Soloing the Bloody Bay Meteor Mission (I6)
By
Arcanaville,
Posted on: 2006-01-24 24:16 in Player Guides
One more trick:
All bases are not created equal. Some have higher level turrets than others. Choose the easiest one to complete.
Dammmm....where was this guide when I solo'd BB with my Claws/Regen- (I know I know LOL) Stalker (this was the day AFTER the supposed stealth nerf was fixed to DOOM us all) and I could not for the life of me take out all the turrets before they respawned and kicked my teeth in.
I gave up in frustration.
Knowing now that the turrets don't heal should make this verrrry interesting.
And knowing is half the battle!!!!
Thanx alot. Great Guide. 5 * 4 U!!!
"I'm not scared of anyone or anything Angie. Isn't that the way life should be?"
Jack Hawksmoor, The Authority.
My lvl 28 scrapper has been trying to get the 5 hours in BB badge, and I don't earn exp from anything, so I've run the Shivan Shard Mish thingy about 10 times =P
(I still don't have Irradiated!)
[ QUOTE ]
One more trick:
All bases are not created equal. Some have higher level turrets than others. Choose the easiest one to complete.
[/ QUOTE ]
Good point. The bases in yellow zones are easier than the ones in orange or red zones. It's also worth pointing out that some areas of the island are busier than others, so it would be best to choose a remote firebase if possible to cut down the chances you'll get ganked while working on it.
Sadly it's too late to edit the guide to include it. Oh well...if things change enough in some future update to merit a new version of the guide...
Also I believe that the Shivans maxing out at 25 isn't entirely cut and dried. I think that if you are very high level (not sure what the cutoff is, maybe 40 or so) then yes, they Shivan pet pops out as a 25 boss. But if you are lower than the mystery-40-ish point then you get a pet that is a your-level-boss. So at 28 you still get a 28 level pet but once you get past a certain level the next pet you summon is 25.
Of course if you are less than level 25 the pet is your-level, too.
And I haven't been able to test this (because I mostly solo and didn't realize the turret trick--nice!) Anyway, I am basing this statement on anecdotal evidence provided by others. So I could be wrong. Has anyone in the 26-36 range gotten their Shivan pets to work right? Buehler? Buehler?
Pinnacle
Glowworm * Brrr * Lilinoe
Protector
Kid Trance * Ms. Impala * Red Helen
Virtue
Pooka Pete
Here was my stalker strategy for soloing this:
Grab four lucks and head into the zone.
Use assassin's strike on the outer turrets from hide: make sure you knock them out quickly.
Pop all four lucks.
Wipe out the four rooftop turrets.
Use computer.
I'm sure this is generalizable to any heavy-damage AT, but I don't think it will be easy for dominators to solo, and masterminds might have a problem with accidental aggro with all the shivans wandering around.
Its possible that you might get unlucky and happen to get a turret respawn, but I will say that when I was doing this a few months ago, they did *not* respawn all at once. I'd take out two, take out another two, and discover that one or two had respawned. I never had the rooftop ones respawn at the same time as outer ones. Its quite possible that the turrets do not respawn as aggressively if someone is actually at the location; I've only had a turret respawn right next to me once.
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Nice guide R_M. I was always just a few seconds too late doing it the old-fashiond way. Gonna log on and get my brute a Shivan!
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1) Turrets don't regenerate. When you knock a turret down to 5% of its health, it stays there. It doesn't regenerate over time the way "living" bad guys do if you leave them alone.
2) There is a "turret respawn tick". Turrets don't respawn X length of time after they get knocked out: they all respawn at once, every five minutes or so.
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Wonderful information! My lvl16 controller will never have to go without her Shivan again.
You forgot another important suggestion: timing. The best time to do this mission is usually early on a Sunday morning. There is almost never anyone in BB at that time; you can usually do this mission without any interference at all.
Ideally, the tank will die precisely as everyone else starts fighting, allowing aggro to be spread evenly among the blaster. -seebs, "How to Suck at CoH/CoV" Guide
I like the guide. I didn't know about stealing meteor fragments from others, nor did I know about the uniqueness of the turret spawn timer.
I've managed to complete the mission twice, the first time soloing. I've yet to find very many things more frustrating than soloing in BB with a Dark/Dark Defender... but it was worth it being able to solo Terra Volta hunt missions at level 24.
Handy guide - thanks.
I've just solo'd this with my Emp/Psi defender (not a soul in BB fortunately) and did notice that the pop-up turrets didn't want to respawn at all for me. I blew up one of the outer guns and within a very short time they had respawned.
One more question though. If you are on a team, who gets the temp power? Everyone or just the one with the fragment?
-H
Just the person with the sample.
Anyone who has collected the six fragments and uses the amber-screened computer gets a sample. This is true whether they destroyed the turrets themselves, their team did, or someone else's team did and they just nipped in after that team left.
So if you're on a team, everyone should grab the fragments from the six meteors before you start.
Thanks for the reply.
In response to...
[ QUOTE ]
And I haven't been able to test this (because I mostly solo and didn't realize the turret trick--nice!) Anyway, I am basing this statement on anecdotal evidence provided by others. So I could be wrong. Has anyone in the 26-36 range gotten their Shivan pets to work right? Buehler? Buehler?
[/ QUOTE ]
My 50 Emp/Psi just tried it out and summons a nice fat green level 50 shivan.
One last question : Should Recall Friend work on it? The power fires and goes through the animation, but doesn't tp my green friend.
-H
Yeah, they fixed the 25 cap thing some time ago. I should probably update the FAQ with that and the other thread suggestions, but it's "good enough" as it is.
And I think Recall Friend generally doesn't work on temp power pets; dragging Inspirations onto them doesn't seem to work anymore either.
SOLOING THE BLOODY BAY METEOR MISSION
or
IF THEY PULL A SHIV, YOU PULL A SHIVAN
A Mini-Guide
If you've been to Bloody Bay, you've doubtless seen those blue-green jello blobs with skeletons inside running around, and undoubtedly you want one for your very own. Shivans are damned good pets for the level 10-25 climb, being capped as they are at level 25. That being the case, you'd like to have them as soon as you can possibly get them. But how can you get one safely without getting PVPganked? And how can you be expected to take down eight turrets on your own before they regenerate? That's what this guide aims to tell you.
There are two major steps to obtaining a Shivan, if you don't count talking to the scientist at the start and finish: getting the samples and taking down the firebase. Each step has its own challenges, but neither is insurmountable.
FULL-CONTACT MINEROLOGY
After you've talked to the Scientist by the helicopter to obtain your mineral-collecting device, your first problem is getting to all six fragments. There are two ways you can do this: gank someone who's got one or more of the fragments already, or get the fragments yourself without getting ganked. I'm not going to tell you how to gank someone else; personally, I'd advise just getting the fragments the "long" way and causing a little less frustration in the world. But if PVP is your forte, chances are you already know how to gank anyway.
If you're a Stalker, or otherwise have a good stealth power (or Superspeed), getting the fragments should be the least of your worries as long as you keep a careful eye out for orange names and mobs on your way there. Stealth powers are particularly handy for this, not only for the avoiding-PVP aspect, but also because a lot of the time just standing next to a meteor will cause Shivans to come out of the ground and attack you--and getting a sample is interruptible.
If you don't have a stealth power, you might think you're going to be in for a rough time, except guess what? The zone has you covered. Talk to the Warzone Operative of your faction and get the "Patrol Bloody Bay" mission. Zip around to a few checkpoints on the island, talk to the Operative again, and boom: 30 minute Hyper Stealth temp power. It won't keep you safe if a determined PVP'er with Tactics latches onto you, but for casual zipping around to collect samples, you're probably safe. Remember that if you get ganked you lose all the samples you have collected to that point, so be careful.
It doesn't matter in what order you collect the samples, but I suggest starting with the ones nearest the enemy faction's base and working your way back toward your own. That way if you're spotted and ganked near the beginning of your run, you only lose a couple of minutes' work. Some people suggest varying your collection pattern and not hitting the nearest meteors to the one where you are because ambushers might expect it; I personally feel that it is possible to be a little too paranoid. Collecting meteors in Bloody Bay is relatively simple; you can do it in under ten minutes easily. It's not like Warburg where getting the nukes can be an exercise in frustration; even if you get ganked and lose all your meteor samples, it'll only take another five to ten minutes to get them all again.
Note that a meteor takes about thirty seconds to "respawn" after a sample is collected--so if you're collecting samples as part of a team, your whole team is going to have to hang around it long enough for everyone to get one. However, since there is (more) safety in numbers, gathering a team to collect them might not be that bad of an idea.
At any rate, once you've got all six fragments, you're ready for stage two.
ALL YOUR FIREBASE ARE BELONG TO US
In order to obtain a purified sample that can be taken back to the scientist to exchange for your Shivan Shard, you need to use the computer in one of the firebases scattered throughout the island. But it's not as simple as just using the computer; first you have to violate the Digital Millenium Copyright Act by cracking the "digital rights management" on the refinery software--knocking out the firebase's eight automated turrets. (Don't ask me why knocking out gun turrets enables using the computer; it's not my game, and anyway, it doesn't really have to make sense.)
If you're in a team, this part is fairly easy. If you're solo, it can be challenging. If you try to take out one turret at a time, by the time you're on the last one all the ones you've taken out have respawned. It's like playing whack-a-mole and you can't whack fast enough.
But there are two useful little secrets that can turn soloing the whole thing into child's play (assuming the PVP-gankers will leave you alone for long enough). Those secrets are:
1) Turrets don't regenerate. When you knock a turret down to 5% of its health, it stays there. It doesn't regenerate over time the way "living" bad guys do if you leave them alone.
2) There is a "turret respawn tick". Turrets don't respawn X length of time after they get knocked out: they all respawn at once, every five minutes or so.
Put them together and you have a useful strategy. First, knock all eight turrets down to a sliver of health. This can be pretty tricky if you don't have ways of avoiding getting hit or healing the damage once you do--especially for the middle four turrets, which will all try to whack on you at once--but you'll find a way. Next, knock out one of the weaker outer turrets entirely (probably one of the Dual Artillery Turrets) and wait for it to respawn. Once it does, you know that you'll have a full five minutes or so before the next tick...so quickly take it out, then take out all seven of the others that you've reduced to slivers of health.
Once all the turrets are down, you can slip into the base and use the amber-screened computer (not the laptop; it'll just tell you the security system is down) to refine your sample, and avoid getting ganked on the way back to the scientist at your base, and you're done!
Hope you've enjoyed this mini-guide. Special thanks to the folks in the PVP Zones group whose discussion first put me onto the method for soloing the firebases.