Shadow Shard Tips


Alimistar

 

Posted

Well, I don't see ANY guides to the Shadow Shard at all. I've been having a ball in this place for the past few days so I might as well share what I've learned.....

1. Open up some hard drive space because you are going to be taking a LOT of screenshots.

2. To get to the Shadow Shard you have to be level 40. Go into the center Portal building in Per Island and take a right when you exit the elevators. (This is past some sandbags, but those sandbangs seem to be gone on the test server right now.) You don't need a mission there to enter this portal.

3. As soon as you walk into the Shard, you'll see a military general. Talk to him. Do his nice little mission and practice on that gravity geyser. Once you earn his trust (which comes pretty fast), General Hammond will also let you buy and sell high level enhancements.

4. Deaths in the Shadow Shard drop you into Firebase Zulu's medical station. You won't be sent clear back to PI.

5. If you fall off an island in a zone, you will be sent back to the starting point of that zone, near the gateway to the previous zone. So in the first zone you will be dropped into Firebase Zulu not too far from the gate back to PI. Thus, if you want to go from a zone deep in the Shadow Shard back home again, all you need to do is jump off the edge, use the gateway to the previous zone, jump off again, and repeat until you're back at Paragon City.

6. It won't be long before you get a mission from Dr. Boyd to see Dr. Huxley in the Cascade Shadow Shard. Do this!! You'll have to do a lot of travel in the two zones but it isn't too bad, especially on the Zulu side. Once you finish, you are given access to Mole Point Charlie's gateway. This lets you pop back and forth from the middle of the Cascade zone to Firebase Zulu! I expect there are a bunch of these gates that will make travelling forward in the Shadow Zone pretty fast.

7. Huxley also becomes a contact, giving you missions to gather fruit. The first is a real bear to get to but, once you get her first mission done, she'll continue to give you fruit farming missions. These fruits, when picked, turn into max size inspirations. I've got one right now that's close to Firebase Zulu and has fifteen or so max-heal inspirations!

8. On Geysers: when you use these, you are meant to have all movement affecting powers off. That means powers that speed you up AND slow you down. When you are on your trajectory, you can use the forward and back keys to make you go forward faster or slower. If you have powers on, that effect gets magnified or muted - both of which will make it harder to do.

9. Geysers in Firebase Zulu are mostly pretty good but do not count on any geyser to just drop you in some nice, safe spot. If you just walk onto geysers and don't try to control your trajectory, they will sometimes come up short or will drop you into a spawn of nasty things. Watch where you are going and try to steer! (And, if you're going straight up, that means use the camera to pan up!)

10. Geysers have a direction. It's not really explained in the general's tutorial but each geyser has a little slot in the rock near it. You are meant to walk up that slot. If you hit a geyer from the side.... well..... the results are undocumented.

11. You can use teleport friend to drop an alley right on a geyser. Players with aura trails are particularly fun to watch getting shot off into the stormy sky. (Not that you would ever do such a thing - that's just an observation. )

12. Fliers don't need gravity geysers at all. They might want to use them at times to speed up travel (or just because it's fun to get shot around a zone) but they can always just point their nose at the target and go. I haven't seen the teleport travel power at work in the Shadow Zone but I would think it would do just fine, too.

13. Recall Friend is incredibly handy in the Shadow Shard. Flying/Teleporting heroes with Recall Friend can make travel a snap. (Just be sure to take the time to enjoy the gravity geysers on occasion!)

14. Superjump can be used between some of the closer islands. Good luck gauging the distance.

15. Contacts seem to repeat missions constantly. At least so far, there have been no story arcs or mini arcs.

16. Each zone has had a person with a Task Force that requires eight heroes. I haven't been able to start any of them yet. (Heck, there's rarely more than four people in the entire Cascade zone at any one time!)


I'm really having a ball in this zone. If you're one of those people who isn't happy unless they are earning at least 1000xp per minute (or whatever) then you probably won't like the place much. However, if you've got a lot of explorer in you, this place is fantastic! I haven't seen much of the story yet but anyplace with funky fruits and transdimensional vines can't be bad.


 

Posted

There's only two mole points so far, the one in the first zone and the one in the second.


Culex's resistance guide

 

Posted

Good advice. If you want to learn more about kora fruit missions, see my guide.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
9. Geysers in Firebase Zulu are mostly pretty good but do not count on any geyser to just drop you in some nice, safe spot. If you just walk onto geysers and don't try to control your trajectory, they will sometimes come up short or will drop you into a spawn of nasty things. Watch where you are going and try to steer! (And, if you're going straight up, that means use the camera to pan up!)

[/ QUOTE ]

So far my experience has been: if the geyser is "long jump" style, you need to be pressing your forward-move key during the trip to hit the correct landing zone, but if the geyser is "high jump" style, you generally should _not_ press forward until you've gone up for a good portion of the arc.


 

Posted

The task forces, though repetitive and requiring lots of traveling, have some really amazing end bosses/AV's. You could say that the "Faatham the Kind" TF is a COH end game. Here's some pics from the Shadow Shard TF's Enjoy!


 

Posted

Question : i've tried to use Geysers with Phase Shift on. It didnt work. Is it intended?


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
The task forces, though repetitive and requiring lots of traveling, have some really amazing end bosses/AV's. You could say that the "Faatham the Kind" TF is a COH end game. Here's some pics from the Shadow Shard TF's Enjoy!

[/ QUOTE ]

excellent pics man!!!

We're definitely doing those missions when our time comes (up and rising sg, Incandescent cell, highest member lvl 39), it looks worth it!


 

Posted

I reccomend leaving Super Jump turned on when you use the geysers. Some of them seem to be aimed kinda badly (especially in FBZ!), and will shoot you just a few feet short of your goal. Be careful not to touch the keys until you are near the destination though, as any movements you make will override the geyser's speed boost.

The first time you go in there, you'll fall down a LOT on the geysers, but once you get the hang of it you'll pretty much never fall down (basically, if you make it to the Cascades you have gotten the hang of it).

There are some nice mobs in the Shard as well. It is a far better place to hunt Fakes than PI IMHO. There are groups with 2 Fakes in them on some islands.

The TFs in the Shard are apparently real back breakers. The first one is like Positron's TF. Tons of missions and no AV at the end (although they do have a "click 4 things simultaniously" mission at the end, so you can't solo them like you can with Positron). Plan for 8-12 hours to finish a TF in the shard. Some can be done quicker, but it probably requires people who are familiar with the TF, which are hard to find.


 

Posted

I haven't done the first TF, but I've done the last 3. They took us about 6 hours each, and none of us were familiar with them. Just have some people with Recall Friend handy. And if you have a mission outside the Shard while you're in the Chantry, just remember that falling is the fastest travel power of all.

And don't tolerate any dilly-dallying.


 

Posted

The first one is probably longer than the others. We were making extremely good time through the missions and it was still 7 hours due to the quantity of missions. It also has about six of those "four simultaneous blinky" missions towards the end, so you need at least half the team for that point. The story was dull and the lack of archvillain was disappointing, as was the fact that half the TF was done fighting Crey (which we were all sick of by the low 40s) instead of Rularuu.

I recommend skipping it and going straight to the others which, by all rights, sound better.


 

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We have a full group of 8 in our high 40's with 2 50's that are about three hours into the 2nd TF. So far, it is the most fun we have had in a long time with our high chars as it has actually been challenging. For those of us that aren't 50 yet, the XP has been great too. We pan to do the last two TF's next. I just wanted to put my 2 cents in because the Shadow Shard seems to be getting largely overlooked. I have to admit that doing it without someone in the group with Fly/TP would be rough, but some people seem to enjoy the jumping puzzle stuff.


 

Posted

Let me put a good word in for Ruladak, too. I just finished the second TF and it was great! Far better than the first TF of the Shadow Shard. Here's some tips on it, in order of spoilishness.....

1. Most of the missions are in the Cascades so Recall Friend is almost a must. A flier with it is ideal. We had a couple of people in our group with RF and another with Group Fly, which worked out really well.

2. Before you start the TF, try to get everyone in the group access to molepoint charlie. It saves a ton of time.

3. TF contacts still aren't selling inspires. It's a long way back so stock up on those awakens! Having somebody in the group with Rez is also a big help.

4. Difficulty tends to ramp up in this one as you find more Rularuu in the missions. If you're still having problems after the third or fourth mission, consider breaking up because it's only going to get worse. (The first TF of the Shadow Shard actually got easier after the first few missions!)

5. If you have to use geysers to get to the last mission, you should know that its location is tricky. It looks like you can get there via the Air Shoals. However, if you go that way, you'll find yourself about half a mile below the mission. You have to go via the One Way Path which starts clear up on the island that has the gate to the Chantry. It's a long trip!

6. We had level 50s in our group and we made sure the team lead was always Heroic difficulty. We saw mostly 51 and 52 level nasties (plus some bugged ones that were much lower). The last mission was full of 53s - including the AV at the end.

(now I'm starting to get really spoilish....)

7. The final mission is pitch dark. Well, OK, not quite as dark as those hallways that take you to the CoT portal room, but dark enough that you can only see maybe 10ft in front of you. If it wasn't for wisps glowing in the dark.... <shudder> Plan on less-than-optimal AoE placement and tanks not seeing enemies to lay a taunt on them.

8. Get the idea that this mission is hard? More than a little nervous? Well, if you get in trouble you can always dash out the door to safety, right? Wrong! The door is locked behind you. You can always log out to get out the door but that takes 30 seconds. Are those Rularuu following you? 29 28 Hmm, hard to tell, you can only see about ten feet. 27 26 Boy that counter sure is slow. 25 24 You know those natterlings don't have anything that glows in the dark at all. 23 22....

(I didn't actually confirm that the door is locked myself but I believe it.)

9. Ruladak the Strong is pretty nasty, especially with all those Rularuu around him. He's got a nuke that he used on us when he was at about 1/3rd hit points. That nuke had one heck of a radius (maybe 40ft) and did about 700pts to one of our 50th level tanks. My 47th level squishy controller took more like 2500pts. So melees, keep those HP up and ranged folks try to stay at the edge of your range.

Ruladak the Strong glowing in that deep, dark cave is about the coolest looking AV I've ever seen!


 

Posted

Nice info here.


 

Posted

Ooops, actually I was 48th level. I've added a few screenshots toward the bottom of my photo album page showing Rudak the Strong.


 

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[ QUOTE ]
(I didn't actually confirm that the door is locked myself but I believe it.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Trust me, it locks. When I did that TF a few months back, I tried to go outside to see how close behind a teammate was, and couldn't get out. Generator started crying like he'd gotten lost in a department store. Fine, *not* my most heroic moment...

Gatecrasher


@Generator
Mostly Pinnacle, with scattered alts on Liberty, Freedom, and Justice.


I had a great time playing with you!

 

Posted

Another little geyser jumping note....

On the Cascade side of the molepoint there is only one geyser for getting off the island. It has been the hardest geyser jump I've seen in the entire Shadow Shard! Not only is it verticle, it doesn't seem to give you enough power and you end up on the side of a steep rock.

However, if you fall, you really do not loose much time! The Cascades zone is a very verticle and the molepoint is at the bottom of the zone. While the drop point looks a lot further away on the map, it is also a lot higher. I think it's just three geyser jumps to get to the falls vs two more jumps if you had made the first jump.


 

Posted

This is all very good informtion. I and my fellow Babes of War thank you all for these posts. Geysers suck though.

Rend! Tear! Rularuu!


High Beam - 50 Blaster Energy/Ice - 1228 Badges
Munitions Mistress - 50 Mercs/Traps
Many Other 50's, Too Many Alts, All On Freedom
Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should!

 

Posted

Nonononono, geysers PUSH! If they sucked instead, they wouldn't be geysers now would they?? <grin>


Oh, I finally did the last Shadow Shard TF. It's a pretty good one! It had some great surprises in a few of the missions and the story was a good one. The final AV was a bit on the easy side. (Maybe that was on purpose? You're a LONG way from the nearest hospital and awakens might well be in short supply.)


 

Posted

Note that when Update 4 comes in, the Shadow Shard is going to get a whole lot less frustrating for the jumpies and the speedies. The reason for this being that you can buy temporary flight packs in the Arena that will work anywhere--which means a missed geyser jump need no longer be a one-way ticket back to entrance-of-zonesville. They only allow 2 minutes of use for the flight and 5 minutes of use for the hover versions, but you only need a few seconds to salvage a badly-aimed geyser.

Incidentally, Col. Flynn's missions (he's the contact Dr. Huxley will give you after you do a few fruit missions for her) are one of the best ways to grind out the last few levels. All Nemesis/Thorns doors or hunts. I like to run his missions simultaneously with the 40-44 Nemesis contact's, as I can usually accomplish two missions at once that way (Nemesis contact tells me to hunt 50 Nemesis, and Flynn hands me a Nemesis mission or another 50 Nemesis hunt). Convenient, plus it gets Flynn to give me his number pretty quickly so I can easily grab his missions for XP grinding down the road.


 

Posted

EH!? I'm a hero, I don't need a net!!! <smirk>

Also the Cascade side of the molepoint has walls again! (Smart move doing that one first, it's the side where you first have to touch the portal. Not an easy thing when there's no visible portal!)


 

Posted

I've done all the Shadow Shard TF's now. I should write up a review.....

The first one is a real bear. I really can't recommend it to anyone. There's some interesting story there on how a couple of villain groups are getting to the Shadow Shard and some interesting info on the Rularuu but it's spread over a ton of missions. Not new and different missions, mind you, but missions that are almost exact repeats. Doing this TF is like doing the Positron TF and having the server crash right near the end of every mission.

The second one is my favorite. Most of it is really nothing particularly interesting but that last mission is just incredible. The final AV might be the hardest you'll see in the whole game (depending on your build, of course) and the mission itself is downright spooky! Some history on how the Shard got to be the way it is in this TF.

The 3rd TF was kinda silly at first. Hunt missions galore. Then it settled down and got pretty good. The final AV mission was neat but too easy for us - some of the missions were harder than that fight. Keep your eye out for bosses with punctuation after their name! You get a lot of good lore on this one.

The 4th TF is very good. Good story, lots of lore, some surprises in the missions, and the Storm Palace zone has a really great atmosphere. (CoH music lovers take note of the extended versions of some of the songs we've heard back in Paragon City!) The final AV was, unfortunately, far too easy for our group. The guy really needs some love. This is another lore-heavy TF and it has a fun story, too! Bring somebody who can rez or a lot of awakens because the hospital is a long way back.

A quick note on souviners - the last two TF's do not use the running clue as the souviner! What you get instead is really great for lore but not so good for remembering what you went through. Before you contact the contact for the last time you might want to take screenshots of your running clue.

Another note - the progress bar doesn't progress for the last two TF's. Also, you never get a 'call' option in the last TF.

When we did it, there were several click-glowies-simultaneously missions in the first TF that did not require you to actually click them. You might be able to solo your way through this whole TF.

You could solo most of the second TF but, if anyone solo's that last AV, I hope some automated code kicks in, reads your build, and halves the strength of every power you've got right on the spot. Maybe two very good players covered in Hamdion enhancers and with full trays of max inspires could do it but even then my bet is going to be on the AV.

Third TF could be solo'd but not by everyone. There are some bad guys in there (elite bosses?) that would be very hard on a lot of heroes.

The fourth TF also has several simul-click missions but this time you really have to click them. What's more, there are quite a number of AV's along the way. You're going to need four folks for almost all of this TF.


 

Posted

couple of noob questions, what lvl do you have to be to get in the shadow shard and what lvl should you be to do the TFs? And is there any upper limit for the TFs where if you're beyond that lvl you can't do them?


 

Posted

40th level to get in to the Shadow Shard.

I think the first TF is level 40-45, maybe 46. The second is levels 40 to 50. Three and four are 44 to 50.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
EH!? I'm a hero, I don't need a net!!! <smirk>

Also the Cascade side of the molepoint has walls again! (Smart move doing that one first, it's the side where you first have to touch the portal. Not an easy thing when there's no visible portal!)

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought there was only two molepoints. But more inportantly they're fixing the molepoint invisable bug?


 

Posted

Well, there are two sides to the one molepoint portal. The Cascade side is fixed on Test. The Zulu side and all the sandbags down in Portal Corp are still missing.