Difference between revisions of "Lambda Sector Trial"

Revision as of 07:40, 5 May 2011

This article is about the Incarnate System Trial. For the Praetorian neighborhood, see Neutropolis.

Overview

The Lambda Sector Trial
Team Size	{{{size}}} players
Badge	Lambda Leader
Enemy Groups	Imperial Defense Force Praetorians
Incarnate XP	Physical
v • d • e

The Lambda Sector Trial is one of the first two Incarnate Trials to be released with Issue 20 which takes place in Praetoria. As such, it is one of the first (and so far along with the Behavioral Adjustment Facility Trial, one of the only) instances of gameplay that was designed with Leagues in mind. A maximum of 16 players can raid the Lambda Sector.

During the mission, a voice will "radio in" information about your progress. While there is no specific contact (the trial is entered entirely through the LFG menu), it is possible that your unseen helper is meant to be Prometheus as he was added in Issue 20 to recruit Incarnate-capable players to wage a war against Emperor Cole and end his quest to become more in-tune with the Well of the Furies.

All Incarnate Components other than Alpha Slot requirements will drop during this trial, and Physical Incarnate Experience is gained towards unlocking the Alpha, Interface and Destiny Incarnate Slots.

In Detail

The Lambda Sector Trial is an incarnate Trial that takes place in Praetoria. There is no contact for this trial, though it could be argued that Prometheus is your contact. However, rather than going to anyone for a mission, the players use the LFG Menu to find other interested players. The trial consists of a single mission that has three stages: Clearing the street of the IDF troops that guard the door, defeating the security robot that guards the elevators, smashing as many of the supplies as possible before Praetor White arrives (the two teams typically split up in this section with each team handling a different type of supply. The benefit here is that every destroyed pair of items gives temporary powers, and delays Praetor White's arrival), and finally defeating Praetor White himself once he shows up.

Notable NPCs

• Marauder (Archvillain)

Rewards

Badges

	Lambda Leader	Complete the Lambda Sector Trial
	Synchronized	Destroy a Weapons Cache and an Incubation Pod within 2 seconds of each other during the Lambda Sector Incarnate Trial.
	Well-Stocked	Complete the Lambda Sector Trial having acquired 10 Pacification Grenades but using none of them.
	Antacid	Complete the Lambda Sector Trial having acquired 10 Molecular Acids but using none of them.
	Lambda Looter	Complete the Lambda Sector Trial having acquired 10 Pacification Grenades and 10 Molecular Acids but using none of them
	Master of Lambda Sector	Earn the Synchronized, Well-Stocked, Antacid, and Lambda Looter badges.

Incarnate System

• Incarnate Threads drop instead of Incarnate Shards.
• Physical Incarnate Experience, which unlocks the Alpha, Interface, and Destiny Slots if any of those slots are locked.
• Once per 20 hour period, an Empyrean Merit will be awarded upon successful completion of the Trial.
  • Any successive completion of the Trial within that 20 hour window will instead award an Astral Merit. This functionality is essentially the Incarnate Trial version of Merit Reward Diminishing Returns.

• Random Uncommon Components can be awarded for the first time a badge is obtained. A random Rare Component can be awarded for the first time the Master of Lambda Sector badge is obtained. Bonus Astral Merits can be earned multiple times as long as the requirements for the badge are fulfilled, even if you already have the badge.

• The following actions during the Trial award an Astral Merit:
  • Collecting all 10 Molecular Acids inside the facility.
    • Fulfilling the requirements of the Antacid badge by completing this objective and not using any of the Molecular Acids on the Reinforcement Portals.
  • Collecting all 10 Pacification Grenades inside the facility.
    • Fulfilling the requirements of the Lambda Looter badge by completing this objective and not using any of the Pacification Grenades on Marauder.
  • Completing the sabotage of the facility by collecting all 20 Temporary Powers inside.
    • Fulfilling the requirements of the Well-Stocked badge by completing this objective and not using any of the Temporary Powers, bringing the number of merits granted for collecting all of the Temporary Powers and using none of them to six, in total.
  • Fulfilling the requirements of the Synchronized badge by collecting a Molecular Acid and a Pacification Grenade inside the facility within a two second window will award an Astral Merit one time per Trial event.

Strategy

• In the first phase, the goal is to defeat enough enemies to activate the "Security Team" (which is actually an Elite Boss War Walker). Generally, it's best to clear the streets and the courtyard, including the turrets, before going inside to fight the Elite Boss. This gives fewer allies to help Marauder during the final fight and allows the use of Flight and Leaping to escape the fight without fear of running into more enemies.

• After the Elite Boss is defeated, the second phase will begin as soon as any member of the league goes down either of the sets of elevators. This is a good time to explain the second phase of the Trial to any members who aren't familiar with the strategy, as the second phase is extremely chaotic and can easily confuse inexperienced players, wasting valuable and very limited time.

• The two teams should split up when going down the elevators, one to destroy the Weapons Caches, granting Pacification Grenades, and the other to destroy the Containment Chambers, granting Molecular Acids. This will ensure a more even dispersal of the Temporary Powers and maximize the amount of time that you have before Marauder arrives, because for each pair of one Weapon Cache and one Containment Chamber destroyed, one minute is added to the countdown clock. When all 10 of the objectives are collected in a section of the Facility, all players in that section will be teleported back to the lobby where the two sets of elevators are at, and should immediately proceed to the other section to help the slower team. If both sections of the facility are cleared, the phase ends, Marauder immediately arrives, and all players are teleported back to the lobby.

• Once the cutscene with Marauder ends, the third phase begins. All players should exit the facility and quickly prepare for a difficult fight. The temporary powers are extremely critical for completing the Trial for almost any team, unless extremely well organized and prepared to attempt one or more of the (very difficult) badge objectives. Due to this, it should be clearly and succinctly explained to any inexperienced participants exactly when and how to use the temporary powers before combat begins.

• The Molecular Acids should immediately be used to destroy the glowing Reinforcement Portals before Marauder is engaged at all as the IDF Reinforcements that are summoned through them can easily overwhelm some leagues in a short amount of time. It is best to have all Reinforcement Portals destroyed before the first wave of Reinforcements appears, the timer for which is shown on the objective window.

• After the Reinforcement Portals are gone, the second type of temporary power, the Pacification Grenade, can be used to placate Marauder and lower his defenses. In the objective window, there is a bar indicating whether Marauder is Enraged (the bar displays in red) or not (the bar displays in gray). Also, a splash text will say when Marauder is Enraged and a Pacification Grenade should be used.

• The temporary powers can actually be passed from one player to another. Leagues often give all of one type of temporary power to one team member (usually the team leaders) to keep track of them. It was also the practice to do this during Issue 20 Beta Testing since during the Beta you could waste the temporary powers by casting several on the same target at the same time, however, the game mechanics now prevent that issue on the Live Servers. If a Molecular Acid is used on a portal, then there is no more target for another Acid. If the Pacification Grenade is used on Marauder, then another Grenade can't be used until his Rage has returned. Note that it is still possible through unfortunate timing and latency for two (or more) people to activate the temporary powers at nearly exactly the same time, and, though extremely rare, is still a potential waste.