[u]Guide to obtaining the Venomous badge (Heroes)[u]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[u]Introduction[u]
Having just recently and finally earned the Venomous badge for my badge-hunting hero, I thought I'd lay out some helpful tips to others trying to obtain this badge. This guide is based upon my own experiences trying to get this badge on hero-side, along with the experiences of others. Feel free to post any follow-up ideas for inclusion, in case I missed them. This is not for villains, as they have far more opportunities to get this badge, especially once they are high enough to just roam around Grandville.
[u]Toxic Tarantulas[u]
The Venomous badge will actually increase your badge count by 2, since gaining this badge unlocks an associated gladiator badge.
Whereas most "defeat x number of bosses" badges are limited to just 100, this one is set at 200. This is incredibly frustrating for a hero, especially a soloer. My badge-hunting blaster took over a year to get this badge (through off and on again hunting and farming). It was so frustrating at times, that I swore I'd just let that one be put into the same category as Back from the Future, Empath and Immortal (in other words, I'd not worry about it now, and just make that my end-game content).
However, over time, I found out various methods of finding more toxics than I had known about.
These particular enemies are boss level Arachnos spiders you find in high difficulty missions, set for 7 or 8. They are the very large spiderbots that have the green forelimbs. You can see the info about them here, including a picture:
Link to Toxics on Paragonwiki.com
They are fairly tough to take down solo, depending on your AT/powers/slotting. On my energy/energy badge-hunting blaster, it's not too terrible of a fight, as my guy has been IO'd out for high defenses (~30% defense to ranged, melee and AoE), so he's not mezzed nearly as much as others can be. Most likely, you'll be fighting with a team of other frustrated heroes trying to get this badge behind them, so it won't be so difficult.
I haven't found these toxics anywhere less than the mid 20's levels. In fact, as far as I can tell, they didn't start showing up for me until some of the timed missions in Siren's call.
[u]Tactics[u]
There are several places and ways of farming these guys:
- PvP outdoor hunting
- Arachnos indoor missions (PvP zones)
- Arachnos indoor missions (standard arcs/missions)
- non-PvP outdoor hunting (RWZ)
- The Warburg mission farm
- The Statesman Taskforce farm (including a special method)
[u]The PvP zones, outdoor and indoor[u]
PvP zones are crawling with Arachnos, but even there, Toxic Tarantulas are not seen that often.
Currently, there are 4 PvP zones in CoH/CoV:
- Bloody Bay
- Siren's Call
- Warburg
- Recluse's Victory
[u]Bloody Bay:[u] I've looked but never seen any Toxics roaming around Bloody Bay. Please let me know if you've ever seen any there. I've also not seen them inside of the timed missions in Bloody Bay.
[u]Siren's call:[u] Some will be found in the hotspots on the map. There are occasionally some toxics roaming around in the northeastern corner of the map. Many say that they spawn near the Talos Park marker on the map. I've found some in the broken up grounds near the water towers on that part of the map. My experience, running solo through there, is that there will be one or two, then they disappear. My hunting was during times when the zone was relatively empty. I believe that the missions in Siren's Call can also spawn some toxics if you have a team of 8.
[u]Warburg:[u] THE ROGUE TOXICS ROAMING OUTSIDE DO NOT COUNT!!!! This is a big time waster for many. They see the green legged toxics in the warburg streets, take out dozens, and then wonder why the bar hasn't moved. If they say "Rogue" on their name, then they don't count. What a shame though, as this would make the badge straightforward and easy after level 30. It would also make this guide unnecessary.
[u]Recluse's Victory:[u] The high level zone is where I round several toxics. However, they aren't clumped up into groups on the streets. The only time I ever saw them were in the groups of "running" arachnos. Usually a fortunata, a wolf spider, maybe a few Mu's, and then a big Toxic. While I encountered them in various areas, I think I ran into most of them just on the north side of the central paragon building (just north of the Atlas statue). This worked out as I was also pillboxing at the time with a heavy, and the heavies can take down the group and the toxic with ease. Even then, I only saw a few groups in a couple of hours of pillboxing, so this is still a slow method. Recluse's Victory currently doesn't have the timed missions like the other PvP zones, so outdoor hunting was the only method here.
[u]Arachnos arcs and missions (indoor)[u]
Scanner missions with Arachnos in many levels/zones can produce toxics with 7 or 8 team members. I would think they would start popping up in the late 20's though.
The issue 11 oroborus arc from Mendor Silos had some very good Arachnos mission maps with several toxics, assuming you had 7 or 8 teammates.
The Valentine's Day missions from DJ Zero transports you to a section of Sharkhead Island called Villa Requin. In this area, you'll find several Arachnos factions, although I don't recall seeing any Toxics at the time there (but then again, I didn't run the mission with the 7 or 8 needed to spawn bosses). I would think they would be avaiable though, especially if the mission holder was a high level character. This mission is given 10 times by DJ Zero (assuming you finish the mission and don't simply reset).
[u]Non-PvP zone outdoor hunting[u]
So far, the only non-PvP zone I've found Toxics are in the Rikti War Zone. Primarily the area on the southeastern side of the map.
I've been told that when issue 10 was released, and the zone changed from the crash site to the warzone, that there were quite a number of toxics to be seen at the time. My experience was that they were few and far between, about as elusive as the Siren's Call Toxics.
Again, I was mostly soloing, so I would only see 1 or 2 (if any) in that area, with no competing hunters, and then no more. Someone suggested that a team of hunters would help spawn them since they were boss level. I took a team of 4 there and it didn't seem to help. I would suspect that a team of 7 or 8 roaming the streets might see more. Or perhaps, if the zone were very busy in that area, we might see more.
[u]The Warburg mission farm[u]
One of the early ways to get the toxics (pre-i9 if I recall) was to farm the repeatable missions in Warburg. This would require 7 or 8 (8 preferrable). The preferred method was to have someone as close to 30 (to make the arachnos spawn at the lowest level for Warburg), on a mission set for 8 at invincible.
I don't believe the type of mission mattered (i.e. rescue, defend, find, etc).
Basically, the low level character gets the mission, all enter, the higher levels (hopefully so high that they don't get auto-attacked) run through, taking out the 1 or 2 toxics per mission, all exit, reset, etc. Very boring, and time consuming I would think (waiting for all involved to zone in and out).
The teammates don't have to be in the same zone or inside the map for the spawn size to work. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some have multiple accounts and could log in some "fillers" to keep the team size up. Also, I've heard of some asking people in Atlas Park to join just long enough to spawn. This can be annoying though, so best to keep it to a minimum. You may also be able to find like-minded badgers on your server's badge channel, if you have one (see below for more details).
[u]The Statesman Taskforce[u]
Several missions in the Statesman Taskforce have large arachnos spawns. The fact that 8 are required to start an STF means that you'll be seeing those green-legged bots a lot. The first mission alone is a fantastic source of Toxics.
Just running STFs continually on your server will help bump up that progress bar. The problem comes when some just want to rush through it as fast as possible. That first mission alone is a HUGE map full of groups all over. Most teams will want to move on after taking out the web parts and Arbiter Sands and won't be very appreciative if you want to linger and clear out the whole map.
This is another place where you would want to get a team of dedicated badgers to help you out. In fact, if all you are after in this case are the toxics for that badge, form a team of badgers that specifically want to do just that first mission and not the whole STF.
This first map will spawn between 15 and 20 toxics easily. They are spread all over, but not all groups will have them. Even on 8 man teams, it isn't a guarantee. On the clearing runs I participated in, we would attack the groups near the entrance (the docks), then make a clockwise sweep around the outer top edge of the island, the green grassy areas and the beach, then work our way down on top of the grates over the main area, then work down level by level hitting the groups where they hid. Be sure to check the corners as some groups spawn behind equipment and you can miss them.
A run through this will probably be 15-30 minutes per run for most teams (some specialty teams like all fire/rad controllers would blast through this much faster).
[u]But what if I can't find 8 willing to do this?[u]
If you can't get enough to actively run these STF runs, you can take advantage of the new TF spawning rules. Not long ago (as of this writing), Taskforces and strike forces were altered so that spawn sizes were based on who had joined but not quit the TF/SF, regardless of whether they were actually logged in at the time. TFs/SFs used to be more "soloable". People could start a TF, then all but one log out, and that one would solo each mission until the final one, and then log out. All would log back in at an agreed-upon time to finish the TF together to get the
rewards. Doing things this way would make the missions faster as when they would spawn for just one, a single character could rush through them without fear of bosses or even lts at times (depending on the difficulty setting).
In order to combat farming of some lowlevel SFs (at least that's my guess for the change), the devs changed it to make the spawn sizes dependent on who was in the TF/SF regardless of if they were online or not. So, those 8-man TFs/SFs would spawn for 8 even if just 1 were actively on and running.
For farming the STF, this is advantageous. To get toxics, we need at least 7, and preferrably 8. But if you can't find others to help, or enough to help, you can still force the spawn for 8 by asking others to "donate" a spare high level character (45-50 for the STF), even if they don't plan to help with the clearing runs.
This game causes severe alt-itis. When many hit 50, they usually roll a new level 1 with different powers, etc. This means their 50 goes unused for some length of time. Why not donate this character to your STF toxic farm? This is exactly how I finished out my badge. I run multiple accounts. I logged in 3 level 50's, then sent out a request for 5 other "donations". What I got was 5 donations, but 1 really needed that badge, so he helped me on the first run until he got the badge.
Be up front and tell them that you'll need this character to remain unused for a few days. In my case, I only needed them for a couple of days. That shouldn't be a problem with some, as many players temporarily abandon some characters to play others. So, you get your character(s) plus the donations, start the STF, and the donations log out (but don't quit) the STF. You then enter and carefully solo clear the groups. When you are done, you reset by logging out of the game for a couple of minutes, then logging back in and voila, the mission is reset.
Now, soloing like this should be done on Heroic difficulty, and very carefully. Not many AT's can solo 8-man spawn sized arachnos groups. Hopefully, you may have some that really want to help and get the badge themselves, or are just looking to play and won't log out. In my case, I had my 3 accounts running, plus a tanker that wanted the badge, and the other 4 logged out.
My badger is an energy/energy blaster, IO'd to have high defense (nearly non-elude superreflexes scrapper level), so he has good survivability. I also had an earth/rad and illusion/rad controllers helping with heal on auto, casting out pets and decoys and holds and debuffs. And I took my time! Having these donation characters for several days meant that I wasn't rushed. I played that night and the next morning and had my badge, at my pace.
If you use this method, you can probably get the badge within 20 runs (or much less, depending on how many other methods you used to get the toxics before entering STF level range).
One more thing: This first mission of the Statesman TF is great if you want to get the Mu Guardian or Fortunata gladiators since they are distributed among the groups as well. Personally, I got the Mu Guardian gladiator by parking a heavy near the villain entrance in RV. However, it was on a medium-population server during a time when there weren't any villains around to gank me.
[u]Badge Channels[u]
Many servers have badge channels which can greatly help coordinate various badging activities. My badger plays on Champion, which is a medium population server, but has a VERY active badge channel. It used to be called "Champion BMT", where BMT was short for badges, monster, trials/taskforces. It has been changed to "BMT of Champion".
Other servers should have a badge channel. Asking in broadcast on that server, or asking in the server forums here should lead you in the right directions.
Many thanks to the very active BMT of Champion for helping me finally finish this very difficult badge!
[u]Comments?[u]
If there are other methods to help hero badgers get this badge faster, please don't hesitate to post them here.
