Children of Praetoria - a complete guide for Praetorian content

[Fermi]

I’ve followed @Redlynne’s Loyalist <-> Resistance ... switching alignments EVERY TIME for Praetorians forum post  (https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/1797-loyalistresistance-
switching-alignments-every-time-for-praetorians/) lots of times. It helped me to enjoy the full Praetoria storyline in multiple characters, and I wouldn’t be able to write this guide with their original work.

But I wanted to do add to that. I didn’t want only the path through Praetoria, but also have all Praetorian content in a single place for easy reference. So, in order to expand Redlynne’s work (I didn't include everything they did), I added First Ward and Night Ward content and more, always listing the expected level range for the contacts, as this is important: once you outlevel a contact, your only option to do that particular arc is using Ouroboros.

 

So, here's a PDF with the full content for your enjoyment. 

 

Children of Praetoria.pdf

Edited June 8, 2022 by Fermmoylle

[Gulbasaur]

Nice production quality and stylistic choices - it reminds me of indie RPG pamphlets in a way I can't quite put my finger on.  Good use of images and a comprehensive guide to Praetorian content. 

 

As a fellow (if lapsed) guide-writer, I do suggest putting formatted for the forums for ease of access, if only because it's much more mobile friendly. Your name is a bit hard to read on the first page - perhaps in version 2, a text box or something would help with the ease of reading. I grew up in the era of GameFAQs .txt game guides, so perhaps that's just me being oldskool. 

 

Are you sure about the order of the incarnate trials? They do have a canonical order that I think involves the Dark Astoria story arcs, but that might be wrong. It would be really useful for someone to untangle that mess from a plot-purist point of view. 

 

This is me being slightly petty, but as you explicitly say it's you who compiled it, a "Resources Used and Further Information" section at the end would be courteous to those whose information you've used as it's unlikely you've only compiled it from one source. I usually try to give credit where I've got information from someone else (even little things like macros, etc). Alternatively, putting sources (including the web address in the opening paragraph) in footnotes can make it feel cleaner than a full text web address. 

 

Keep up the good work!

[Fermi]

2 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

Nice production quality and stylistic choices - it reminds me of indie RPG pamphlets in a way I can't quite put my finger on.  Good use of images and a comprehensive guide to Praetorian content. 

Thanks! I wrote this on a hour or two of boredom at work, and as I'm used to Prae content, it was second nature to try to do this.

3 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

As a fellow (if lapsed) guide-writer, I do suggest putting formatted for the forums for ease of access, if only because it's much more mobile friendly. Your name is a bit hard to read on the first page - perhaps in version 2, a text box or something would help with the ease of reading. I grew up in the era of GameFAQs .txt game guides, so perhaps that's just me being oldskool. 

A pure txt version for the forums? I think I can do that. I don't think it'll be as pretty though (unless I use some ascii art as some GameFAQs used in the past.
In any case, I'll consider editing things on the cover if I create a version 2.

3 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

Are you sure about the order of the incarnate trials? They do have a canonical order that I think involves the Dark Astoria story arcs, but that might be wrong. It would be really useful for someone to untangle that mess from a plot-purist point of view. 

I've checked the Wiki for the order, but I may have messed things up when compiling. If you find something out of order or that requires changing, please point me in the right direction.

3 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

This is me being slightly petty, but as you explicitly say it's you who compiled it, a "Resources Used and Further Information" section at the end would be courteous to those whose information you've used as it's unlikely you've only compiled it from one source. I usually try to give credit where I've got information from someone else (even little things like macros, etc). Alternatively, putting sources (including the web address in the opening paragraph) in footnotes can make it feel cleaner than a full text web address. 

I've only consulted Redlynne's post and the Wiki. On a version 2 I'll be sure to include the wiki url as well. And now you mention the macro... It's well possible I'm using your NoXP macro for so long that I forgot about that (all my go to macros are in a txt file, so I usually just load the bindfile and forget about them). Another thing to add!

[Gulbasaur]

7 minutes ago, Fermmoylle said:

If you find something out of order or that requires changing, please point me in the right direction

Oh, it was a genuine "I don't get how it all fits together and a guide would be really nice" remark. I'd love to see a kind of detailed explanation or something!

[Fermi]

2 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

Oh, it was a genuine "I don't get how it all fits together and a guide would be really nice" remark. I'd love to see a kind of detailed explanation or something!

Technically, the Dream Doctor gives you the tip for Dilemma Diabolique (and you even get a badge if you do his personal story prior to DD), but that meant run all DA for that, and I don't really think it's really necessary for a Praetorian to deal with that considering all other things they have on their plate.
Now, about the Incarnate Trial order, I followed this page: https://archive.paragonwiki.com/wiki/Incarnate_Trial

[Gulbasaur]

11 minutes ago, Fermmoylle said:

Technically, the Dream Doctor gives you the tip for Dilemma Diabolique (and you even get a badge if you do his personal story prior to DD), but that meant run all DA for that, and I don't really think it's really necessary for a Praetorian to deal with that considering all other things they have on their plate.

Oh cool - thanks!

[Darmian]

Ok, this is excerpted from @TwoDee (and myself's)  efforts to untangle the Praetorian timeline.  This obviously has more than you need but AFAIK this is the order of events surrounding the Praetorian War.

 

Original Maria Jenkins arc/A Hero's Hero  happens.  (Oh yes it does!)
Tina MacIntyre's arc happens.
The events of the Tip Missions happen, specifically as relates to Maelstrom and Desdemona.
The events of Twinshot's arc happen
Responsibility, Power, Warden and Crusader happen

The Praetorian War begins when Terra Volta is attacked.(*)
Maria Jenkins arc/A Hero's Epic  happens.
Apex's Alpha Strike TF happens. 
Tin Mage II's TF  happens.
BAF iTrial happens.
Lambda Sector iTrial happens.
Admiral Sutter TF happens.
Keyes Reactor iTrial happens.
First Ward (20-30) happens
Concurrently with First Ward, the Underground iTrial happens, as do the events of Who Will Die?
Night Ward (30-35) happens
Concurrently with Night Ward, the TPN Campus iTrial happens.
Dark Astoria happens, before the formal end of the Praetorian War, but Dominatrix defects to help the Primals/leave the sinking ship of Praetoria.
Minds of Mayhem iTrial happens.  Praetoria is falling apart.
Dilemma Diabolique happens, capping out the Dark Astoria material.

Belladonna Vetrano's arc happens.  Praetoria begins to collapse from the inside.
Magisterum iTrial happens.  In an echo both of the destruction of Shroud City and of the nuclear suicides of several nations during the Hamidon Wars, Cole nukes Praetoria City, killing millions of his own citizens.
Praetoria entirely falls, and refugees begin flocking through the former invasion portals into Paragon.
The Major's arc happens.
Provost Marchand and Mr. G's arcs happen contemporaneously to each other.  The New Praetorians are founded as several Praetorian supervillains escape containment.
Number Six's arc happens. 

 

And there we go.

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Darmian

[Fermi]

Okay, this will give me lots to think about, but I need to consider the usual level progression, @Darmian, even if history tells us one thing, there'll be some need for concessions here.

 

Consider First Ward, for instance. It's a level 20-30 area, but as you pointed out, it would happen after BAF (an Incarnate Trial). So, if one was to follow historical progression, First Ward would be accessed only as an Ouroboros arc, and not as a regular area of the game.

 

I may add your findings as an Appendix, in order to allow for others to follow the historical route, but if we are talking about normal level progression, I need to put arcs in a crescent order of leveling.

At least it's how I think this guide could be useful for a Praetorian character.

[Darmian]

1 hour ago, Fermmoylle said:

Okay, this will give me lots to think about, but I need to consider the usual level progression, @Darmian, even if history tells us one thing, there'll be some need for concessions here.

 

Consider First Ward, for instance. It's a level 20-30 area, but as you pointed out, it would happen after BAF (an Incarnate Trial). So, if one was to follow historical progression, First Ward would be accessed only as an Ouroboros arc, and not as a regular area of the game.

 

I may add your findings as an Appendix, in order to allow for others to follow the historical route, but if we are talking about normal level progression, I need to put arcs in a crescent order of leveling.

At least it's how I think this guide could be useful for a Praetorian character.

Well, my Main (in pic) is a 24 Carat Gold Praetorian Loyalist, never left and been a 50 for a while now, so I had a vested interest in knowing this stuff 🙂

 

(To the point of creating my own bridging "canon" material set between Neutropolis and First Ward, in the AE at levels 19 -25).

[Frozen Burn]

9 hours ago, Darmian said:

Ok, this is excerpted from @TwoDee (and myself's)  efforts to untangle the Praetorian timeline.  This obviously has more than you need but AFAIK this is the order of events surrounding the Praetorian War.

 

Original Maria Jenkins arc/A Hero's Hero  happens.  (Oh yes it does!)
Tina MacIntyre's arc happens.
The events of the Tip Missions happen, specifically as relates to Maelstrom and Desdemona.
The events of Twinshot's arc happen
Responsibility, Power, Warden and Crusader happen

The Praetorian War begins when Terra Volta is attacked.(*)
Maria Jenkins arc/A Hero's Epic  happens.
Apex's Alpha Strike TF happens. 
Tin Mage II's TF  happens.
BAF iTrial happens.
Lambda Sector iTrial happens.
Admiral Sutter TF happens.
Keyes Reactor iTrial happens.
First Ward (20-30) happens
Concurrently with First Ward, the Underground iTrial happens, as do the events of Who Will Die?
Night Ward (30-35) happens
Concurrently with Night Ward, the TPN Campus iTrial happens.
Dark Astoria happens, before the formal end of the Praetorian War, but Dominatrix defects to help the Primals/leave the sinking ship of Praetoria.
Minds of Mayhem iTrial happens.  Praetoria is falling apart.
Belladonna Vetrano's arc happens.  Praetoria begins to collapse from the inside.
Magisterum iTrial happens.  In an echo both of the destruction of Shroud City and of the nuclear suicides of several nations during the Hamidon Wars, Cole nukes Praetoria City, killing millions of his own citizens.
Praetoria entirely falls, and refugees begin flocking through the former invasion portals into Paragon.
The Major's arc happens.
Provost Marchand and Mr. G's arcs happen contemporaneously to each other.  The New Praetorians are founded as several Praetorian supervillains escape containment.
Number Six's arc happens. 

 

And there we go.

 

 

 

Great list!  But you're missing Dilemma Diabolique.  It should appear after DA arcs and Minds of Mayhem and prior to Belladonna's arc.  🙂 

[Zhym]

I still find the placement of First Ward and Night Ward in these timeline lists confusing.  What happened in BAF, Lambda, Sutter, and Keyes that puts them before First Ward?  I get that they debuted in Issues just before First Ward was added, but I don’t see much in the trials themselves that have to happen before First Ward.
 

Vanessa DeVore’s First Ward arc involves getting in and out of Cole’s Tower before Marauder shows up and squashes you.  Marauder is weakened post-Lambda (see Provost Marchand’s Primal Earth arc) so it seems to me that that mission happens before the Lambda trial.

 

And more practically, it just makes more sense to me to run First Ward and Night Ward at the relevant character levels.  For the most part, First Ward seems like it’s happening just after the Responsibility, Power, Crusader, and Warden lines (mostly because Seer 1381 is now Katie Douglas).  If there’s anything about that that breaks continuity, it’s pretty subtle.  To me, the advantage of being able to run First Ward and Night Ward in character level order outweighs whatever narrative hiccups that would create.

 

And what else is a Praetorian going to do after level 20?  

Edited June 9, 2022 by Zhym

[Darmian]

8 hours ago, Frozen Burn said:

 

 

Great list!  But you're missing Dilemma Diabolique.  It should appear after DA arcs and Minds of Mayhem and prior to Belladonna's arc.  🙂 

Ah, I had elided Dilemma into the DA material, since you get an option to open it at the end of the DA material.  I'll edit the above to place it properly.

 

[Darmian]

1 hour ago, Zhym said:

I still find the placement of First Ward and Night Ward in these timeline lists confusing.  What happened in BAF, Lambda, Sutter, and Keyes that puts them before First Ward?  I get that they debuted in Issues just before First Ward was added, but I don’t see much in the trials themselves that have to happen before First Ward.
 

Vanessa DeVore’s First Ward arc involves getting in and out of Cole’s Tower before Marauder shows up and squashes you.  Marauder is weakened post-Lambda (see Provost Marchand’s Primal Earth arc) so it seems to me that that mission happens before the Lambda trial.

 

And more practically, it just makes more sense to me to run First Ward and Night Ward at the relevant character levels.  For the most part, First Ward seems like it’s happening just after the Responsibility, Power, Crusader, and Warden lines (mostly because Seer 1381 is now Katie Douglas).  If there’s anything about that that breaks continuity, it’s pretty subtle.  To me, the advantage of being able to run First Ward and Night Ward in character level order outweighs whatever narrative hiccups that would create.

 

And what else is a Praetorian going to do after level 20?  

There are events and references peppered throughout the FW/NW arcs that place them later. Just one example, Praetorian Duray shows up and refers to the fact that he is not happy he has been pulled out of the invasion to attend to something there, which places that event post Sutter.  There's more but I haven't access to my notes at the moment.

 

Yes, the tendency to perceive level progression as time progression is an almost natural one, since it's pretty much how the game initially worked, but that was abandoned and then you get the little disclaimers saying such and such a thing happens before this or after that.  We don't get enough of those unfortunately.  The most egregious one beyond the FW/NW material is Marchand/Mr. G in Primal, where instead of being level 50 is 35 to 50.  It is what it is.

[Zhym]

11 hours ago, Darmian said:

Just one example, Praetorian Duray shows up and refers to the fact that he is not happy he has been pulled out of the invasion to attend to something there, which places that event post Sutter.

Where does that happen? 

[vicuna]

I am doing this on my own, so far so good for Nova Praetoria. But is facing a problem now where Mr G refuses to talk to me because I'm Resistance, and Doctor Steffard is missing. After reading your file, I think I know what to do now. Thanks.

[JStacy337]

6 hours ago, vicuna said:

I am doing this on my own, so far so good for Nova Praetoria. But is facing a problem now where Mr G refuses to talk to me because I'm Resistance, and Doctor Steffard is missing. After reading your file, I think I know what to do now. Thanks.

You did Kang's chain before Steffard, eh? Yeah, taking out Cutter Cain will do that

Edited June 10, 2022 by JStacy337

[Darmian]

14 hours ago, Zhym said:

Where does that happen? 

Katie Douglas's arc.

 

Colonel Duray: Do you understand how ANNOYING it is for me to even be here?!

Colonel Duray: I've got better things to do than clean up Tilman's mess!

Colonel Duray: Like, say, invading a WHOLE DIMENSION!

[MrWallace]

Just a quick note to say thank you @Fermmoylle.

 

Your guild inspired me to try my hand at completing all Gold Side has to offer... now the hard part , deciding what toon and build to use 😛

 

Cheers

 

Mr W

[BlakeTheDrake]

Bit of thread necromancy here, but heck, I used to run a Zombie Mastermind in CoV, so it's on brand...

 

As a completionist, I've found the guide at the top extremely useful for making sure I see everything Praetoria has to offer before outleveling it! But I have a question. The guide has you switching sides at virtually every chance you get - essentially playing as someone who either suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder (keep forgetting to take those pills!) or someone with a Jekyll/Hyde type split personality. If you DON'T wanna do that... if you just stick purely to Rebels or Loyalists - perhaps just playing as someone who's a bit on the fence about whether ends actually justify means, or whether great power actually does come with great responsibility - and play the opposite content as Deep Cover Agent, reporting in to your superiors at every chance and always picking the 'right' option in the end-of-arc moral choices... (maybe just switching back and forth ONCE to establish your bonafides with the other side, and get that one badge...)

 

...can you still do all four full storylines? And get all four of the end-of-story badges?

[Fermi]

Unfortunately no. Without changing allegiance you can't get all the badges initially - you can always get what you missed by doing Ouro arcs.

[Apogee]

On 1/14/2024 at 10:34 PM, BlakeTheDrake said:

Bit of thread necromancy here, but heck, I used to run a Zombie Mastermind in CoV, so it's on brand...

 

As a completionist, I've found the guide at the top extremely useful for making sure I see everything Praetoria has to offer before outleveling it! But I have a question. The guide has you switching sides at virtually every chance you get - essentially playing as someone who either suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder (keep forgetting to take those pills!) or someone with a Jekyll/Hyde type split personality. If you DON'T wanna do that... if you just stick purely to Rebels or Loyalists - perhaps just playing as someone who's a bit on the fence about whether ends actually justify means, or whether great power actually does come with great responsibility - and play the opposite content as Deep Cover Agent, reporting in to your superiors at every chance and always picking the 'right' option in the end-of-arc moral choices... (maybe just switching back and forth ONCE to establish your bonafides with the other side, and get that one badge...)

 

...can you still do all four full storylines? And get all four of the end-of-story badges?

 

You have to be Loyalist to get Power missions and you have to be Resistance to get Crusader missions.  You can do 3 of the 4 arcs per zone without switching sides.  However, the game is designed around you switching sides to maintain your cover as a double agent.  If you want to get all the badges you need to switch at least once per zone.  You do not need to switch alignments to get the Moral High Ground badge (for 5 alignment choices), simply complete 5 alignment missions.

[BlakeTheDrake]

1 hour ago, Apogee said:

 

You have to be Loyalist to get Power missions and you have to be Resistance to get Crusader missions.  You can do 3 of the 4 arcs per zone without switching sides.  However, the game is designed around you switching sides to maintain your cover as a double agent.  If you want to get all the badges you need to switch at least once per zone.  You do not need to switch alignments to get the Moral High Ground badge (for 5 alignment choices), simply complete 5 alignment missions.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I'll probably 'remix' the scheduling a bit, so that I 'mostly' stick to my chosen faction, but switch just long enough to pick up the last one in each zone...

[Apogee]

1 hour ago, BlakeTheDrake said:

 

Thanks! Yeah, I'll probably 'remix' the scheduling a bit, so that I 'mostly' stick to my chosen faction, but switch just long enough to pick up the last one in each zone...

 

Just remember that if you want to complete all story arcs you have to complete some arcs before others (finish Doctor Steffard's arc before doing the last mission for Interrogator Kang, don't start missions for Calvin Scott until you complete Crow and Helix's arcs)