Hero going Villain for Badges

I'm a fairly casual but longtime player, and I've decided my badger needs to go red for a while, in an attempt to collect badges. Sky Hook is an energy/energy/force blaster. He's a 50 +3 Incarnate, though he doesn't have all his slots full of tier 4s yet (doesn't even have his Hybrid unlocked, actually).

He's been a Vigilante for a long while, so he has all the explore badges redside (except those in The Abyss and Mayhem missions). He's filled the bars on all the day job badges, so he'll get those pretty fast.

Just for completeness sake, and because I've never played a villain above level 12, I plan to go through all the arcs in Ouroboros.

On the other hand, I don't really want him to remain a villain for too long.

Any advice? Can anyone point me to guides or previous threads on the subject?

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...380#post578380

That'll tell you all you need to know for badges pre I-16 I believe. Defeats, missions, GM's etc.

as another bit of advice be careful going for the efficiency expert badge

you only get 1 shot at it per toon since that arc is not flashbackable, so i recommend running solo on the absolute min diff when going for that badge

Though I'm guessing an Incarnate will have a far easier time with Efficiency Expert than was the case before level-shifting, Lore, Judgement, et al.

He actually has Pither as a contact from running a set of newspaper missions in Grandville. I knew about the one-time tricky nature of the badge, so I haven't run any missions for him yet. I didn't know, but worried that I'd ruin my chance at the badge if I ran them before going full-villain.

On the whole I didn't feel the time limit was a problem on any of the missions except the one where I had to search for a missing runner.

I'd suggest making sure you have access to a fly power to minimise the time it takes to reach the mish and to be certain you have a stable connection and there are no major events happening at the time you are running it - avoiding next weekend might be a good idea.

I'd also agree with the previous suggestion to run it solo on minimal difficulty.

The good news is the missions do not auto start upon completing the previous one (except the one two part mish where the first part isn't timed but the second is)

the efficiency expert badge is fairly easy if you have incarnate stuff

there are a few maps which give you like 10 min time limits and are kill alls, thought your mostly fighting council though

I think there are some newer missions you'll have to run twice, as you get badges for doing one thing, and a badge for doing the other.

Also, you'll need exploration badges from mayhem missions. Getting access to them can be a pain since few people play redside. I'm actually cheating a bit: I made a second freebie acct, and I level up a toon on there while my main does missions (by having the freebie doorsit and get PL'd). You need either two computers or a pretty good one (to run two versions of CoH at once) to pull this off. Then, when it's time, I do a few quick paper missions on the freebie acct, and bring my main along on the mayhem mission, get the badge and complete =)

Also, be mindful that there are 4 patron arcs, but you can only do (and get the badge for ) ONE. (They're actually the same badge ID# but with different titles and art).

That's about all I can think of. And OH! When you turn to villain, a lot of your existing badges will have their names and descriptions changed. So If you're overly attached to being "Positron's Pal", you'll have to deal with the guilt and shame of being "Positron's Betrayer" until you switch back.

Really? Huh, I thought we were only allowed to earn one because a Dev said they were the same badge with different art.

And I guess it was hero-side arcs with the kill/no-kill badges, anyway!

... sorry for the incorrect info! ^_^

Efficiency Expert is not that hard (at least on -1/0 with incarnate alt). I was mostly afraid not to lose connection while doing it.

Getting day jobs badges might take some time, if you haven't filled the line while Vigilante.

For ouro mission there are nice guides for both blue and red side in player guide question, I did all but 40-44 on blue side then did the last one on red.

For getting heroes badges in RV, you might need at least 1 or 2 more people and some heroes, like Synapse, just don't want to play. (Might be hard if there is PvP on your server).

You need to stay full villain just for one week - all villain badges are accessible with Rogue, and you'll have access to blue side again.

I don't pretend that this is a typical experience, but my Mastermind got Efficiency Expert even after having failed one of the missions. Has anyone actually gotten declined on Efficiency Expert?

That was a brutal fail, too. I had problems with mapping the area because I was an idiot, and then the objective was in sight, I clicked on it, the bar was 90% full...then I got shot by a random patrol wandering through. Then fail. So near to pulling victory from the jaws of defeat.