Farming Incarnate Salvage - 1 salvage roll every 15 minutes!

[Display Name]

2 hours ago, ElPuerco said:

So if you’re not finishing as fast as you like maybe try that. 

 

But, yes, you can skip Hua but I think that changes the last fight. 

That's a polite way of putting it!  I wasn't even SURVIVING the last fight!  Lol!  Ok, I'll try that next time!

 

I've been trying to set up groups for this and run the arc like the radio missions.  The problem is that using the Ice and Flame requires everyone on the team to be present when the mission is assigned.  But what's really neat is that there is a base entrance portal very close to the Tunnel portal in Dark Astoria.  Once I get the Ice & Flame, then I can bring everyone into my personal base and run the mission over and over without using the first-timers'.  I tried a test run tonight and was able to do everything but repeat the mission myself.

 

I told the new people in the group that the general strategy was to "GET TO THE CHOPPA!"  Lol!  It's difficult for newcomers to use a copied/pasted link for this thread in the chat window so I just tell them it's the Heather Townshend arc.  I just show them where she's located in-game so they can find it later.

[Hedgefund]

Note for anyone multi-boxing this - make sure your "killer" has the star.  I just tried it with my buffer having the star, the idea being he could camp at Heather to select the 2nd mission (before getting phone) but the npcs will only talk to the star holder.  It was a pain because you're stuck until the star holder makes his way to the NPC you have to dialog with.

 

I haven't tried every combination of save/kill Hua and the save none/save 1/save 2 for the final mission.  It seems to me skipping Hua just saved that time.  It does seem that save both is the most difficult (and time consuming) option.  I might try all 6 combos and keep good notes on what happens.

 

Update 1 for choosing to defeat Hua Tov (with 2 players)

1) save both - 6 Knives bosses and a 2 minute timer.  

2) save 1 - ambush included 1 Knives boss, no timer

3) save none - BP ambush including a Ravager (boss)

 

I kind of prefer the Knives boss, but not by much.  Clearly #1 is the most time consuming, especially if you can't control them and they go off flying willy nilly.  

 

I'll update for skipping Hua Tov later.

Edited August 18, 2019 by Hedgefund

[Hedgefund]

I've been doing this several times and have concluded that the optimal path is to NOT fight Hua Tov and then in the final mission, give up (don't save) both Kadabra Kill and Sigil.  This results in a very managable Tsoo ambush that spawns immediately, which saves some real time in an effort where I'm trying to shave off any time I can.  If you just save 1 of them, then there's a conversation that takes, I dunno, 30 seconds (seems like an hour) and of course, if you save both you have a pretty big fight ahead with mobs that like to fly away (and that room has a very high ceiling).

 

The most important time saver is to swallow your pride and do the arc at 0/1, even if it's anathema for you to fight greens, blues and greys.  It's just faster, to the tune of minutes.

[Vanden]

I always choose to save both and just wipe out the Knives with a Judgment. At -1, No Bosses with 3 level shifts it's a one-hit kill on all of them.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Vanden

[Chirikiti]

I feel like I was one of the early adopters who was doing this. I knew this from live and went straight to it. Rarely was anybody in DA doing these a few months ago and now I see tons.

The whole DA story arc is worth doing, one of the better sequences in game.

 

Arc 1 and Arc 2 are definately the grind loot ones, especially 1. 10-13minutes to complete. 

 

I hit 50 and t4'd all my incarn powers in 3 days. o_-

 

p.s. BAFs suck

p.p.s. In the time it takes to recruit a BAF you can run 1 or 2 of these

 

[Oklahoman]

On 8/24/2019 at 10:59 PM, Chirikiti said:

p.s. BAFs suck

p.p.s. In the time it takes to recruit a BAF you can run 1 or 2 of these

I enjoy running, or participating in, BAFs, but you are absolutely correct with regards to the time involved. A BAF does have the benefit of getting you Incarnate XP, threads, inf, etc. on top of the Salvage Roll.

 

Personally, I’d participate in Rikti mothership raids, which get you everything except the Salvage Roll. Those run pretty regularly and the rewards a pretty good. Then, do this trick to get your components.

[Chirikiti]

DA gives more threads, more incarn xp per unit time, more emp merits (1 per run automatically), and yes no astrals, than any BAF ever could. ANNNND you can run them with people just as you can a BAF but as many or few as you choose for those who will bring up the I like to group point (I do too).

[chigiabelo]

Strangely enough, I've found some of the farming missions in AE to be a good source of incarnate shards. I spend a couple of hours there PL'ing another character in an S/L farm and had 28 shards at the end of the exercise.

[Chirikiti]

Shards are by far the worst way to incarnate anything even one's first alpha.  Or did you mean threads?

 

 

[Omega-202]

2 hours ago, Chirikiti said:

Shards are by far the worst way to incarnate anything even one's first alpha.  Or did you mean threads?

 

 

Definitely worse than threads, but not useless.  I stockpile shards, grab some Grai Matters and Nictus shards and hold on to some Notice of the Wells from weekly TFs on my 50s and cash them in for pieces of my second Alpha or to help go from tier 3>4 on my first.  

[FourSpeed]

Just wanted to pop in and say thanks to the OP for this mini-guide.  I used to run this mission a fair amount back on Live, but I don't think I knew you could run it over and over, farm-style.

 

It's been a great help getting my Elec/Elec Blaster all the threads he needs for his iStuff.  🙂  He plays more like a ranged Stalker, so he usually zips thru it pretty quickly. His best time is just a few ticks over 10 minutes even (10:06, iirc).  With Aim, Build-Up, and Zapp, he one-shots the guys he needs to, including Hua Tov (although, like most folks, I usually  just click thru him), and, Aim, Zapp, and Thunderous Blast takes care of the final mission question of who is getting rescued, or not...  Usually, the baddies' reply is to all drop dead without firing a shot...  (Invisibility is a beautiful thing for a pre-emptive Alpha Strike)  🙂

 

Anyway, once again, Thanks.  I've had a lot of fun zipping thru this arc, and it's a fun, and useful one, to run thru when playing time is short.

 

Cheers,

4

[Yomo Kimyata]

Thanks for this; I would have found this arc eventually but this got me here more quickly.  It's very entertaining!

[ScrewlooseCohh]

On 8/26/2019 at 5:54 PM, ElPuerco said:

I enjoy running, or participating in, BAFs, but you are absolutely correct with regards to the time involved. A BAF does have the benefit of getting you Incarnate XP, threads, inf, etc. on top of the Salvage Roll.

 

Personally, I’d participate in Rikti mothership raids, which get you everything except the Salvage Roll. Those run pretty regularly and the rewards a pretty good. Then, do this trick to get your components.

 

BAF can give more threads as drops, but my rate of VR salvage is definitely better with Heather Townshend.

 

Plus I can start it at the drop of a hat and it gives better Exp and iExp than a BAF.

 

One thing I would suggest to people is that you should try putting out an open recruiting call on the LFG channel as doing it with a small group is even better exp and good fun too.

 

regards, Screwloose.

"I am not young enough to know everything."

 

[quixoteprog]

While I would not mind doing this in a group, it would probably be sub-optimal as far as components per time.

 

With the Freebird flight stealth IO and set at -1/1 (no bosses) I can routinely stealth to the final fight and complete this in under 15 min. Even on a mind/emp controller. I usually choose to save both. Mass Confusion helps a LOT. Even with that I died a couple times on the first try but still completed (since I have rise of the phoenix) but on subsequent runs with a level shift and Judgement Ion combined with mass confusion I could kill everything in time.

 

With a group, unless EVERYONE had stealth, it would mean fighting a lot more spawns.

Edited January 2, 2020 by quixoteprog

[AboveTheChemist]

I posted this data in another thread but thought it might be appropriate here as well. I parsed my logs and found 153 instances since July 17th of receiving incarnate rewards via the random table, most of which were from completing Heather's arc as described in this guide.

 

Of the 153 chances, there were 54 common, 50 uncommon, 29 rare, and 20 very rare rewards. In terms of percentages, this equates to 35.3% common, 32.7% uncommon, 19.0% rare, and 13.1% very rare rewards. The chance of getting a very rare appears to be about 1 in 8, the chance of a rare about 1 in 5, and the chance of both common and uncommon each about 1 in 3.

[Crysis]

Been doing this for awhile during off-peak times of the day to T4 out multiple incarnate powers so I have "alternative slotting" abilities.  With practice, I can routinely run this in under 8 mins including travel times to missions.  

 

-Set mission difficulty at -1/1

-Stealth and ignore anything other than mission objectives

-Call Contact while traveling to next mission entrance, they never change, post second mission

-P2W Reveal power for first mission, only focus on two objectives, ignore anything else

-Only focus on winged opponents and those around them in second mission.  I've found the objectives at end of first big room on first floor or upstairs and then the second and third in first room main or upper in second floor, followed by hallway and/or 'ruined' room on second floor.  Often at end of hallway with detective, which you can ignore, on second floor.  

-On third mission, use lowest order responses to Hua to get by him without fighting.  Then stealth to first two glowies, usually at first major T intersection, inside the warehouse room or on the upper floor.  Ignore the special characters on upper catwalk hallways.  Then go to last section of map and find the boss, dispatch and hit the glowie.  Ignore any other attacks/encounters.

-On fourth mission, Reveal to get to end without engaging anything.  Choose to kill them both, small ambush easily defeated follows.

 

Routinely 7-8 mins for me, can almost do it blindfolded.

 

My VR drop rate hasn't been great, but I usually get two common and an Emp per arc.  Has allowed me to T4 out entire toons by lvl 12 vet status pretty routinely.   And double T4 Alpha, Destiny and Hybrid by lvl 16.  Much, much faster than BAF, LAM, Apex/Tin Mage once you figure in all the league assembly, waiting for some idiot to press the green button, etc.

[Vanden]

On 8/24/2019 at 6:13 PM, Vanden said:

I always choose to save both and just wipe out the Knives with a Judgment. At -1, No Bosses with 3 level shifts it's a one-hit kill on all of them.

Hah, so, funny story about this. It turns out you can't normally one-shot the Knives in the final encounter with Judgment. Even at -1 No Bosses, with +3 level shifts, and a 45% damage buff from Musculature, they'll survive with just a little HP. What happened was, I was running the mission with a VEAT, and had the Superior Spider's Bite proc slotted. This affects every power you have that takes damage enhancements, which includes Judgments, and with their 90s recharge the chance of proc is 90%, so that was adding that last little bit of damage I needed to one-shot the Knives bosses.

 

Now, even with this new knowledge, I still fight the Knives at the end. It just takes a couple AoEs to knock off the last bits of HP Judgment leaves behind; just make sure you focus on the Conquerors first (the ones with the icy aura), because they can MoG and you want to finish them off before they do.

[Dracomicon]

On 1/4/2020 at 6:08 AM, AboveTheChemist said:

I posted this data in another thread but thought it might be appropriate here as well. I parsed my logs and found 153 instances since July 17th of receiving incarnate rewards via the random table, most of which were from completing Heather's arc as described in this guide.

 

Of the 153 chances, there were 54 common, 50 uncommon, 29 rare, and 20 very rare rewards. In terms of percentages, this equates to 35.3% common, 32.7% uncommon, 19.0% rare, and 13.1% very rare rewards. The chance of getting a very rare appears to be about 1 in 8, the chance of a rare about 1 in 5, and the chance of both common and uncommon each about 1 in 3.

 

Just to add my data to this, the drops might to be tied to what difficulty settings you run the missions at. I ran this arc 20 times on two different characters (a small sample, I know) but had two very different results based on their settings:

 

Mastermind 20 times running the Arc at +2/6 with bosses my drops were: 9 common, 5 uncommon, 3 rare, 3 very rare

Controller 20 times running the Arc at +0/3 no bosses and my drops were: 18 common, 2 uncommon

 

The Mastermind runs with bosses seem to support the percentages from AboveTheChemist, but the Controller runs show that either the game RNG hates him or the difficulty settings do affect the drop percentages. I suspect that the option to keep bosses on, is the deciding factor to getting better drop percentages but the sample size is so small that I will need to keep track of it more. 

 

Has anyone else seen reward drop differences based on difficulty settings?

[Shred Monkey]

Since empyrean merits can be converted to reward merits, repeating this arc is also the fastest way I've found to earn reward merits solo.

[AboveTheChemist]

6 hours ago, Dracomicon said:

Has anyone else seen reward drop differences based on difficulty settings?

If it matters, I'd say 98% of the runs that my data represents were on -1 or at most 0 level difference, with team size of 1, no bosses. I didn't want the runs to take any longer than necessary so I never cranked them up above 'normal' settings.

[Dracomicon]

13 hours ago, AboveTheChemist said:

If it matters, I'd say 98% of the runs that my data represents were on -1 or at most 0 level difference, with team size of 1, no bosses. I didn't want the runs to take any longer than necessary so I never cranked them up above 'normal' settings.

 

Thanks for the reply. That seems to indicate it was on my end. I did run my MasterMind runs on my newer computer, but ran my controller on my significantly older computer. I have noticed that my low end computer tends to have more lag and the procs do not seem to fire as frequently. I wonder if the RNG is different for low end computers. Or more likely, the RNG just hates my controller 🙂

[Dracomicon]

OK, just an update on my numbers, I ran both 10 more times on my better machine and the final results were:

 

Mastermind 20 times running the Arc at +2/6 with bosses my drops were: 13 common, 8 uncommon, 5 rare, 4 very rare

Controller 20 times running the Arc at +0/3 no bosses and my drops were: 25 common, 5 uncommon

 

Then I added was finally able to run my controller with bosses and so far these are my results:

 

Controller 3 times running the Arc at -1/1 no bosses and my drops were: 1 uncommon, 1 rare, 1 very rare

 

Either my controller had terrible luck when running on no bosses, or there is a possibility that you get better rolls with bosses. It was just funny that the first time I ran with bosses, the first random drop I got was the first very rare for this character.

[Bananiac]

For future reference (and this has absolutely nothing to do with me getting lost a couple of times trying to do this!) I took a few quick screenshots of the map layouts.

After a couple of runs I kinda get around now on my own, but others may find it helpfull.

 

The most difficult part now became finding the Knives in the office and the Glowies in the storage facilty. They seem to start taking extra effort to hide at most unusal places, those little suckers...

 

   

[krafti]

Is this still the optimum/only way to get incarnate pieces solo?

 

Thanks for all of your great work, Ok.

[Oklahoman]

13 hours ago, krafti said:

Is this still the optimum/only way to get incarnate pieces solo?

I don't know about "only" but it's still the best way I have found to do this solo. You can run it anytime by yourself, as many times as you like, and most people report (brag?) they can do it much quicker than 15 minutes.

 

You can go the AE Fire Farm route, too. You get a stash of emps and threads every 3 vet levels, and you can use those to buy your components. A lot of leaders don't mind - perhaps even prefer - "sitters" who can go AFK by the door. You might get a vet level or two from each run, depending on the map.

 

Otherwise, when you see stuff running in Ouro, jump in on whatever you can and ride that bull until it throws you. Some leaders seem to be running BAFs back-to-back all day long now on Excelsior.