Blackavaar's Mayhem 101


Blackavaar

 

Posted

[color= yellow]Mayhem 101[/color]

Part One: Buying Time

When you first enter a Mayhem mission you will be placed in a location away from the Bank. If you stay low to the ground, you can take your time destroying objects (Mail Boxes, Fire Hydrants, etc.) to get yourself some extra time. Take your time and take out any Police that get in your way. They are worth extra time as well. Stay low (below roof level of single story buildings) and avoid as many Longbow spawn points as you can. If you do cross a Longbow spawn point you will see a "Stop in the name of Longbow!" message. Stop and look around. Use cover and wait for them to come to you (this will assure that you don't aggro some Police as well), then clean their clocks and move on.

At lower levels (5-8 or possibly 5-10 depending on your AT) ignore Cars, Vans, Dumpsters, Crates and Large Crates. You can buy yourself enough time with Cardboard Boxes, Barrels, Mail Boxes, Phone Booths, Trash Cans, News Vendors and Parking Meters. Trying to destroy Cars or Vans at this level is especially dangerous as the explosions really hurt.


Part Two: Side Jobs

As you are slowly working your way across the map, watch out for your side missions. Each of these missions will buy you some extra time and help you get closer to achieving the various badges.

Arsen: nets 4 minutes of extra time and contains a few more Police toward that Outlaw badge. More importantly setting fire bombs is the only way to earn the Firebug badge. There will be a total of 3 ambushes triggered during this mission. One is triggered the moment you enter, and will usually interrupt the defusing of a bomb unless you have some cover to use. Take out the first ambush and then arm the bombs and you will get your extra time. Don't leave just yet though. Two more ambushes are coming and if you exit they will overlap and gang up on you. Wait by the interior doors and take them out as they arrive. Only after all ambushers are defeated should you attempt to leave.

Kidnapping: nets 8 minutes of extra time and contains plenty of Police to help you work toward the Outlaw badge. There will be a Longbow ambush spawned the moment you enter the mission. It is best to wait for them and then take them out before moving on. As you exit the kidnapping mission with victim in hand, watch for an ambush by higher level Police. You can avoid them if you simply keep running to your rally point, but I always find it easier to deal with them first.

Raid: nets 6 minutes of extra time and is the easiest side mission to finish very quickly. Most characters can simply run past everyone on the way to the glowie, take out the guys near it and click it for the extra time. If you're feeling adventurous, or don't think you can run past, just take out the guards a group at a time. Watch out for the Longbow ambush spawned by entering the map. If you are fighting they can catch you off guard. I would wait and take care of them first if you decide not to stealth it. If you stealth it, the Longobw will often be caught by the villains at the deal and you can skirt right past them on the way out. The Temp Powers from Raid missions are great. Special powers like the IR Goggles can come in handy against Smoke Grenade and/or Stealth using foes.

Smash & Grab: nets 5 minutes for breaking into all of the safes and an additional 6 minutes if you break into the Vault. Again plenty of Cops to work on the Outlaw badge and the Vault doors in these count toward that Safecracker badge as well.

Break Out: nets only 3 minutes of extra time and IMO is not worth it because it usually take longer than it is worth. Also, the villain could be useful if the AI was intelligent enough to not get stuck on every object on the way to the bank. If you do get this one, save it for after the bank. This will give you an easy out button in case you get in over your head. Going down the elevator activates the Longbow ambush for this mission. It is best to go immediately back up to take care of them before trying to take on the guards in the cell block.


Part Three: The Bank

When you first arrive at the bank, getting near the bank door will trigger a Longbow ambush. Note which direction they are coming from by looking for their speech bubbles and then get behind some cover. Wait for them to come to you then pound the daylights out of them. Stalkers, don't bother trying to get off an AS. The Longbow can see you and will almost always interrupt. Instead use that first strike to get your guaranteed Critical, then just go to town. One you've taken care of that ambush, go ahead and enter the bank. Now in the cases of Independence Port and higher maps, some Longbow Eagles may appear in the bank even though you've stayed low the entire time. Just be on the lookout. Otherwise you should not have to worry. Start out by clipping a few civilians with a ranged attack. Avoid being spotted by any guards if you can. The idea here is to get the civies out of the way. They are set up to run in groups, so clipping a few of them should get rid of the majority. You learn which civies are part of which group eventually. After that just take down the guards a group at a time. Try to keep a reign on any pets when the guards try to run. They will try to get you to aggro other mobs. Just wait. They always come back. You should have plenty of time to work with here so don't be in a rush. Take it nice and easy and just one group at a time.

Now when you reach the Vault room, try not to get too close (within 10 feet) to the Vault door until you've dealt with the Guards. This will trigger the Guard ambush waves and have you fighting more Guards at once than you need to. Once you have defeated all of the Guards in the Vault, then begin working on the door. Keep an eye out for the waves of Guards. There will be three waves, each progressively tougher than the last.

You will probably break into the Vault just before the first wave arrives. Do not take the Money yet. Take care of all of the waves of police before you take the Money. You don't want to be caught by the additional waves during the fight with the Hero. Such could be fatal. It takes some time for the ambushes to come if you wait for them (and it takes some patience) but you will be much better off fighting the Hero without having to worry about the cops on your back. Once you've take out all three waves, go ahead and grab the cash and run. Run back to the bank entrance and you can sometimes catch the Hero unwary, just entering the bank door. If you're in a team try to all stay together though. You don't want to have the Corr catch the villain at the door while everyone else is still halfway back to the Vault.

That's it. Defeat the Hero and his Longbow entourage and you're done.

See the following maps for locations of Longbow Spawn Points. So far I have only mapped Atlas through Independence Port thoroughly. I will add more maps as I finish them.


 

Posted

Number of items per player that must be destroyed to gain extra time.

Barrel 5
Bus Stop 1
Cardboard Box 3-5
Car 5
Crate 5
Dumpster 1
Fire Hydrant 1
Large Metal Crate 1
Mailbox 1
News Vendor 1
Parking Meter 5
Pay Phone 1
PPD Car 1
PPD Swat Van 1
Trash Can 1-5
Truck 1

You can find more specifics at Paragonwiki.


 

Posted

Helpful hint for Teleporters during those Smash and Grab side missions.

In most of these the second set of safes is behind a metal door with a slot in it that you can see through. If you zoom in to almost first person view while standing close to the door, you can actually place your Teleport reticle inside the room and Teleport yourself inside. This can save time and possibly an alarm tripping due to the door's explosion if you have to destroy it.