Couple questions for the experts.

[Dester]

Awesome COH is back.  Been a long time!

 

1. For leveling, we're having fun just killing mobs and leveling up.  Will we miss much in the early levels if we skip doing missions?  Is there anything we can't get later?

 

2. Do you do every missions, how do you know who to talk to?  Just speak with everyone?  I know we have contacts, but there are other missions all over the place.  Is there a list of all the important missions you should complete?

 

3.  For missions, are there any that are chains for the entire game?  meaning, if you don't do them low level, you won't be able to access higher level missions?

 

4.  Can you share missions with group members?

 

Thanks for the help.

[AkuTenshiiZero]

1) You can always backtrack and do missions via the Ouroboros system.  Ouroboros is a special time-travel zone that allows you to replay any storyline mission in the game.  Some of these storylines have badges associated with them, so you are "missing out," but you can just do it later.  In order to access Ouroboros, you need any time-travel badge, which will grant you a portal power.  The easiest way is to have someone else open a portal so you can grab the exploration badge way at the top of the Ouroboros platform.  The only snag is Safeguards/Mayhems, which you can only backtrack to after defeating 25 of the "signature" heroes/villains, AKA the guys who try to rob the bank or stop you from robbing it.

 

2) Missions are only gained via contacts, you will not find them randomly, so no need to go searching.  There are four types of contacts you can have in your contacts menu: Regular contacts who usually have a storyline, Radio/Newspaper which gives you a pool of random "go here and do a thing" missions, Detectives/Brokers who count the aforementioned random missions and will give you a Safeguard/Mayhem after a certain amount are done, and Tips which are gained randomly from defeated mobs and allow you to do alignment-related missions.  Your basic flow is this: Do Radios/Papers until you get a Safeguard/Mayhem, do that, then your Detective/Broker gives you a new contact.  That contact may give you another contact, otherwise repeat the process.  Fill in with whatever else you want to do.  You usually cannot get contacts just by walking up to them, you will need to be introduced by a prior contact.

 

3) Mission chains usually only last for a couple missions.  There is no continuous storyline through the entire game.  Later storylines might mention prior ones, but you are not required to complete them.  There is ONE exception, and that's Praetoria, you follow pretty much one storyline the whole time.  Bear in mind Praetoria breaks every convention I mentioned in point 2 and is purely going from one contact to another in an unbroken chain.

 

4) No, but if they happen to have the same mission you can share credit for completing it.

[subbacultchas]

Haha, scrapped this whole post because AkuTenshiiZero responded as I was typing it.

Edited August 9, 2019 by subbacultchas

[MunkiLord]

1. Story arcs and badge missions can be done later via Ouroborous Flashbacks, so you're good there. You'll miss out on some random missions, but off the top of my head I can't think of anything that is a big deal in that regard.

 

2. As you do missions for a contact they will eventually introduce you to another one, so you'll meet a good chunk of them that way if you don't outlevel that specific contact. For arcs related to zones, you can usually just go to the first contact in the string without being introduced. For example, once you hit level 20(I think) you can go to Stephanie Pebbles in Striga Isle and start her missions. After you do all four arcs in that zone you will be introduced to Ernesto Hess who is a Task Force contact. In order to start that specific Task Force you do have to be introduced to him. There may be a list of such things somewhere, but I'm not sure.

 

3. I don't think there are any game spanning arcs like that, but I'm not sure.

 

4. If you both have the same mission, non leaders will have the opportunity to complete theirs when your mission is completed.

[Zumberge]

You guyyyyyyys, stop answering people's posts when I'm typiiiiiiing, I'm trying to be helpful here. ;_;

 

Quote

3.  For missions, are there any that are chains for the entire game?  meaning, if you don't do them low level, you won't be able to access higher level missions?

 

Of a sort.  Twinshot in Atlas Park and Dr. Graves in Mercy Island each have a series of three arcs that require you to complete them in sequence as you progress in levels, and there's newer contacts and arcs in Atlas and Kings Row that linked together and hinted at plans for a longer narrative, except the whole "stopped existing" thing happened.

 

There's contacts that give you multiple arcs that unlock at different levels (the Arachnos patrons are the prime example), but you won't ever get locked out of those.

[justicebeliever]

47 minutes ago, Dester said:

2. Do you do every missions, how do you know who to talk to?  Just speak with everyone?  I know we have contacts, but there are other missions all over the place.  Is there a list of all the important missions you should complete?

There is also a "Find Contacts" button under the contacts tab...This will ID certain contacts with some specific arcs you might enjoy - David Wincott and the Hollows, Shauna Stockwell/Eagle Eye for Kings Row, etc...It adds new contacts as you level up

 

Also, don't forget about the wealth of Trials and Task Forces in the game:

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Task_Force

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Strike_Force

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Trial

 

And here are a couple of guides for Heroside:

 

 

 

[Dester]

Wow, probably the best responses to a thread in a gaming forum!  Thank you for all of the great information.

 

One more thing.  Not everyone plays at the same time and some might have missions other don't.  If a group of us go on a mission and only one person has it (the leader), will everyone get credit for it at the end once it is complete?  Or does each person have to go to the contact, get it and make sure it is active when the mission is run?

 

Thanks.

[justicebeliever]

1 minute ago, Dester said:

One more thing.  Not everyone plays at the same time and some might have missions other don't.  If a group of us go on a mission and only one person has it (the leader), will everyone get credit for it at the end once it is complete?  Or does each person have to go to the contact, get it and make sure it is active when the mission is run?

If two people have the exact same mission in a team (and one of them is the mission leader), then when the mission leader's mission is completed the other person (If they are STILL ON THE TEAM) will be asked if they want to "autocomplete" theirs.

 

If they don't have the mission at the time the mission is completed, they don't get "future credit" for it and would have to run it again if they care to...

[Ironblade]

2 minutes ago, Dester said:

One more thing.  Not everyone plays at the same time and some might have missions other don't.  If a group of us go on a mission and only one person has it (the leader), will everyone get credit for it at the end once it is complete?  Or does each person have to go to the contact, get it and make sure it is active when the mission is run?

Define "credit".  It's likely that others will not even have the contact active, let alone that specific mission, so they will not get credit in that sense.

If the mission awards a badge upon completion, yes, everyone will get the badge.

The mission complete XP will also be given to all players, although I seem to recall it's prorated if you weren't there for the entire mission.

[Ironblade]

2 hours ago, MunkiLord said:

For arcs related to zones, you can usually just go to the first contact in the string without being introduced. For example, once you hit level 20(I think) you can go to Stephanie Pebbles in Striga Isle and start her missions. After you do all four arcs in that zone you will be introduced to Ernesto Hess who is a Task Force contact. In order to start that specific Task Force you do have to be introduced to him. There may be a list of such things somewhere, but I'm not sure.

Worth noting: in order to unlock certain Task Force contacts, you can use Ouroboros to run the specific arc that unlocks it.

In your example, to unlock Ernesto Hess, you can do just Lars Hansen's arc via Ouroboros.

 

Other Task Force / Trial contacts that need to be unlocked are:  Karsis (Cavern of Transcendence) and Katie Hannon.  I can't think of any others offhand.

[Dester]

7 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

 

If the mission awards a badge upon completion, yes, everyone will get the badge.

 

So, does everyone get a badge for a mission even if they don't have that mission in their log?  Is that what the above is saying?  

[Ironblade]

10 minutes ago, Dester said:

So, does everyone get a badge for a mission even if they don't have that mission in their log?  Is that what the above is saying?  

Yes.

Before we had Ouroboros, when someone got a mission like 'Rescue the Fortune Teller', they would announce it because the only way to get the badge was to run the mission from the contact, whether it was your mission or not.

[MunkiLord]

1 hour ago, Ironblade said:

Worth noting: in order to unlock certain Task Force contacts, you can use Ouroboros to run the specific arc that unlocks it.

In your example, to unlock Ernesto Hess, you can do just Lars Hansen's arc via Ouroboros.

 

Other Task Force / Trial contacts that need to be unlocked are:  Karsis (Cavern of Transcendence) and Katie Hannon.  I can't think of any others offhand.

%#^%%*&%^!!!! How did I not know this?!?!?!?!?! I enjoy Striga, I do, and Hess is one of my favorite TFs. But I've skipped him on the last few characters because I didn't feel like dealing with every arc.

[PaxArcana]

1 hour ago, Dester said:

Wow, probably the best responses to a thread in a gaming forum!  Thank you for all of the great information.

You will find that the City Of X community is, and has long been, one of the better gaming communities out there.

Don't get me wrong, we have our black sheep, crabapples, sour grapes, and even a few lurker-under-the-bridge types.  But, in smaller proportion than typical for an MMO.  (Probably even moreso now, as we've hopefully shed the worst of the Negative Nancy types during the Interregnum - what you find here is still a somewhat distilled version of the old Live community.  🙂

[subbacultchas]

1 hour ago, justicebeliever said:

If two people have the exact same mission in a team (and one of them is the mission leader), then when the mission leader's mission is completed the other person (If they are STILL ON THE TEAM) will be asked if they want to "autocomplete" theirs.

 

If they don't have the mission at the time the mission is completed, they don't get "future credit" for it and would have to run it again if they care to...

This is true like 95% of the time. But there are exceptions, I have found.

The big one is in Heather Townsend's arc in DA, where it never seems to autocomplete the last one. That one is beneficial too, as you get get a lot of incarnate rewards that way. Also I have seen this happen when doing villain patron arcs too on the last mission, sometimes it seems to just not accept that a couple people finished it.

[subbacultchas]

10 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

%#^%%*&%^!!!! How did I not know this?!?!?!?!?! I enjoy Striga, I do, and Hess is one of my favorite TFs. But I've skipped him on the last few characters because I didn't feel like dealing with every arc.

Yep. I do this for Katie Hannon's tf unlock, instead of having to stay in Buck Salinger's level range.

[justicebeliever]

1 hour ago, PaxArcana said:

we have our black sheep, crabapples, sour grapes, and even a few lurker-under-the-bridge types

What a great Supergroup!  Negative Nancy was their ex-leader and now they have to move on into 2019 and fight enthusiasm wherever they find it...

[Blackbird71]

5 hours ago, Zumberge said:

Twinshot in Atlas Park and Dr. Graves in Mercy Island each have a series of three arcs that require you to complete them in sequence as you progress in levels,

It's worth pointing out that Twinshot/Dr. Graves will contact you when you train up to level 5, so no need to go looking for them.

 

5 hours ago, Dester said:

3.  For missions, are there any that are chains for the entire game?  meaning, if you don't do them low level, you won't be able to access higher level missions?

The closest I have seen is that for a Peacebringer character, you return to the same contact (Sunstorm) every 5 levels for a mission arc, and each arc carries on the story from the previous one.  I've only played one PB, and it's currently only at level 32, so I don't know how far this extends.  Also, I've never tested what happens if you skip one of the arcs at the appropriate level, or postpone talking to the contact until a later level.  It could be that the contact will only give you the level appropriate arc, skipping any you've out-leveled, or it may just start you off at the beginning arc regardless of how long you waited to talk to him.

 

I've yet to play a Warshade, but I assume they have similar arcs.

[Twisted Toon]

On 8/9/2019 at 2:23 PM, Blackbird71 said:

The closest I have seen is that for a Peacebringer character, you return to the same contact (Sunstorm) every 5 levels for a mission arc, and each arc carries on the story from the previous one.  I've only played one PB, and it's currently only at level 32, so I don't know how far this extends.  Also, I've never tested what happens if you skip one of the arcs at the appropriate level, or postpone talking to the contact until a later level.  It could be that the contact will only give you the level appropriate arc, skipping any you've out-leveled, or it may just start you off at the beginning arc regardless of how long you waited to talk to him.

 

I've yet to play a Warshade, but I assume they have similar arcs.

I could try that out on my PB. She hasn't done a single mission from any of her contacts, just Newspaper missions, tip missions, and other members of the team's missions. Sunstorm does show up as a contact with available missions, and the PB is level 34. So, I might try out the Kheldian contact soon.

[Lunchmoney]

On 8/9/2019 at 2:59 PM, AkuTenshiiZero said:

Safeguards/Mayhems, which you can only backtrack to after defeating 25 of the "signature" heroes/villains

I've missed a few on my main toon; how does this work? Once I've hit 25 do I get an option of which bank I want to save when a safeguard is offered?

[Shazzie]

1 hour ago, Lunchmoney said:

I've missed a few on my main toon; how does this work? Once I've hit 25 do I get an option of which bank I want to save when a safeguard is offered?

When you get the badge for defeating 25 'signatures', you also unlock a contact. That contact gives any safeguard/mayhem you so choose. One thing to note is when you ask about missions, they'll offer you a random safeguard/mayhem. If you want a particular one, you must 'talk about something else' and then you can choose which one you want from the list.

[Itsyagirl]

Just for reference the redside mayhem contact is called Lord Schwienzer. I cant for the life of me remember the blue one though. Agent Hassan I think?

[Lunchmoney]

On 8/18/2019 at 7:24 PM, Shazzie said:

When you get the badge for defeating 25 'signatures', you also unlock a contact. That contact gives any safeguard/mayhem you so choose. One thing to note is when you ask about missions, they'll offer you a random safeguard/mayhem. If you want a particular one, you must 'talk about something else' and then you can choose which one you want from the list.

What's the name of the contact?

 

edit: I searched my contacts and found him. Agent Hassell in Steel Canyon.

Edited August 25, 2019 by Lunchmoney

[Coin]

On 8/18/2019 at 7:24 PM, Shazzie said:

When you get the badge for defeating 25 'signatures', you also unlock a contact. That contact gives any safeguard/mayhem you so choose. One thing to note is when you ask about missions, they'll offer you a random safeguard/mayhem. If you want a particular one, you must 'talk about something else' and then you can choose which one you want from the list.

Just to confirm, is that the Villain Disruptor badge?

[Lunchmoney]

6 hours ago, Coin said:

is that the Villain Disruptor badge?

Yes.