Eden Trial

Overview

Eden Spire Trial
Contact	Woodsman
Zone	Eden
Minimum Size	4 players
Coordinates	(2590, 370, 3515)
Level Range	39-41
Merits	7
Badge	Liberator
Enemy Groups	Devouring Earth

The Eden Trial is a hero Trial that takes place in Eden. The contact for this trial is Woodsman, who stands at the marker for The Hive neighborhood. The trial consists of a hunt followed by a single four-hour timed door mission.

Merit Rewards: This activity awards 7 Reward Merits.

Introductions

Initial Contact

You cannot brave these dangers alone. Come back with at least three other heroes.

You need at least 4 members on your team, all of them at least Level 39. If they are over Level 41, they will be automatically exemplared to Level 41 for the duration of the Task Force.

Mission

Agree to form a task force

Hunt Devouring Earth creatures

Briefing

Freeing me from the Devouring Earth has slowed the Hamidon's plans, but I fear it has not stopped them. Above all, the Devouring Earth seek the power to bend nature to their will; with me gone, they have sought out other victims. The creatures have taken several heroes with strong ties to nature, and will soon try to devour them. The heroes are held in an underground lair, guarded by a giant Crystal Titan. Those heroes must be rescued. I hope you will aid me in this task. Before you can begin, you must throw the Devouring Earth off balance. Will you strike against the Devouring Earth? Will you put them under the Wild Hunt and leave them reeling and afraid?

Mission Acceptance

Good. Then so begins the Wild Hunt. Stalk them, strike them, hunt them here in their false Eden! This will likely draw them away from their underground prison; then you may creep in and free the captured heroes.

Unnecessary Solicitation

needs data

Mission Objective(s)

• Hunt Devouring Earth creatures
  • Defeat 200 Devouring Earth

You have defeated enough of the Devouring Earth to distract them.

Enemies

Devouring Earth

Speak with the Woodsman

Mission Objective(s)

• Speak with the Woodsman

Woodsman

Briefing

Now is the time to end the hunt and begin the rescue. I can show you the way, but within the depths of the Devouring Earth's subterranean warrens, you alone must face the terrible hordes. The Hamidon has created a great Crystal Titan in which to house the power he hopes to siphon from the captured heroes. To win you must smash down the walls to the Titan's lair, defeat it, and free the heroes. But be wary. The Hamidon's servants will protect the walls and the Titan itself.

Listen. The Crystal Titan's prismatic powers are devastating; but there is a secret. The Greater Devoured beasts that live above the great lake of acid have evolved a defense against the Titan's prismatic powers. It is a gelatinous substance that coats their skin and dampens the worst of the crystal's vibrations. Gather this substance, and it may protect you from the Titan's power. You must hurry! Within four hours, the captive heroes will be no more!

Defeat Titan and rescue heroes - 4:00:00

Unnecessary Solicitation

needs data

Mission Objective(s)

Fearless and determined, you enter the depths of the Devouring Earth's underground labyrinth in search of the captive heroes.

• Defeat Titan and rescue heroes - 4:00:00
  • Break through the rock wall.
  • Break through the mold wall
  • Bring down the Crystal Titan

You have freed the captive heroes before the Hamidon could drain their powers

Notable NPCs

• Quarry x 2 (Monster)
• Rock Wall (Archvillain)
• Mold Wall (Archvillain)
• Crystal Titan (Monster)
• Gale (NPC Ally, Boss)
• Quill (NPC Ally, Boss)
• Slate (NPC Ally, Boss)
• Tundra (NPC Ally, Boss)

Bug! Gale, Quill, Slate, and Tundra, after being rescued, will not follow the other Heroes due to some unknown bug. However, if enemies are led to them, they will still engage in combat.

Enemies

Devouring Earth

Badge

Completing the Prisoners of Eden trial from The Woodsman awards the Liberator Badge.

Liberator You have freed the captured heroes, preventing them from becoming devoured.

Debriefing

The threat is ended, and the captives have been freed. Do not grow complacent, though, my young friend. The Devouring Earth hunger for power, and are sure to try again. Should they seek to corrupt nature's power once more, speak with me and I shall aid you.

Strategy

Due to the nature of the unique map within the Eden Trial, heroes who have Stealth, Flight or Teleport will possess advantages over the rest of the team. The journey begins by descending through several holes in the ground.

Once the team reaches a large cavern with a Quarry and a different colored wall at the end, the team may choose to defeat the Quarry, or go for the Rock Wall. While the wall itself does not attack players, it does summon rock-class Devouring Earth. About halfway through, another Quarry will be alerted. The team may choose to defeat it, or distract it and continue attacking the Rock Wall. Summoned enemies may summon Cairns which severely boost the wall's damage resistance. A quick bind players can do to target these cairns may prove helpful: /bind X "targetname Cairn", where X is the key to bind it to. Alternatively, a macro may be made instead: /macro XXX "targetname Cairn", where XXX is the name of the macro button. An alternate strategy to deal with the Quarry enemies is to taunt them towards one of the large holes in the ground, from there they will drop and disappear, never to spawn again.

Once players defeat the Rock Wall, there will be a winding passage, going down. There will be an open room with water and two bridges. Cutting across the middle of the water will aggro fewer of the enemies, however take note that the water is toxic and inflict damage as long as your character is in contact with it. Continue down the passages until there is another open room with another wall, the Mold Wall. Lichen Colonies in this room exist, they will spurt out Lichen that hurt when in big groups, Lichens can be avoided if the team stays on the main winding road in the middle of the cavern. Stealth will be useful here to get past them to the Mold Wall. If not, then watch out for Devouring Swarms that live on the ceiling. These must be dealt with immediately, as their stings last much longer than normal Underling-class Swarms. The Mold Wall is much like the Rock Wall; it does not directly attack players, but instead summons Fungi-class Devouring Earth along with Boss-class Greater Devoured. Take care of them quickly, until there are only Fungi left, then attack the wall.

Along the way players may have collected the unique Inspiration, Ambrosia, from Greater Devoured enemies. This Inspiration is essential for the final part of the task, as it protects from the substantial damage from Crystal Titan. Try to collect as much as you can (look for three or more per player) because each Inspiration only lasts 60 seconds. As the Crystal Titan does special damage on top of its normal attacks, Defense Inspirations along with the 45% defense Soft Cap will not work alone in defending against the attacks, and must be combined with Ambrosia. Bear in mind Monster-class enemies (which the Crystal Titan falls into) get slight bonuses for accuracy, even with Soft Cap working against them.

The best way to farm these inspirations is to defeat the Greater Devoured located in the pool cavern, on the way to the Mold Wall. As stated above, make sure to obtain 3-4 per person.

The Crystal Titan itself is in a huge chamber with a large lake, atop a central island with ramps spiraling up the sides. At the far end of the room are the four captured heroes that form part of the mission objectives. The heroes, once freed, do not need to be led out of the mission, or even survive. Between the players and captured heroes, lies the Crystal Titan along with literally hundreds of crystal-based Devouring Earth enemies. Players should use travel powers to find the captured heroes and save them first. NOTE: Crystal-based Devouring Earth enemies will spawn once a player gets near a Captured Hero.

Players may also choose to clear out the room of Devouring Earth, as they will be aggroed by any attack on the Crystal Titan, or ignore them and hope to defeat the Crystal Titan as fast as possible. Bear in mind all the Devouring Earth in this room are crystal-based, and as such, can drop Quartz eminators, which boost the accuracy of surrounding Devouring Earth (including the Crystal Titan) immensely, making defense useless.

Once players start their assault on the Crystal Titan, players should use Ambrosia or other Inspirations as required, as the Titan will attack anyone within its large range; this attack is a long range, wide AoE that will decimate the HP of anyone caught in the blast, and the Titan is capable of firing it off fairly quickly. Each Ambrosia will only last one minute, so renew as necessary. Depending on team makeup, the battle may be fast (within a minute), or slow (more than five minutes).

Once the Crystal Titan is defeated, Titan Shards will be spawned. They are fairly dangerous by themselves and Ambrosia provides no damage resistance to them. However, these Titan Shards lack the Crystal Titan's AoE attack.

Reward

Players will get a reward menu to select either 7 reward merits or a Titan Enhancement (level 40-43).

Only characters within the range of the trial (39-41) will be able to select the Titan Enhancement as a reward.

History

This section contains information that no longer applies to the current version of City of Heroes Freedom. It is provided for historical purposes.

• Prior to the 5th May 2011 patch, there was a bug in starting the Eden Trial. The leader of the group had to be within the level range of 39-41, otherwise the trial would not start.