Great to Decent Arcs for Level 1-10

If you are starting a new character and want to play in AE, here are some arcs (not mine) to play for levels 1-10. I recommend all arcs listed below. The star rating is my own for dividing them here, I would rate all of them 4 or 5 stars in game.

I do not include any missions with EB's or AV's. I rate missions based on their story and the quality of the missions themselves. The story should be interesting and the missions themselves should be fun.

Feel free to post additional arcs for level 1-10 and I will try to play them and put them in the top post if I like them. I still have more to play through but I figured I would at least start the thread in case people are looking for arcs to play.


5 Star Arcs

Level: 1-5, ID#: 468738, Name: The Blue Devils
Good storyline. The first mission is just okay, but the remaining missions are great. Some mix of villains and some nice power variety. Ties in nicely with lore. Good map selection - a few you don't normally see heroside.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 115935, Name: Cracking Skulls
Great storyline, lots of details. Skulls with normal maps.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 322480, Name: Day Job Hell: A Villain's First Day Job
Villainous. A humorous take on starting a villain career. You are a lackey but that is the point of the arc. Funny, lots of nice details, good variety of enemies you do not normally fight.

Level: 5-15, ID#:124906, Name: The Lazarus Project
Great story. Great details. A lot of clues – many just flavor. Two problems: you fight the same mobs a lot and it is tough (mostly Vahz). But it is really a great arc.

Level: 1-14, ID#:519044, Name: Grunty McFisterson's Two Step Guide to Winning Respect
Villainous arc. *Humorous but not silly. Face a variety of foes. Very short missions with a lot of humor. Read the NPC text and clues. Optional objectives add fun flavor. *

Level: 5-10, ID#: 378944, Name: Too Clever by Half
Villainous. Easy missions but fun. Humorous and semi-silly. The contact is great. Missions are fairly short. Lots of NPC dialog.

Level: 1-54, ID#: 543322, Name: Meet the Author
Hilarious, verging on silly. The contact is perfect. The plot is great. Mission details are good. Ending is surprisingly excellent. Some missions are a little long for the detail.

Level: 1-14, ID#: 540613, Name: 001-Bonefire:FREEDOM Style
The first in a remake of older real missions in AE, so it might be familiar. Contact is well done, with personality. Missions are good. Short but with some nice detail. The overall story is okay but each mission just sort of happens so it is a bit confusing.

4 Star Arcs ---------------

Level: 1-10, ID#: 6017, Name: Mercytown
Villainous. Great story, fabulous contact, great details, excellent climax.

Level: 1-9, ID#: 1345, Name: Jumping in Feet First
Overall well done with some nice details. Flavor to contact, good storyline.

Level: 1-10, ID#:271637, Name: Welcome to M.A.G.I.
Overall well done story. Read the NPC dialog in missions for the details.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 111022, Name: Doctor Geist and the Scientific Method
Villainous. Play this for the contact who is fabulous. Dialog in mission is good. Story is okay, but suffers from you being an obedient lackey.

Level: 1-14, ID#: 1472, Name: Hearts on Fire
Very effective story. Motivation is weak at first, a couple of missions lack details but are short. A large variety of foes. It should be only a 3 star but the story just works.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 376222, Name: Lightning in a Bottle
Great arc. Torn between 5 and 4 stars. This arc has humor but the plot is serious. Great detail in the missions. Great contact. The only issue is that some of the enemies are quite hard (no EB's or AV's, just hard characters). Worth stocking up on inspirations to get through.

Level: 8-19, ID#: 2180, Name: Bricked Electronics
Great details in the missions. Diverse maps and enemies. Story is engaging at first but then confusing. Contact has a wall of text, so it may be explained but I missed it. The parts are all great, the sum is less so.

Level: 1-54, ID#: 534435, Name: Hero Space Corps: The abandoned freighter
A good implementation of Alien in a single mission. The mission works well with a series of tasks that rarely require back tracking. Aliens look reasonably good. Four stars because while there is not a lot to the story, it is short and fun while it lasts.

Level: 1-54, ID#: 534498, Name: The Blonde Brawler Gets Her Cape Back
Single mission arc. Lots of details in the mission. Explanation of the story is good and motivating. Dropped to 4 stars because not a satisfying conclusion.

Level: 5-10, ID#: 379488, Name: Storming Citadel
Single mission arc, and short – 10 minute timer. Odd enemies, quirky plot. A unique mission, more fun and interesting than amazing.

Level: 5-10, ID#: 379488, Name: Holding Down the Fort
5 Star missions with a 3 star plot. The missions are long, but the detail is excellent. Lots to read and see and a lot of variety. The arc uses high level enemies scaled down, they are hard but it makes for a nice change from Hellions and Skulls.

Level: 5-10, ID#: 373846, Name: Unfair Trade
Villainous. Great details and dialog in the missions. Story is amusing. Motivation is lacking a bit, you are just helping out a guy you owe a favor.

Level: 5-14, ID#: 375018, Name: A Hero in Need...is a Friend Indeed!
Play for the story. Starts out dull, gets much better. Likewise the first missions are just okay but short, gets a lot better. The first part of the arc is 3 stars, the end is 5 stars.

Level: 1-54, ID#: 94504, Name: Daytime Divas
Humorous and pretty silly. Fun and funny plot and characters. Custom villains but not hard. Some missions are a lot of fun, others are basic.

Level: 1-54, ID#: 169260, Name: Eagor to Please
Villainous. Humorous single mission arc. Story has you as the master villain. Fun characters. Custom villains but not hard, plus longbow.

Level: 5-30, ID#: 255146, Name: An Internship in the fine art of revenge – best villain arc '09
Great plot. Fun contact and story. Missions had some detail but could have used more

Level: 5-10, ID#: 373571, Name: Dereliction of Duty
Villainous. The story concept is very good and well played out. The missions have some nice detail but are a bit bigger maps than the story needed.

Level: 1-14, ID#: 544909, Name: 002(A)-The Clockwork Captive: FREEDOM Style
The second in retelling old arcs but is a stand alone arc. Plot is good and feels nicely heroic. Contact is good. Some details in the missions. Only clockwork enemies so it gets a little dull.

Level: 1-54, ID#: 177370, Name: Relativity Be Damned
Good story. Contact is decent - personality but wall of text. Nice objectives in missions add to the story. Main problem is that it is all Arachnos you fight so it gets repetitive.

Level: 1-34, ID#: 510265, Name: Special Delivery
Villainous. The contact is named Samuel and your first mission is getting snakes off of a ship. If that sounds good, you will like this arc. Good variety in maps. Missions are either short and to the point, or larger maps but you can just do your objectives. Story is fun, mostly because of the contact.


3 Star Arcs ---------------------

Level: 5-15, ID#: 379160, Name: A Wake For Dead 6
Interesting method of story telling, you have to pay a lot of attention to what's going on. Starts silly - especially the contact, but the story is serious.

Level: 5-14, ID#: 141376, Name: Idol Hands
Basic storyline but nicely done. Contact is bland but not bad. Missions have some nice bits of text, and especially side clues that add flavor and detail. It is tough – several places encountered extra large spawns.

Level: 5-14, ID#: 4727, Name: Future Skulls
Nice story which is dramatic from the start. Short missions so it is a quick play, much more story focused than combat. Would be 4 stars but the end was not satisfying enough.
Level: 5-14, ID#: 70801, Name: Simple Times
Continues Future Skulls and is the same quality.
Level: 5-14, ID#: 255895, Name: Future's End
Continues Simple Times and is the same quality.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 204942, Name: Chris Jenkins: Attorney at Law
One mission so does not take much time. Some humor but not enough. Just not enough to it.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 1064, Name: The Black Market wants you
Villainous. Essentially 5 random missions connected by the contact. No arc story. Some minor story in the missions, nice variety of foes.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 17702, Name: Every Rose…
Villainous. Passable storyline to roleplay working with CoT more than a real story. A variety of enemies.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 168760, Name: A Death in the Gish
Short arc. Decent story for first 2 missions but 3rd feels tacked on. Maps are long for the amount of detail and story.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 1440, Name: Master of the Nether Realms
Okay plot, dialog in missions is great – read the NPC text. But somewhat bland missions. Would be 4 stars but last mission has long map with escort back to entryway.

Level: 5-14, ID#: 174640, Name: Redemption
Good story, heroic but dark. Good contact and characters. Would be 4 stars but 2nd mission has large map with escort back to entrance.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 55669, Name: Tales of the PPD: One Hell of A Deal
The story is pretty good. Has some in-mission detail and flavor. The last mission is the most interesting. Feels padded at 5 missions but fine if you want a lot of fights. Has a defeat all, although the map is not too large.

Level: 5-15, ID#: 374481, Name: Suppression
The Wizard of Oz with Dorothy, a few winged monkeys, a witch, and a wizard. And a collection of random monsterish enemy types. The story was adapted to Paragon City and is pretty good. But the actual missions were so-so.

Level: 5-15, ID#: 474611, Name: Cole in Your Stocking
Praetorian. Story is interesting, very Praetorian. Mission details are limited. It is about the same as running a low level arc in Praetoria.

Level: 1-10, ID#: 100304, Name: Learning the Ropes
Meant to be an introduction to the low level enemies, including tips on fighting them and their vulnerabilities. 5 stars for new players, but I assume AE players are not new. Mission detail is good. Last mission is very long but has a lot of variety in enemies and lots of details. But there is no overall story, just have BAB teach you about villains.

Level: 1-54, ID#: 440149, Name: The Trouble With Transformations
Villainous. Interesting story. Good variety of enemies and maps. The missions have some details but not a lot. Very few clues given.

Level: 1-14, ID#: 410165, Name: No More Fires For This Marshall
Simple story, funny. Missions are fairly short, good but few details

Level: 1-54, ID#: 42083, Name: Arab Spring Democracy
One mission. Not much of a story but enough. Little in mission details. But it is short and the custom enemies are interesting.

Level: 5-12, ID#: 374002, Name: Two Tickets to Westerly
Good contact, interesting story idea. Missions have a few details. Standard maps.

Level: 1-14, ID#: 189439, Name: The Fireside Poet
Pretty good contact. Story is interesting. Gruesome and grim. Standard maps, missions are standard spawns with one objective, very few details.

Assuming you don't mind self-promotion here...

I don't know if you've played them, but I have two, one for villains and one for heroes, Day Job Hell and A Wake for Dead 6, respectively. Arc numbers in my sig.

Thanks for including my arc, Welcome to M.A.G.I., however, it is for levels 1-10. The last mission is level 5, but if you start the first one right out of the character creator, you'll be 5th level by the time you start the last one, or at worst after defeating the first mob in it.

fixed the levels

I will try out the other 2. I hate trying to find decent arcs through the in-game tool so I am happy to have people recommend their arcs.

Heh, you've got Cracking Skulls twice. Once as a 5-star arc, and once as a 4-star arc.

EDIT: Ah! It's been fixed.

yeah, I've fixed it and added arcs as I have played them.

Almost ready to move to 10-20 missions. If nothing else to get past skulls and hellions

Having played Cracking Skulls and The Lazarus Project - Coulomb you should be making arcs for this game. You just get it. The stories fit the world but are interesting and dramatic. The details are great.

I will definitely try out your other arcs.

Glad to see you're a fan of "Too Clever By Half".

(I absolutely ADORE writing Vernon von Grun.)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

the details in Marshall are good - there should just be more of them

I did like it more than that review indicated, so I tidied it up a bit.

Dug - this is an awesome list, thanks for putting it together!

Glad it is useful to you. I have found leveling up in AE arcs to be fun and different and hoped others could see some of the great content people have made.

2 more arcs added