Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tip: Plan Ahead when Travelling

Posted by FelizB on Jul 12, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

In this article I wanted to give a simple but important tip. Scouting and scavenging are always a must in the new undead world you live in. Two general rules to follow if you must travel at all.

One; NEVER travel alone. Unless you have to or it’s the only way to accomplish an extremely important and necessary goal, it’s always a good idea to travel in groups of 2 to 4 people. Having someone there to watch your back and help keep an ear out for more threats is always a good thing to have. However, pro-tip, learn to communicate visually instead of orally. Sign language or basic predetermined gestures are recommended prior to heading out with a scouter.

Two; NEVER travel at night. As a visual dependant species we rely more highly on our vision than anything else. Why compromise something that they might not even use as much as we do. Again, only if there’s no other way, travel only during daylight and hide at night (or get back to camp befor night fall). In both situations all you’re doing is giving your opponents the upper hand and that is never a good thing in a life and death situations.

Photo by: Digital Sextant

Gravity [Spoiler]

Posted by FelizB on Jul 9, 2012 in Guides, The Secret World | 0 comments

Nicholas Winter has been dealing with his father Nathaniel Winters estate, the Atlantic Island Park, a haunted amusement park on the Savage Coast,  in particular. He’s let you already run two missions for him during which you learned about secret forces binding Nathaniel and now Nicholas to the place. A third party is interested in the park as well and everybody is out to control the power emanating from it.

Tier 1.

Nicholas Winter was heartless and calculating and his obsession with the park was for a reason, just like his decision to leave the park to his son. Decipher Nathaniel Winter’s Last Will and Testament and uncover what Nicholas was meant to see.

Hint 1

The will is in the car on the seat next to the deceased driver. Nicholas Winter is the sole heir. However, the quest will not be updated by just reading the will.

Hint 2

You need to use the monocle you got as a result from the previous quest “The Carnival of Souls”. There you will learn more about the park and the next step.

Hint 3

Go inside the barn on Henderson’s farm and pick up a piece of the plan from the floor.

Tier 2.

Another party is looking for the plans of the park as well. That’s why they have been divided and hidden. You have to think and see like Nathaniel Winter to decipher them.

Hint 1

Use the monocle on the plans you just found. You’ll see a park map with some white symbols imprinted on them. Follow the symbols and search thoroughly along the path.

Hint 2

You’ll find the next part of the map on the outside of the Bumper Cars’ cage just where the white symbol runs through.

Hint 3

A bit further along, at the Ferris Wheel, you will find a red lens in the middle of some shards.

Tier 3.

Continue your search, your deciphering attempts and stay ahead of the other party.

Hint 1

The map you found doesn’t look special at all. But the red lens looks just like your monocle. Insert it into the monocle, using the assembly window (Y). Now look at the plans again: Red Symbols will lead you to the next piece of the plan.

Hint 2

It’s affixed to one of the vendor stands.

Hint 3

Not far from here, among the stands, are again shards right in front of a vending machine. This time you’ll find a blue lens.

Tier 4.

Keep going and find more pieces to the plan. Follow the hints given to you by the pieces you found so far.

Hint 1

The map is again a standard map. Lets pop in the blue lens. But you need to remove the red lens first, using the disassemble slot. Now the plans reveal another symbol, which you can follow.

Hint 2

At the Roller Coaster you’ll find the next piece on the eastern ramp on the fence.

Tier 5.

The park is a gigantic Anima Capacitor, designed to accumulate energy and channel it into a subject. Neither Nicholas nor the Phoenicians must be allowed to accomplish this goal.

Hint 1

We’ve run out of lenses for the monocle. There’s only purple light around, annoying us. But red and blue makes purple. Build a monocle with a purple lens.

Hint 2

The last piece of the plan leads us to a shed in the center of the park. Assemble the plan by clicking on a purple symbol on one side of the shed. The full circuit is drawn upon the wall.

Hint 3

To overload the circuit, you need to click in order on the electronic parts that make up the diagram. Start with the AC voltage source and then work your way around the drawing counter clockwise (Resistor, Diode, Inductor). A cut scene will show the Phoenicians moving in and getting killed by a purple energy storm, which brings the park finally into a more peaceful state.

Analysis of a Deck: Ninja (Dragon)

Posted by FelizB on Jul 7, 2012 in Blog, Featured, Guides, The Secret World | 0 comments

Since I haven’t made much progress in understanding character builds, decks and the ability wheel, I need to slow down for a while and study. And why not do that by just analyzing the deck I am using, pre-made by FunCom: “Ninja”. It’s a melee build using blades and elemental magic for some ranged abilities and to spice up things. And by spicing up I mean synergies, something, the designers of “The Secret World” have declared as basic principle behind the creation of the abilities for player characters.

“The Secret World” organizes character abilities in a wheel, consisting of 3 sections with 3 weapon/school types each. For each weapon type, there are 2 inner and 6 outer groups of 7 abilities each. Add 3 more groups with miscellaneous abilities. This adds up to 9 * 8 + 3 = 75 groups or 75 * 7 = 575 abilities. Getting all skills of an inner group will cost you 19 ability points. All skills of an outer group will cost you 169 AP. That’s a total of 9975 AP.

To say the least, this is overwhelming. There are already a good number of guides out there, but I am still far away from really understanding what’s going on. Let’s start with a quick overview of guides & tools: The most comprehensive guide is Yokai’s guide to build mechanics and build philosophy. It’s still a lot to digest. There’s Seki’s “Weapon synergy and build discussion”, which will go away once the TSW boards are reformatted. You’ll find a copy of the post here. There’s also a nice calculator at Bad Omens.

Now we will take a look at the abilities being used for the deck. The damage amounts are taken from an empty build, most of them will be higher when more skill points are added. Please ignore them for now, the actual damage is secondary.

Active:

Delicate Strike: Builds 1 resource for each equipped weapon. A single target attack that deals 48 physical damage.
Resource Builder, buffed by “Delicate Precision” passive to increase penetration chance.

Clearing the Path: Consumes all Blade Resources. A PBAoE attack that deals 57 physical damage. This attack penetrates any Afflicted targets it hits.
Blade PBAoE finisher, exploits Afflicted status

Blaze: Consumes 3 Elemental Resources. A single target attack that deals 164magical damage, or 181 magical damage to Afflicted targets.
Elemental single target resource consumer, exploits Afflicted status

Surging Blades: A column dash attack that deals 58 physical damage.
Utility: gets you to your target fast, and if you do it right, away as well.

Flashpoint: A single target attack that deals 35 magical damage. The target also becomes Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 20 magical damage every second for 5 seconds.
If the target is already Afflicted, it will cause 5 enemies in a 5 meter radius around them to become Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 20 magical damage each second for 5 seconds.
Single target, exploits and triggers Afflicted.

Ice Manifestation: Places a manifestation at the targeted point that lasts 9 seconds. Every 3 seconds it will hit up to 5 enemies in a 5 meter radius, dealing 40 magical damage. Affected targets will also be rooted to the ground for 2 seconds.
Targeted AoE, crowd control.

Four Seasons: A channelled attack that deals 31 physical damage each hit. The damage dealt increases by 5% for each hit, and all hits will penetrate. The last hit will cause the target to become Impaired and unable to act for 3 seconds. This ability has a 15 meter range.
Single target attack, triggers Impaired and Afflicted, the later because it’s buffed by Incision.

Passive

Fortunate Strike: Whenever you attack an Afflicted target, there is a 10% chance you will perform an additional hit that deals 21 physical damage.
Exploits Afflicted.

Aidelon: “Blaze” has a 100% chance to critically hit Afflicted targets.
Exploits Afflicted.

Twist the Knife: Whenever you penetrate you also gain 1 stack of a beneficial effect, which increases all damage dealt by3% for 10 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3 times.
Triggered by Penetrate. 

Incision: Whenever you penetrate, you also cause the target to become Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 10 physical damage every second for 3 seconds.
Triggered by Penetrate, triggers Afflicted.

Sudden Return:  Whenever you penetrate, you also perform an additional hit that deals 18 physical damage.
Triggered by Penetrate. 

Delicate Precision:  Increases the Penetration Chance of “Delicate Strike” by 10%.
Self explanatory. 

Flight of Daggers: Whenever you attack, you build a Flight of Daggers counter. When the counter reaches 5, you will hit up to 3 enemies in a 5 meter radius around you, dealing 46 physical damage. Affected targets also become Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 10 physical damage every second for 5 seconds.
Triggers Afflicted.

Summary

The key to this build lies in the passive ability Incision and the active ability Clearing the Path. Incision causes affliction with the first penetration and Clearing the Path penetrates everything that’s afflicted. Thus, as long as you keep up with time-outs, your target will remain afflicted and penetrated a lot.

This deck gains even more by abilities exploiting the constant affliction and high rate of penetration. Blaze and Flashpoint are active abilities which benefit from the target being afflicted. Fortunate Strike and Aidelon are passives which benefit as well. Additionally, Twist the Knife, Incision and Sudden Return all amplify the effects of penetrate.

Conclusion

By analyzing a single pre-made deck, we’ve seen how well 7 active and 7 passive abilities can interact with each other. Writing this article was an exercise for myself to learn how this interaction happens and I think I know much better now what to look for in other builds. It will still be a challenge to come up with a build of my own, but the first step is done.

Zombie Survival Tip: Stay Above the Fray

Posted by FelizB on Jul 3, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

A while ago, I mentioned “safe climb areas”. These are things at or above chest level that are easily scalable in a hurry when being chased by a few Zombie strays. It’s always better to attack them quickly if spotted rather than running because the moans will attract a lot more, but if you have to flee being 4+ feet off the ground will give you a HUGE advantage to not just killing, but also vision to see what’s on the way. Tip; ALWAYS climb and check first. Then venture off, it should be a place to come back to IF the need arises, not something you run to when it does and “hope” you don’t fall through the unstable shed roof just to be trapped inside like a can-o-Campbell’s soup waiting to be popped open. (Again, careful planning.)

Photo by: Björn Söderqvist

Dead Air [Spoiler]

Posted by FelizB on Jul 1, 2012 in Guides, The Secret World | 0 comments

Ellis Hill is the go to guy for everything that needs fixing. He’s already sent you on a mission to fix the power supply. The next problem are radio reception issues. He claims he’s only interested in civil stations, be it the Gospel Channel or a Red Sox game, but it all seems somewhat suspicious.

Tier 1.

The airport’s radio mast is beyond repair, according to Ellis. But it really looks like he wants you to keep away from it. Go and investigate the mast.

Hint 1

Locate and examine the radio mast: It’s not far from Ellis’ hangar on top of the airport tower.

Hint 2

Examine the serial number: It’s a small label on the bottom of the mast. Manticore 3881999

Tier 2.

Research the mast and find the components that need repair.

Hint

Source the components to repair the mast: Two hangars are in a marked area just a bit further down. You’ll find a dozen odd items which may or may not be used in antenna repair. It doesn’t say which one is used, when you click the mast, they all disappear. My money is on the wire hanger.

Tier 3.

Listen for a transmission.

Hint

Just click on the mast and it will play a video with a morse code transmission

Tier 4.

Decipher the transmission.

Hint 1

OMG OMG Panic. It’s morse code transmitted at full speed: dah di dit, di dah dit. If you want to solve it yourself, record the transmission and slow it down with your favorite audio tool. Everybody ought to have one. Then use google to find a morse alphabet.

Hint 2

Or look here: drop location 712 536. Which are map coordinates. There’s a water puddle between the rocks southeast of the house near the scrapyard. That’s where the drop’s going to happen.

Tier 5.

Open the huge crate that’s being dropped off.

Hint

It contains a bulky monster you need to kill. Or be killed.

Men in Black Vans [Spoiler]

Posted by FelizB on Jul 1, 2012 in Guides, The Secret World | 0 comments

Danny Dufresne is the archetypical adolescent skater boy paranoid geek. A lot of things have been happening since the fog moved into town. He had hoped the men in black vans had come to Kingsmouth to help the locals. But it turns out they have very much their own agenda. He’s flying his camera equipped RC planes through the area for surveillance. He might be right. Help him to understand what’s going on.

Tier 1.

The men made a suspicious arrival in black vans. Search the van parked north of the skate park.

Hint

Not much of a spoiler here. There’s a marker leading you to the van.

Tier 2.

You find the remains of the van’s occupants sprawled across the nearby beach right in the middle of a cluster of draug pods. There’s an active laptop uplink in their van. Try to get access.

Hint 1

The password hint on the laptop is: My wife. Search the nearby corpses and find the ID of one of the employees: Kitsuna Hayabusa, ID 168 8490.

Hint 2

The batch has a web address on it. A wrong address. Not orochigroup.net, but orochi-group.net Using the employee finder will reveal his wife’s name: Sally

Tier 3.

The message on the laptop states to not leave any occult technology behind in the field. Use the tracking device to find the technology.

Hint 1

You’ll find a smaller device next to the laptop. That’s your tracking device. Use it and let the pulse guide you to the Occult Attractor.

Hint 2

For the impatient: There’s a water inlet straight east of the van, that’s where you’ll find it.

Tier 4.

The attractor has been dragged into the low tidal waters and does what it’s supposed to do: attracting occult creatures. Deactivate it, following the procedure described on the laptop.

Hint 1

1. Engage PK Pulse Unit
2. Affix Manifest Agitator to PK Pulse Unit
3. Affix Etheric Transponder Antenna to Manifest Agitator
4. Assume minimum save distance before power up.
5. Disassemble in reverse order to avoid etheric spikes and possible unwanted attention.

Completing Step 3 will give you an update about the device being active and asking you now to deactivate it.

Hint 2

Do so by repeating step 3, then step 2.

A recommendation for this tier: If there are multiple people trying to solve this mission at once, group up, or make at least sure, that only one player operate the attractor at a time.