission, you get a temp power (or 2 if you're diligent), some of which serve as previews to your accolades such as +max end, +max hp, etc.
 

 

That would be... exceedingly out of character for Kitten.  Even though I'm not actively roleplaying, my characters chide me if I do things as them that they wouldn't.

 

I do have some redsiders, but most of the time I just prefer playing the hero rather than the villain.  Even most (but not all) of my redsiders are Rogues.

 

I just don't usually enjoy being evil, though sometimes I can get into it if I go Darth Vader over the top (like, the only Sith I could ever enjoy playing in SWTOR was my Marauder, because she was pretty much on a permanent rampage).

[lemming]

The elaborate schemes to setup uncover operations does take a lot of work.  The expense reports that Longbow make you fill out afterwards...

[Zepp]

I have run this several times on different toons and tested different summons. I would say that the Shivan Summon is the best one to use (if you are only going to use one).

[Energy Aura]

Another thing with Invader versus Task Force Commander is that Task Force Commander you can have the badge as early as 35 whereas the Mayhem Missions for Peregrine Island is 45-50.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Energy Aura

[lemming]

4 hours ago, Energy Aura said:

Another thing with Invader versus Task Force Commander is that Task Force Commander you can have the badge as early as 35 whereas the Mayhem Missions for Peregrine Island is 45-50.

True. if you go via Newspapers.

You can have Invader at level 1 if you have a different account use the repeatable contact in Port Oakes bring you thru.  Don't even have to do the missions, just visit the location badge in each

[Vanden]

On 7/19/2022 at 12:25 PM, Stormwalker said:

I know you can just switch to Redside and get Invader for the same effect, but... I can't very well have Kitten America running around robbing banks, can I?  It just wouldn't do.  So I'll have to do it the hard way.

 

You don't have to actually rob any banks, just break a few objects to get the mission time limit above 15 minutes, then make it back to Lord Schweinzer before it falls under 15 minutes again, and he'll let you abandon the mission.

[Wavicle]

I pretty much do Atlas Medallion and Portal Jockey blueside and Invader and High Pain Threshold redside on nearly every toon at this point. I don't think I've completed Task Force Commander directly even once since the game came back.