Are there Hollows Missions?

[d4verman]

I know things are different from when the game was live, but I was working on a new alt and as always I get to the "go to Perez Park and X number of X" mission. Then I realized no one sends you to the Hollows anymore. I can't even remember what missions were there, but I remember having to go there way back in the day. 

 

Out of curiousity I logged in with another character and used my base portal to get there. There wasn't anything going on. Is there even a mission in that place nowadays? 

 

(and speaking of things being different, I exited a mission in Talos confident that nothing in the street could harm me when I was attacked by a blob and a basketball.)

[FupDup]

Yes, there are several story arcs and a task force there, but IMO the story isn't very interesting. Probably a part of why it sees so little traffic. 

 

That being said, if you're bored of the other low level zones then the Hollows can still be a refreshing break from the monotony. 

[Ironblade]

Things are different from live, but we don't have LESS content.  In addition to the contact offering repeatable missions, there are four contacts in The Hollows, each with their own mission arc.  The first one is Officer David Wincott, who is standing near the Atlas Park entrance.  I believe he becomes available at level 5 or 6 and you don't need to be introduced by a previous contact.  Just go there and walk up to him.

 

The four contacts are Wincott, Flux (one of the Outcasts), Julius the Troll (a troll, duh) and Talshak the Mystic.

Flux gives one of the classic missions in the game - Take Out Frostfire.

[Nyghtmaire]

3 minutes ago, d4verman said:

Out of curiousity I logged in with another character and used my base portal to get there. There wasn't anything going on. Is there even a mission in that place nowadays? 

Yes! See here: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/The_Hollows go at level 5 at the earliest for David Wincott or Meg Mason - repeatable missions for her.

 

4 minutes ago, d4verman said:

(and speaking of things being different, I exited a mission in Talos confident that nothing in the street could harm me when I was attacked by a blob and a basketball.)

That’s the April Fools event. Should be done tomorrow. Join a league for the experience (and keep an eye on general or LFG).

[Ironblade]

8 minutes ago, d4verman said:

(and speaking of things being different, I exited a mission in Talos confident that nothing in the street could harm me when I was attacked by a blob and a basketball.)

It could have been worse.  The event uses the giant monster code, so they were at your level.

Back on live, I was in The Hollows and there were a couple dozen people hanging around by the entrance - presumably all in level range for the zone.

Then, I saw a high level character run to a door mission quite nearby and an ambush of level 50 Malta showed up.  The carnage was epic.

[Yomo Kimyata]

You can go to your contacts list and “Find Contact”.  At levels 5-9?!?  the last selection will be David Wincott and you can teleport to him.

Edited April 4, 2023 by Yomo Kimyata

[Greycat]

So your zone-arc-mission givers:

David Wincott -

Fairly quick and easy mission. There were some ... spoilers? Easter eggs? of things that were planned that never got into the game in one of the missions. When you're recovering artifacts, they include:

- Worn Tome: Worn and moldy tome, strange red text in Russian. Not sure what this was to be, if anything.

- Strange skull - similar to a human skull, but fragile bones. This was a nod to a canceled EAT, the Avilians, which were going to be how they gave players winged characters (until they figured out how to do wings as back items)

- Coral bracelet - pointing to the Coralax, who were *also* supposed to be an EAT.  (If you play Striga, the 5th Column/Council hijack a ship with scientists who recovered the body of "something" from the ocean. This was going to be a companion/servant race, the Virtea.)

 

Flux -

Honestly, mostly remembered for the Frostfire mission. And that mission's remembered for letting you go ice skating.

 

Julius the Troll

- Little more information on Wincott's son, mostly.

 

Talshak

- Atta's mission. Also used to be the unlock (through Karsis) for the zone trial, IIRC.

 

So, yeah. Nothing was taken out (and I do see LFG posts for Hollows mission teams, so... *shrug*)

[Go0gleplex]

You missed Meg Mason beneath the Water Tower on the Hill in Cherry Hills. 

[cranebump]

I saw calls go out for 3 Frostfire missions last Saturday evening on Excel.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Hollows mission teams (especially Frostfire) happen with semi-regularity on Everlasting as well.

[d4verman]

I was on a lower pop server, so I guess I don't see that much comm traffic. I did start some alts on Excelsior though, just to know there were other folks around. 

[gameboy1234]

I wouldn't mind seeing some of the old prompts to go see contacts in The Hollows when you reach the appropriate level.  Heck the pop-up to see Twinshot could be replaced entirely, I don't think anyone will miss that arc.

 

[Xiddo]

Frostfire even gives a badge now!

[Black Talon]

Bit of an unhappy confession here: when I first got back on the game, closing on two years ago, I had totally forgotten about the Hollows and the attendant mission arcs.  This was an especially regrettable point because I like My Boys to collect as many mission arc souvenirs as possible, and for the first few guys I put together...they just never got the opportunity.  On - I believe it was my third alt - I did finally remember and dedicated the next several levels to working through the contacts.  Yes, there were at least a dozen occasions with new alts where I put out the call to demo FrostFire - like Doc Vahz, yet another sad example of our revolving-door parole system - and I was very happy to be able to complete the zone with having returned Officer Wincott's boy to him, alive and well.

 

It might sound stupid and pointless, but there's something about getting a father and child - as virtual as they might be - back together after a novel-length struggle that makes me feel I did at least one thing right with my day.  That and the fact that the Hollows, along with Croatoa, is the single most nature-bound, and beautifully laid-out, setting in the game.  Get the Trolls and the Outcasts to have a last-man-standing-gets-a-free-large-Slurpee contest, and then move the civilian population in after Longbow's done the body-count and filled up the morgues.  Grendel's Gulch can remain, much like the sites of natural disasters, an untouched reminder of what happens when you let drug-enhanced/deformed punks start thinking they own the place.  It is an unhappy reality that no post-20 contacts, at least ones that I can think of, will send a character into the Hollows for an instanced mission.  Much the same as with Striga Isle.

 

In summary, the Hollows was one of the best post-publication additions to the game I can think of, and it's only unfortunate that, at this point, My Boys regard the place as little more than a bucolic memory.

[Parabola]

I run the hollows arcs on every new alt. I consider it a rite of passage of sorts and you get a couple of badges, a load of merits and you open up the cavern of transcendence trial. I also love the old school vibes of the place. I only wish perez park had similar content.

Edited April 4, 2023 by Parabola
I didn't write the right rite ...

[UltraAlt]

7 hours ago, d4verman said:

Then I realized no one sends you to the Hollows anymore

 

7 hours ago, d4verman said:

Out of curiousity I logged in with another character and used my base portal to get there. There wasn't anything going on. Is there even a mission in that place nowadays? 

 

 

 

 

My take:

Most known for fighting Trolls and the famous Frostfire mission.

Find mini Troll raves with drummers in some areas.

It is the only place that know of to battle Minions of Igneous (https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Minions_of_Igneous) outside of the AE. You will find them only in Grendel's Gulch (Level 13-15) - the pit in the middle of the map.

[But are they actually space aliens like the Shivans - brought to Earth by asteroid crashing into the Earth's atmosphere? Lore says that the Trolls found them while digging in the Hollows (https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/The_Hollowing) , but if they simply creatures that live underground, why haven't they been unearthed in other areas of the Earth? or even in other areas of Paragon City!]

 

Relevant bits from https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/The_Hollows

 

Hero Hazard Zone (5-15)

 

Connecting Zones:

Atlas Park, Skyway City, Tunnels

 

Enemies:

Circle of Thorns, Coralax, Devouring Earth, Hellions, Hydra, The Lost, Minions of Igneous, Outcasts, Skulls, Trolls, Tsoo, Vahzilok

 

Arc Contacts (and one repeatable)

Level 5-9

David Wincott Hunts and door missions

└►Flux

└►(Julius the Troll)

Level 5-15

Meg Mason (repeatable) door missions - first one is timed

Level 10-14

Julius the Troll (Frostfire Arc) hunts and door missions

└►(Talshak the Mystic)

Level 12-14

Talshak the Mystic hunts and door missions

 

Trial Contact - Level 12-15 - Cavern of Transcendence  (https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Cavern_of_Transcendence_Trial)

Karsis - Unlock requires completion of Talshak the Mystic's story arc.

WARNING: there is no map inside of the Cavern of Transcendence trial.

 

 

 

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

7 hours ago, Go0gleplex said:

You missed Meg Mason beneath the Water Tower on the Hill in Cherry Hills. 

 

Wincott gives her as a contact very soon after you take down some outcasts IIRC. The problem with her missions is that with XP so abundant as it currently is you can outlevel the zone quickly without even speaking with her.

[Xiddo]

5 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

It is the only place that know of to battle Minions of Igneous (https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Minions_of_Igneous) outside of the AE. You will find them only in Grendel's Gulch (Level 13-15) - the pit in the middle of the map.

[But are they actually space aliens like the Shivans - brought to Earth by asteroid crashing into the Earth's atmosphere?

Sorry to be that guy: for those who want an easy way to fight more Igneous there are three missions with them in great numbers in Who Will Die (part 1) and they go up to at least level 22 🙂 and it’s a very fun arc (with a bonus map of the hollows on fire!)

[srmalloy]

8 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

It is the only place that know of to battle Minions of Igneous (https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Minions_of_Igneous) outside of the AE. You will find them only in Grendel's Gulch (Level 13-15) - the pit in the middle of the map.

You also find them (along with Trolls and CoT) in the tunnels beneath the Gulch, accessible from the tunnel entrances around the edges of the Gulch. It is depressing that the revamp of the zone hugely reduced the spawn rate of the bosses, making the badge for them incredibly tedious outside of the Cavern of Transcendence trial.

[Ironblade]

3 hours ago, Xiddo said:

Sorry to be that guy: for those who want an easy way to fight more Igneous there are three missions with them in great numbers in Who Will Die (part 1) and they go up to at least level 22 🙂 and it’s a very fun arc (with a bonus map of the hollows on fire!)

Worth mentioning for any who aren't aware - the Signature Story Arcs work like a task force and exemp you down to the max level of the arc (level 20 for part 1 of Who Will Die) so you can run these no matter what level you are.  And the LFG window will allow you to teleport directly to the contact, just like with task forces.

[UltraAlt]

4 hours ago, Xiddo said:

Sorry to be that guy: for those who want an easy way to fight more Igneous there are three missions with them in great numbers in Who Will Die (part 1) and they go up to at least level 22 🙂 and it’s a very fun arc (with a bonus map of the hollows on fire!)

 

1 hour ago, srmalloy said:

You also find them (along with Trolls and CoT) in the tunnels beneath the Gulch, accessible from the tunnel entrances around the edges of the Gulch. It is depressing that the revamp of the zone hugely reduced the spawn rate of the bosses, making the badge for them incredibly tedious outside of the Cavern of Transcendence trial.

 

Cool. More places for me to try to find them that I don't go in a thread about a place that the OP feels people aren't going to.

 

I'm unsure about the "Who Will Die" thing. I have been dragged into some of them by a teammate.

 

I'll have to make an exploratory mission down into those Tunnels around the edge of the Gulch. Wouldn't you think it might be a good idea to put some contact to send you down there and/or even have some contacts down in those tunnels to give you some missions to do down there? 

Just saying...

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

Wouldn't you think it might be a good idea to put some contact to send you down there and/or even have some contacts down in those tunnels to give you some missions to do down there? 

You get sent down into the Tunnels to defeat Atta by Talshak the Mystic as part of his arc, but from what I've seen, most people outlevel Flux by the end of his arc (the Frostfire mission) and don't get referred to Talshak.

 

Other than that, the Tunnels are the best place to hunt Troll bosses for the badge, since you can find two or three Calibans/Ogres in most of the spawns there, although you have to be careful with AoEs, or the detonating explosives in a significant fraction of the spawns will kill-steal credit (a problem I've also noticed with the explosives spawns in Striga at nights); the Trolls are still working to increase the Hollowing with more explosive caches.

[Wavicle]

The funneling in the game is a bit odd. There's a lot of content you have to kind of search for.

[Psyonico]

17 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

You get sent down into the Tunnels to defeat Atta by Talshak the Mystic as part of his arc

 

I run the hollows a lot, I've never been sent to the tunnels for Atta... It's always just a door mission inside the hollows itself.

 

Are you thinking about Karsis and the Cavern of Transcendence trial?

[Greycat]

19 hours ago, Go0gleplex said:

You missed Meg Mason beneath the Water Tower on the Hill in Cherry Hills. 

No, I was listing story arc mission givers, not the repeatable, who has nothing really to do with what's going on in the zone.