GTFO: ALT R3A1 - Resuscitation

Just for practice (since R2 is getting hairier by the level) I decided to scout out R3A1 solo (with bots, so not really solo) and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was almost exactly like my first write up of it. The original version was the very first GTFO level we ever managed to complete! The load outs were as follows (I basically made it Jim and DL bots, but with Auto Sentry tools as those are the easiest to deploy):

Me: Pistol/Revolver/Cfoam/Spear
[Bot]: DMR/Sniper Rifle/Auto Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: Double Tap DMR/Combat Shotgun/Auto Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/Biotracker/Hammer

The mission is to bring the "baby" to a machine, get it stamped, and return to extraction. Everything is brighter now, and many of the more vertical rooms have been changed to be less so which makes it much easier. Sneak through the one way you can go (and save this first door), bop the sleepers, open first security door with no alarm and bop the sleepers in here. Leave the baby at the locked gate to go into the big door to bop/shoot more and use a terminal to locate the key you need for the door as you'll only need to open one of these.

Before starting the alarm I shut and foamed the big door and put the sentry guns facing each other inside, with more foam in between them to catch things in crossfire. This is because with bots, you can't really do c-foam duty. Open the correct class IV and unlock the door and win the fight (in that order). Some giants came in here but we had a lot of ammo still so it wasn't a problem. Beyond the door was a scout who I just revolvered to the head (I was just messing around), shot the sleepers that woke up and snuck into the next room with giants. They were far enough apart for me to just snake through, get the key and snake back. Afterwards its just back to the baby and pushing forward through the next big door.

Clear the arcing hallway then open big door number three and clear that room too. Another security scan door waits for us here so I shut the two big doors, foamed the inner one, put the auto sentries at the door facing away (so things get shot in the back) and cfoamed the hallway to catch things for the guns, then its alarm time. Scan first then win.

Lots of loot in the empty chamber ahead and I made sure that I had 12 cfoam and everything else went to the bots because they'd be doing the fighting now. Baby goes into the machine, gets stamped and starts an alarm. As bots never carry the baby I picked it up and just made a beeline for extraction while they covered me, only stopping to cfoam that first door in the level to halt the pursuers before getting to extraction. Baddies did manage to arrive, including a pair of barrage firing hybrids which I don't remember being there last time. Still, no big deal. Just fight well and GTFO! :)

GTFO: ALT R2C2 - ???

Yep, this mission is actually named ??? and unlike other times where I say "we haven't been playing GTFO" this time we certainly have been but this level is really up there in terms of BS with the only good news being there aren't any scouts. The job is to recover 7 IDs (out of 9ish that randomly spawn) and then get back out but the main problem is that there is an endless alarm which means you'll have groups of 4 striker/shooters coming at you every 45 seconds. Hope you are good in melee! Also I only discovered now that the strikers also aim for your head so with good timing you can just crouch to evade their tongues (much like shooter blasts). Our loadout was as follows:

Me: Pistol/Revolver/Cfoam/Spear (team 1)
DL: DMR/Sniper Rifle/Mines/Hammer (team 1)
Jim: Double Tap DMR/Combat Shotgun/Auto Sentry/Hammer (team 2 - terminal duty)
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/Biotracker/Hammer (team 2)

Expect to run this a few times to get used to where cabinets, turbines and cells randomly spawn. Terminals and the disinfection station are in fixed/stagnant positions. Artifacts that improve hack lock skill are handy, as well as a notebook/pen and paper for whoever is doing the terminal (for us it was Jim). Feel free to sprint as there are no sleepers until the last parts anyway just to really screw you over. Here is what worked for us in the end.

From the drop rush to open the big door straight ahead (team 1) and the one to the right (team 2), the idea being to save them for an upcoming hold. If the scum spawn out with you then its good! Fight first and then get the doors open. Team 1 should then go open the door to the left (if its still there) while team 2 who opened the right door sweeps into the next room, following the right wall of the next room to open the next door and loop back out and both teams return to the starting drop room. There's a terminal here on the right side if you are facing away from the hole, and one of you needs to find where the easiest 7 IDs are from here while everyone else defends. You don't need to go into every room!

Once that's done sweep into the next room and make sure you find the tools for c-foamer and ammo for everyone. Open the non-alarm team scan door at the back and there's another terminal just overlooking the stairs (just turn left as you go up). Team 2 stays at this terminal to ping a cell, fog turbine and resources for team 1 to get (split up) opening the two doors dead ahead and to the right. Team 2 can help loot once the cell and turbine are located and bring everything back down to that big dark room with a security door down some stairs in the fog. The generator for the cell can be found by following the stairs down from first scan door you opened and then following the left wall.

Next part is important: wait for the wave of four and your cfoamer needs to get to the middle door (the one looking at the starting drop room) to shut and ice it while the enemies are killed. Then Jim usually closes the door near the fog alarm and DL closes the back door then everyone has to get to the fog alarm door (ideally someone holding the turbine) and get the thing going. If you are lucky the wave will come from the starting drop room which means the cfoamer has just enough time to sprint up the stairs to continue to hold it while your allies do circles and kill flankers. DL usually comes along to put a mine facing the door too at this point. Unlock the door and survive until its back down to the four chasers.

When ready get the fog turbine and you're going to need to march through the fog. Speed is important but as the turbine guy can't run you do have time to unlock some boxes if there are any en route. Follow the right wall and go through the big door and the next big door just beyond that. Feel free to close these behind you but just be careful because sometimes the [Bot] loses pathing here like an idiot which will cost you the run. After the 2nd door you want to follow the left wall to stay up on a metal walkway and someone not carrying the turbine should eat some infection to run ahead and hack lock the small door just around the corner.

Get everyone in there, kill the 4 chasers if need be, then seal the small door, foam the big door to the a left and get started with the security scan on the right. This is a quick scan but you can also quickly die here if you aren't on your game (or the bot decides to take a scenic path when you start it). As soon as the door is unlocked open it and go up the stairs out of the fog (drop the turbine). Fight everything else up here and find more stairs up to locate a disinfection station to cleanse everyone.

Immediately beside you is a blood door. Are there IDs that you need in there? If yes that makes it simple as you can open it now, but for our winning run the answer was no, so we pushed ahead to the small door in the corner which opens into a big chamber with another blood door down some stairs. We did need this one, but it needs power so we just had to go across to the no team scan / no alarm door at the opposite end which leads to the zone with a cell and a fair amount of resources. NOTE: This zone and the zones beyond all blood doors has sleepers. Giant sleepers too. You don't have time to be sneaky though so just shoot em.

With the cell in hand return to the corner between the door you used to enter here and the blood door with stairs down which is where you'll find the generator. DL then setup mines for the downstairs blood door and opened it with the usual hybrid pair and small guys coming out (+ any sleepers that heard the blast). Can't really help much with this next bit but "go in and find the IDs". Yep. They are always in lockers or boxes so stick together, communicate and you'll be ok but don't waste time.

After our first batch of ID's are collected we need to go back through the fog zone, so get the turbine and again follow the right wall which will lead to a terminal here. Ping the ID's while your team protects you, then pick up said IDs and make your way out.  For us we now had to go to the final/first blood door which needs a key (you'd have picked this up while searching for the other IDs) so again, setup (careful of mine + 4 spawners) deal with the hybrid pair + regular monsters + sleepers that wake up and get in there. Get however many IDs you still need (for us it was 1) and run back to the extract as five giant strikers spawn in to give chase. DL got cut off and did not make it, but I think he delayed them for a long period. That said the extraction scan is really slow too, which means we still needed to win against the big boys (+ the endless spawners). Somehow, we did and managed to GTFO!

GTFO: ALT R2C1 - Triangulation

Been awhile since our last expedition here as GTFO has fallen off our regular gaming schedule, but  after an early fail this one turned out to not be so bad! A note on our loadout - Biotracker essential, Cfoam and mines also handy but sniper sentry next to useless! Jim's choice of bringing a Combat Shotty also paid off big time towards the end!

Me: Pistol/Revolver/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Sniper Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: Double Tap DMR/Combat Shotgun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/Biotracker/Hammer

Today we need to reach three terminals and UPLINK_VERIFY 3 codes into each of them one at a time. Of course alarms will sound while doing these and the things that come for you are invisible strikers! They are probably the least of your worries though.

From the drop clear as you see fit but before heading through the Rank V-M alarm to the North, you might as well do whichever side door you need to for your first terminal, and if you so choose do the other side for gear as well which we did(no alarm on either). Note: there are scouts aplenty here but usually only one per room. Unless they are behind a security door you should probably go kill them, keeping in mind high ground lets you strike their noggins easier plus it keeps you out of the fog in the later part of the mission.

Your first terminal will most likely only have one door leading to it, meaning a simple cfoam duty + single mine will most likely see you through it. The Rank V-M alarm has three doors leading to it, and in both our attempts the bad guys never came from the Southwest doors (note we shut everything and usually our Southeast doors were broken). You then get into a big fog area where killing the central scout is top priority. Afterwards, kill the scouts in BOTH wings. This is because the next terminal is here, and strikers spawn from the opposing wing. The defense involves three doors but the enemies never came from the large bottom floor one.

You'll find fog turbines here so bring at least one with you after you clear the next door to the North which is a class III alarm. You'll be done with circles by the time the invisible strikers get to you, just make sure Biotracker man is ready to scan. Beyond this is the worst part. Thick fog, wall cancers and giants waiting in the mist. When we goofed it was Jim's combat shotty that smacked those big guys down. The final terminal is back here with a single door to defend which is again, easy. After you're done use the corner stairs to funnel the invisible strikers and clear out any that remain before making your way back to the extraction spot.

Invisible strikers will keep coming at you endlessly now (but there are gaps so not very endlessly) so just calmly fight your way to the drop point and hold. It's a pretty long hold so expect to fight and if you survive, good job! You can GTFO! :)

GTFO: ALT R2B4 - Septic

The final B level for ALT rundown 2 really brings in the infection rate with many areas of wall cancers and farty fog so its fitting the mission is to find a SPECIFIC fog turbine and bring it to the forward extraction point. Again we brought our scouting load out:

Me: Pistol/Revolver/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Sniper Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: Rifle/Machine Gun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Heavy AR/Biotracker/Hammer

It's mostly a one way level as the door to the Northern alarm needs an access key so you'll first need to head West to a non-alarm door while clearing the little sleepers in the starting zone. Beyond this begins the wall cancers with giants. Yuck. The key to that previous door is in here somewhere though and the fog turbine deeper in. There are also alarm doors to the North and South, be sure to check which way you need to  go and keep your lights on those wall things.

Ours was to the Class V door to the North which was an easy to hold ice one since there's only one entry. Beyond is a most horrible room of wall cancers and little scum. We just opted to make noise, kill them all, and carefully proceed here to light up the things to make them temporarily "sleep" and found TWO fog turbines. We foolishly just grabbed the first one, and only at the end did we realize it was specifically the second one we needed for... reasons, so if you want to save a trek back here - pick up the correct one now!

With the objective in hand back track to the first door and unlock the Northern class IV alarm. Ice and mine what you can but expect scum to get through. There's a downstairs poison fog area where some scans will fall into, so Jim with the turbine and guarded by the bot handled those while DL and I ran interference.

The next zone is FULL of fog, so make good use of that turbine but hold onto any little fog repellers you come across. We just kept intentionally making noise here and fighting at open doors if we found giants, then at the very North is a class V alarm door IN THE FOG. After closing and mining as many doors towards the start as we could, I split the remaining cfoam between the two doors where we'd be holding. This is where the little fog repellers come in handy, and yes they will come in while you are still scanning. For us, the waves were almost exclusively from the looping Eastern hall.

Once you're done go in and up the stairs then kill those stupid sleeping giant shooters. One on one you can literally dance around them in a circle and keep power striking to win, but hey - shooting is good too. Just setup for a long extraction alarm before getting in that circle (drop the fog turbine in there) because yes, your pursuers WILL make it up to your position. Shoot well for just a minute more and GTFO.

GTFO: ALT R2B3 - Pathfinder

Been awhile since the last drop so we just went with our "standard scouting loadout" which we've used a fair bit now as it's pretty effective in winning on the first go:

Me: Pistol/Revolver/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Sniper Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: Rifle/Machine Gun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Heavy AR/Biotracker/Hammer

The main objective here is a terminal hack (using uplink commands), but the main puzzle aspect is the very first zone which contains an interesting mix of doorways that you'll need to use for two separate defenses - clear out the little guys without wrecking any of them. To the West and East are Class V security doors needing a security key card which is hidden behind the Northern Class IV alarm door. Little c-foam, many mines. 

We bungled our hold and lost some doors!

In the Northern area you must get past giants and a scout to get the keys to the East and West doors, but you'll only need one of them! Check on a terminal to determine which way your objective lies - ours was to the East! A regular team scan (no alarm) door leads to a further zone North that is an extra "supply" zone guarded by giants. Back in the first zone we then setup as best we could for the East, cfoaming and mining the open doors and putting the sniper sentry to assist (always at a door pointing at us so that it shoots things in the back).

Our terminal was at the very Eastern section here which only has one door leading into it. Regardless, we cleared everything and shut everything and use the last of the supplies to cfoam hold the door followed by good fighting. Since I was holding the cfoam Jim was doing terminal duty. After the last code is entered there is an extraction alarm so things won't stop coming. Instead push forward right after killing a wave and get back to the drop point and then hold with whatever you have left. I was down to just my spear when we finally GTFO. :D

GTFO: ALT R2B2 - Power Corrupts

I hope you practiced silently smacking giants in the previous level because you're gonna need it here (or you can just practice here, whatever). The objective is to find four small generators to plug four cells into (which come down the elevator with you). Our load out was the same as last time, which means DL got extra ammo again for the sniper rifle.

Me: Pistol/Revolver/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Sniper Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: PDW/Machine Gun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: Hel Revolver/Machinegun/Biotracker/Hammer

Giants are all over the first zone, so stealth kill or stealth past as you see fit. The first generator is in here somewhere so make sure to ping it at a terminal before going through the regular team scan to the next zone, which is dark and tiny and full of ugly spitter things on the wall that scream and poison you if you get too close. Shine your light on them to make them sleep! Little sleepers are in here too, so balance as you like. We still stealth meleed with flash lights on. Lol. Anyway, second generator is in here too. Yay!

This is followed by a largish zone with the third generator and CLASS V alarm exits to the North and West. One of these will contain the last generator spot so check first which way you need to go (ours was West). For defense here since there was no door, Jim's sniper sentry was facing inward around the bend from the entry point so that it would hit both upstairs and downstairs mobs (you'll understand when you see it) and I cfoamed a cone infront of the gun to give it more time to shoot things while DL also put mines just after the cfoam. Note there's a non-alarm team scan East but leave that shut first to simplify things. This defense held until around the last set of circles so it's pretty effective!

Behind either CLASS V door are rooms of scouts! For single ones DL sniped, but for the double Jim tossed a cfoam grenade and missed but a scout still walked into it, leaving it open for me to spear and then spear his buddy - which was both cool cause it worked and foolish cause it was safer if DL shot it, but whatever. :P

After plugging in the last generator head on East through the non-alarm door until you hit a zone with a CLASS V ALARMED BLOOD DOOR. What!? This one caught us as we thought it was just a regular blood door, so mine was set up on the East door, sniper turret along South wall facing back towards us (always shoot things in the back) with foam in front of it. At least I shut the door behind us, but it wasn't cfoamed or mined. On your run, make sure to do those things. We also had cleared the room by stealth bop, and then I just fired one shot to get the fog sleepers to come out.

So, with the surprise of needing to do circles - we rushed forward to start the scan and then I went back with the bot to hold the first wave along the South wall while the others tore down defenses and did circles, but I had to fall back pretty quick. Eventually all the circles were done and we ended up doing a big counter clockwise semicircle to win the wave. Sheesh. Comparatively the regular blood door segment of this blood door was pretty straightforward! Once done, its a fast silent extract just behind that door to GTFO!

GTFO: ALT R2B1 - Sacrifice

Next step down from R2A1 is basically the introduction to blood doors and making giant strikers more common. It's a simple task: just open up the forward extraction spot which you will find just by going North all the time. This was our loadout:

Me: Pistol/Revolver/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Sniper Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: PDW/Machine Gun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: Hel Revolver/Machinegun/Biotracker/Hammer

Now's a good time to recap how to stealth kill giants: stack up behind solo sleeping giants and each call out a unique limb on the target. Swing a fully charged melee at the same time and your goal is to break the limb you called out as that forces the giant to stagger. Hitting the nape and destroying the head is always a good idea, as that deals significantly more damage. Note: if you brought clubs and knives, this is probably going to be tougher! For groups of big guys, clear everything else, shut the doors to kill the noise and snipe them.

Clear your drop zone of regulars and you'll find the first blood door. A mine pointed towards the door is better than one across, but either way there will still be scum that you will need to shoot after. Make use of the shelf cover provided when those spiky head hybrids come out. They can shoot a lot, but cover negates their greatest strength.

Beyond that is a big zone with giant sleepers and 4 security doors (other than the one you just used to enter). In the SE is an optional "supply closet" we didn't bother opening as it would just complicate things, then two more blood doors to the East and West, and a locked Apex door to the North. The key card is behind one of the blood doors so ping it, then prep with a mine (ours was to the East) and shoot the left overs from cover again.

Inside is a scout which DL sniped, and the key card to Apex CLASS VII alarm! To setup for this, we shut all the doors we could and DL mined all the immediate ones and the ones one step away while I cfoamed all the immediate ones and used the remaining cfoam in a cone in front of Jim's sniper sentry positioned at the Eastern blood door (because that's what we opened) facing towards the Apex door.

This is one of those "fight well" situations, but remember to do circles too! The [bot] on biotracker is amazing at letting you know which side to pay attention to as the swarm came from both East and South for us. Opening the Apex door triggers an extraction alarm so combat mine and rush and hold the extract spot as a wave of giants comes after you. DL is great with the sniper rifle and really smashed them here, though with that gun being 100% full with 8 shots it meant donating a lot of ammo kits to him, which balanced out my excess of ammo with the twin pistols. Everything worked well, and we GTFO of there. :)

GTFO: ALT R2A1 - The Dig

With ALT R1 out of the way it's time to venture into ALT R2, and this one isn't too hard if you're already an experienced group like us. If not, you're about to get more experience dealing with medium sleeper clusters and some solo scouts! Our loadout was as follows:

Me: Pistol/Revolver/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Sniper Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: Rifle/Machine Gun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Heavy Assault Rifle/Biotracker/Hammer

Today's mission is to collect two pieces of cargo and return it to the extraction spot and the basic rule as usual while clearing is: don't break any doors. From the drop clear what you've got and you'll find yourself facing two security doors, but the one to the North needs an access key so ignore that and go through the non-alarm one to the West.

This room holds three corridors and six regular doors which you should try keep intact while clearing. Somewhere here is the key and two more class II alarm doors, one to the West and one to the South. Behind one of these is the first cargo item so ping and open the correct door (ours was South). We tried to funnel the wave here by leaving the middle two doors and bottom left door open, but they still decided to break the bottom right door... bleh, whatever.

Behind either door of those class II doors is a scout, and since we were feeling gun-brave we just let DL snipe it and handled whatever woke up. After taking the cargo to the extraction spot its time to go for the previously locked Northern door which is a class IV alarm. A little trickier to setup so DL put mines on all the doors and we closed everything we could. Sniper sentry was set facing the West security door which is now permanently open. I foamed what I could as well as the floor of that open door.

Anyway, this is one of those "fight well" moments and it wasn't that tough. There are some giants that come so watch your corners but you should be ok. Last chamber has last cargo item and another scout for DL to snipe. Before taking it to extraction we prepped by cfoam and mining the right hand door while cfoam and sentry waited along the left corridor since that door was broken now.

The extract scan is a slower one so put the cargo down in the circle and get ready to defend as little strikers will be coming for you. Nothing overly dramatic if you are expecting it. :)

GTFO: ALT R1D1 - Deeper

And just like that we're now at the final mission of Rundown 1, this time we need to turn off a reactor. Is it that simple? Well, yeah but getting there can be a challenge! Our load out of this one was:

Me: Pistol/Revolver/Sniper Sentry/Spear
DL: DMR/Sniper Rifle/Burst Sentry/Hammer
Jim: Rifle/Machine Gun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: Hel Revolver/Machinegun/Biotracker*/Hammer

*The [Bot] has some funny lines when he's using the Biotracker. :P

Again the general gist of this map is "go North until you hit the objective" with lots of long corridors to take advantage of sentry usage. First door will be a class IV alarm (sentries on long bridge) followed by a room with a scout, then a class V door (sentries in long hallway before big area) and a room with TWO scouts, and another class V Apex door (sentries facing open door / looks like a short distance).

The scouts are a decent threat but just remember you have all those long stretches you can setup turrets to help with the defense. Now as we were burning through ammo here we also decided to open the 0 alarm doors on the sides which holds lots of gear - but only after doing the alarmed doors if we could help it. Sleepers and giants hide out there so be smart and weigh your options as you don't want to spend more of a resource that you're trying to collect!

At the reactor (turrets facing the hall) the shut down command will turn off all the lights and trigger a class IV alarm that forces you to hold your ground followed by an endless extraction alarm as you run to the drop point but this time all your enemies are shadow strikers! Big flashlights help here - basically if you think you saw something move shoot at it! Once you reach the extract spot, put turrets down, hold and GTFO!

GTFO: ALT R1C2 - Decode

It was really late after winning that last map when we decided to scout this one, and despite DL having connection issues midway we actually won first go! The objective this time is to find 10 decoders and head to the forward exit. This is what we brought:

Me: Hel Revolver/Revolver/Cfoam/Hammer
DL: DMR/Presicion Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: Rifle/Machine Gun/Cfoam/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/*Sniper Sentry/Hammer

*Forgot to use - we were sleepy. :P

Chargers, the spiky black strikers, are introduced here and the only thing to remember with them is while they sleep to fully charged stealth strike them at their back - while ensuring your feet are pointing the same way their feet are pointing at. If you "angle" hit their back, but your feet aren't matching directions, you won't get the bonus damage and won't kill it in one hit.

This level is a good test of your stealth skills actually as we snuck past giants we didn't need to kill, silently bopped the regulars guys we did need to kill, and probably most importantly didn't stealth ANY scout. We were too sleepy to attempt, so we'd just clear what we can and DL would snipe them. Lock melters are also handy to get decoders in lock boxes if you don't want to wake the room. Alternatively shooting then shutting a door with minor ice and a mine helps clear "loud" rooms (like a scout in a room with sleeping giants, you need to nail that scout).

We also skipped the first class IV alarm door because we goofed and lost an ice able door (it would have been a tough hold anyway with 4+ entries), instead following the path East and going through all the 0 alarm ones we could find. There is a class IV alarm with a single door at one point, which is an easy hold against chargers if you put a mine facing the iced door and have someone to do c-foam duty.

Eventually you'll reach a crossroads type room and after opening one of the class III on the wings to load up on gear and decoders, we did the Apex class IV alarm next (but not opened the door - don't give enemies more places to spawn from) followed by the other side class III (we needed one more decoder). Icing the doorways just before DL's mines is a good idea to buy time (or you know, bring sentries instead). While the class IIIs were your usual striker / shooter combo the class IV is all chargers. Keeping in mind you can't out run them (unless you parkour) take them down as best as you can while doing circles. C-foam grenades are around to help you out (aim at the floor they will pass through, not at them directly).

Once you have 10 decoders (there are more than 10 available) head to the forward extraction zone which is a fast / no alarm team scan to GTFO. 

GTFO: ALT R1C1 - Reconnect

Some major load out changes for this first C level which is basically a long tunnel North with 0 alarm security doors followed by an 8 wave reactor sequence! This is what we brought for our winning run:

Jim: Rifle/Machine Gun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer
DL: DMR/Hel Gun/Burst Sentry/Hammer
Me: SMG/Burst Cannon/Burst Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer

To save some time, don't bother stealthing. Shoot everything on the way to the reactor as there's a lot of gear around. Most important is prior to starting the reactor, move all kits that are 4+ closer to the reactor and max out on the 3- use kits. If all maxed the low use kits should be the furthest from you in setup. While you'll never make it back to the first chamber for supplies during the hold, the next "furthest" room will be reachable in the interims at around wave 5 onwards.

Our defense setup was on the bridge next to a cart (where DL stationed himself). Two sniper sentries near the big hole FACING towards us and the reactor (to shoot things in the back), two burst sentries on the bridge at the rear of the cart where enemies have to funnel. Jim, the [Bot] and myself stationed behind those guns.

REACTOR_STARTUP gets the thing going after a team scan (you have enough time to get to position) but after each wave someone has to run back and type in REACTOR_VERIFY XXXX where XXXX is the four letter word on your screen before time runs out (in our group that was me). I'd hold off until 10 seconds left to give time for everyone else to grab and restock using the kits. Hybrids (spike heads) will show up in the later rounds and if anyone is in the cart they'd better have a medkit as there is no cover from their barrage.

Once all waves are done, return to the drop point together as things will be spawning to get you. Hold at extraction for a little bit (yes you will need to shoot stuff) and GTFO!

GTFO: ALT R1B2 - The Officer

This mission is another HSU scan with the tiny difference that all sleepers here are shooters (alarms will still bring strikers though), and you WILL run into single scouts in rooms with them (no longer optional). Now's a good time to remind you that if you simply strafe around shooters (provided there's space to do so) they'll never hit you. Alternatively just duck at the last moment as their tracking shot always aims for your head. Our load outs were as follows:

Me: Pistol/Precision Rifle/Sniper Sentry/Spear
DL: DMR/Presicion Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: DMR/Choke Mod Shotgun/Cfoam/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/Sniper Sentry/Hammer

The general flow of travel will is "go North" and you will have a shortage of closable doors so SAVE them (by keeping them open) until you reach your Class IV alarm later. Stealth bop away. You also have the option to snipe the scout and just deal with the room - that's better than letting it scream. Just for fun though, one of our scouts DID scream but it wasn't a problem ammo wise BECAUSE...

The lack of closable doors means the level has long sight lines especially to the South. Plonking down a sniper sentry facing the long bridge room (you can't miss it) and helping it was enough to handle the extra scout wave.  What will screw you up is if you don't use the terminals to QUERY your HSU, followed by the correct key card to access it. There are a number of keys on this level - don't open doors you don't need to!

The room with the first scout will also have a class II alarm - just put a sniper turret in that bridge room and leave the door open - then you'll find some fog and another big room with a class III alarm. The big room is only accessible via hole in the wall, so DL mined the opening and Jim iced a thick line before it. My sentry was beside the hole on a crate facing inwards to shoot them in the back, and I supported it from the bridge while they did circles. Both cases had fighting while doing circles. It's the games way of telling us to "get used to it".

Past that is another room with a scout and a bunch of key cards. Get yours and head back for the class IV scan. Ours was in the junction room where the first scout was, so this time we put the two sniper sentries facing down the ramp to the fog in the North, and Jim was on c-foam duty for the one door we saved to the South (which DL also mined). Scum will get through before finishing circles so just keep calm and carry on.

Beyond that door is the room with your HSU (unless you opened the wrong door). Clear it out, do the team scan and get moving back to the extraction point where you should quickly put down the sniper sentries to help you defend against the endless extraction alarm wave. As the scan isn't quick, you will need to defeat a number of strikers before you can GTFO!

GTFO: ALT R1B1 - PID Search

If you went OK last time then you should be fine this time too. We had almost the same load out:

Me: Pistol/Shotgun/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Presicion Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: DMR/Choke Mod Shotgun/Cfoam/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/Burst Sentry*/Hammer

*Stuff we didn't use.

From the drop you will soon come to a large crossroads room with your security door options being a key-locked one (non-option for now), a 0-alarm door and a class II alarm. The objective of this level is to get 12 PIDs which seem to be distributed in groups of 3 per zone so you have an illusion of choice. Jim rightfully called that we should do the class II alarm first so that enemies can only spawn from one direction: the way we came in.

The slow moving scan line which obviously will make you go downstairs ensures you will fight the wave which includes giants. These are probably the same set from the last mission you've already beaten twice (including giants), only this time you have no door. We used only guns and melee, forgetting that the bot had a turret...

Beyond the door is just regular stealth bopping while collecting the PIDs (and key card) until you come across the next class III alarm - we cfoamed and mined both doors but the baddies were only interested in the downstairs one. Then repeat until next alarm door (class IV I think) with same defense (only one door to hold) and that last area is huge and has some non-poisonous fog but always small sleepers throughout. Once done return to the crossroads with the 9 PIDs.

We chose the key-locked door next (0 alarm once unlocked) and this area is dark, foggy and has giant sleepers. After all that stealth practice this is the exam! It helps that the terminal was in here (up on the right hand walkway) so I could ping the PIDs while my brothers stealthed around - lock melters definitely handy (and also the bot knows how to use them, just give him space).

With all 12 PIDs its just a sneak out and return to the drop point for an easy extraction. :) If you are wondering what was behind the other 0-alarm door from the crossroads room, darkness, strikers and a scout apparently. Definitely the type of room you'd bring a biotracker into.

GTFO: ALT R1A1 - The Admin

It's been a long while since my last GTFO post and since then, the game has started releasing all the rundowns "for real" this time (marked as "ALT"), which might mean my other write ups are now out of date! O_o No matter. Now we get to see the start, and things sure escalate quickly! Our load out was as follows:

Me: Pistol/Shotgun/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Presicion Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: DMR/Burt Cannon*/Cfoam/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/Burst Sentry*/Hammer

*Stuff we didn't use.

Today's job is retrieving a DNA sample from an HSU unit. Very few foes guard the first few chambers so clear them out quietly and re familiarize yourself with the GTFO computer system to track down objectives. To the West is where you need to go but you'll find a key locked door in the way so instead head North to the Class-II alarm. 6 globs of cfoam on the door and a single mine will be sufficient, but expect giants too.

Beyond that is a heavier sleeper spawn guarding the key. You can and should sneak kill to get your practice up. Also note, that the devs thought it would be fun to put scouts here. We found two lone ones in the edge rooms (that DL just sniped) so beware. On the plus side there's a bonus 0-alarm security door (Zone 51) to the North West that is simply a warehouse with more equipment if you need it.

Otherwise find the key (hopefully no scouts in your way) and unlock the Western door. This is a class IV alarm but be smart by closing the two southern doors before triggering it to force all enemies to come through the single large door, which someone should do cfoam duty on for the duration of the alarm. A mine will help here again - expect the same things from the first alarm hold.

Now this West zone is huge, kinda dark, and has sleeping giants. Save yourself some headaches and kill everything in the first room which has the terminal in the back, ping the HSU, and kill whatever is in the HSU room too. Use of firearms and doors with light cfoam + 1 mine recommended.

Once you find the correct HSU you need to do a team scan which triggers infinite strikers spawning (but only 3-4 at a time) that you'll need to fight through to get back to the drop point and hold to GTFO. If you snuck through all those giants, good luck not making any noise (and preventing the spawn from screaming) on the way back.

"Solved" Board Games

Tips to increase your odds of winning.

Much like that Sky Force Reloaded tip previously, I thought I'd put some quick ones for games I'm familiar with. Obviously some spoilers and some obvious ones below!

All D&D Adventure systems games: always open tiles if you can

Castle Panic with Engines of War / Wizards Tower: Use the catapult and the magic spells

Crokinole: try flick froma 90 degree angle above for a straight shot

Cthulhu Death May Die: rush the objectives when you can

Dark Souls Card Game: 2 battles, campfire, boss 1, campfire, then try for boss 2

Five Minute Dungeon: play with max players to avoid getting "stuck"

Forbidden Sky: only put wiring once you have all the conduits ready

The Grizzled: first hand is most important while everyone has abilities, go big

Horrified: save villagers when you can as the reward cards are very strong

Last Bastion: fight from corners, switch the flag

Legends of Andor: spy glass the fog and focus on the mission

Legends of Andor 2: use the boat a lot, it saves moves if everyone is on it

Maximum Apocalypse: try end on tiles with numbers on the edges of a 2D6 spectrum

The Night Cage: try not to open tiles that are in line with allies

Operation Flashpoint: Fire Rescue - save people closest to the exits, make use of fire truck

Paleo: seek out scenario cards, they usually have painting pieces

Police Precinct: focus on murder investigation

Robinson Crusoe: avoid rolling dice

Shadowrift: if going for walls, go all in and never pollute your deck with anything other than might or heroism. Otherwise you are going for rifts (even if you declare going for "both", you really mean rifts in this case) which everyone should prep for.

Shadows over Camelot: collect lots of cards first and do grail quest together

The Witching Hour Mod: one player (usually dwarf) ignore your quests and farm requirements for allies

Xenoshyft: don't waste money on cheap units and keep strong guys at both sides of line

Zombicide (all variants): keep track of remaining figures, you don't want to open a big area and have things get lots of extra moves

Warframe: Nightwave and the Exploiter Orb

While there are a few syndicate factions available in the game one of the best I feel is that of the space DJ who gives daily and weekly missions to mix up your game with decent rewards to encourage people taking a change of pace (this weeks weeklies are fishing and conservation / tranquilizing wild life for example).

Given Warframe is so many things, this is great as it sends veterans back to "finished" content or gives newbies clues about obfuscated game mechanics. Hand shake emotes or raid the hidden labs anyone?

Speaking of obfuscated mechanics, there's a big spider boss on Venus called the Exploiter Orb and unlike her sister Profit Taker who is locked away behind the Solaris United syndicate, she can "almost" be readily fought with any party that wants to try.

"Almost" because the key component, Diluted Thermia, only drops from a recurring event: Thermia Fractures, so stockpile that while you can. Next, you need to go to an unmarked location on the open world to start the fight. Awesome right?

Warp to the telepad that is closest to the right edge of the map (its middle-up) and from there go South West to the nearest cave at the base of a huge stone arch. Deep enough inside you should find yourself in "Deck 12" and get audio clues to confirm it. Near the very end and up on a small balcony is an unmarked machine you can put diluted thermia in. Doing so summons the Exploiter and begins the fight, which can be messy due to lack of instruction but it's pretty simple.

If its up high, shoot the rocks its standing on or coolant raknoids if they are being summoned to make it fall. Shoot the vents between its legs to hurt it, and if the vents are "immortal", find some respawning canisters to throw (middle mouse) at them to make them vulnerable. Easy peasy for an invis Loki.

Exploiter then flees to the surface for the most annoying phase. The idea is to get it to overheat and it does that all by itself. All you need to do is kill the coolant raknoid army slowing down that gauge which might be hard without a team.

These adds drop coolant canisters you can place in lava fractures that the Exploiter will create, instantly turning them orange. Pick em up again and throw em at the spider to help speed up the heating process by .00000001%. At least that's what it feels like. It takes soooo long!

When the spider faints from the heat, walk into it to trigger a cut scene that opens a weak spot for you to shoot. Repeat three times to kill the thing, grab the loot from its butt (literally) and get out before the self destruct sequence finishes. I face tanked that the first time while looting and lets just say it did not go well for me. :P

Warframe: Solo Thermia Fractures

Here's a decent way to solo the thermia fractures event on Venus. I'm using a firewalking and perma invis Loki but I'm sure any warframe will do as long as you have an archwing launcher and some strong weapons to deal with level 70 Corpus in mid to close quarters.

Step 1: Set your game mode to friends only or solo

Step 2: Head to Orb Vallis with no quest

Step 3: Use the telepad to warp to the top left of the map next to the Temple of Profit

Step 4: Archwing further North up the mountain to find the Exploiter Orb mother. It's a giant invulnerable robot spider that will try to shoot you if it sees you.

Step 5: Little coolant spiders trail the big one, kill four without engaging the Exploiter. Each will drop a coolant pod.

Step 6: Ferry four coolants back to the Fortuna telepad using the warp. You can pick them up while in archwing mode and you can drop them by switching weapons. Just make sure they don't roll off anywhere and don't press middle mouse while holding one as that makes you chuck it and it explodes.

Step 7: From the air, find the closest thermia fracture to Fortuna which looks like a firey lava vent. Enemies in the Orb get stronger the further you are from Fortuna so ideally find the closest one by flying in lazy circles until you spot one. Mark it with "G" to help your navigation.

Step 8: Ferry all four canisters to the fracture without starting it yet, and drop them as close to the thermia start point as possible. Once that's done you can finally start!

Step 9: Plug all four canisters into the fracture in quick succession as soon as you begin and then defend as Corpus start warping in. Do your thing and fight well until you've filled up the timer gauge. Note the fracture itself will occasionally screw with your abilities.

Step 10: If you've won collect the reward canister which should net you one diluted thermia (it won't if you put less than four coolants into the fracture, you'll have to do more with that canister to get it), then go back into Fortuna. Why? So that the Exploiter Orb resets position and that new fractures near Fortuna might spawn.

Update: For all the parts that I suggest teleporting, you can actually just hold down M to bring up the map and select where you want to warp to. You don't need to be standing at a warp pad to warp! Thanks to Juris for letting me know! :)

Warframe: Xoris and the Steel Path

After completing all the nodes in the original star map you are continuously harrassed invited to attempt "the Steel Path" which basically lets you do all the nodes again, but this time with super powered enemies (+100 level, armor, etc). Since I'm now Mastery Rank 18 (which is the same level as our guild hall in Neverwinter Online) I thought I'd give it a try - and promptly found myself overwhelmed.

I wasn't ready!

Which is great, as it forces you to learn more about weapons and builds to actually handle the increased threat which now includes acolytes of the Stalker invading every five minutes or so. It's still early days but I've found a solution in the Xoris, the frisbee Nef Anyo gives you during the rather early "Deadlock Protocol" quest. Using a heavy build to capitalize on double explosions (because apparently warframe frisbees can explode AND still come back to you) I've Firewalker Loki'd my way through a few of these now, with a Scourge primary to corrode the ones that need some armor reduction before throwing the Xoris at them.

It's good that there are five steel path alerts that take place regularly too, increasing the odds of finding a squad to go with. What I've noticed though is that in all of them I'm the only one using non-prime / non-lich gear. Maybe that will be my thing, to try beat the steel path without any primes. They're a pain to collect / pay for anyway. We'll see how we go. In the meantime, my reward is the Xoris totally obliterates everything in most normal missions now which is pretty sweet. :)

Warframe: Archons of the New War

Having just completed The New War, I thought I'd try do a not too spoilerish post for some possible troublesome foes in it. Ok, maybe only I had trouble with them but whatever. :P 

I found the random school tests to be fun!

First up, before you can even think of doing the New War you need to own a railjack and a necramech and be up to date on the main story (unlocked and played through Prelude to War). Now for tips on the some of the big baddies namely Owl, Wolf and Snake - and the order you fight them in is totally up to you. Just don't try melee whichever you pick as the first two.

Owl floats about, firing lasers, creating streams of electricity or going in a shield to heal (which you can walk into to shoot him and stop that process). I picked him first, found him really annoying, literally quit the mission and left him for last. And I'm glad I did because you are in a better position to beat whoever is last.

Wolf is all about being close and tearing you up, so he will charge and leap and deploy fire for some reason. He's pretty simple, just stay far away and dodge when you see him winding up to leap or charge etc. He is also a Narutard and summons clones while he hides and heals. Shoot the real one (the only one holding weapons) to stop that process. You can also quickly find the real him by using your #3 gifted ability to spot his arrow on the mini map.

Snake pretends to be scary with that giant head which occasionally turns you into stone so if you see the eyes light up, look away and if she starts charging a large glowy red sphere around herself, take cover because that's an AoE. Otherwise her attacks go in straight lines that do not track, which makes her simpler than Wolf. I stayed close and just ran circles around her while shooting and "dodging". That is in quotes because simply by running in a circle means she can't hit you with her other attacks.

I feel like that's enough info to get anyone through them. Really cool quest line, and pretty long too. Worth noting that for the entire duration Warframe becomes a single player game until you can finish it though so plan accordingly.

GTFO: R7B2 - Dense (Main)

No baby sitting this time as the main mission simply involves terminal uplinks and as you might have guessed, very dense but non-poisonous fog. Loadouts this time were:

Me*: PDW/High Caliber Pistol/Shotgun Sentry/Spear
DL: DMR/Presicion Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: HEL Shotgun/Precision Rifle/Shotgun Sentry/Hammer
[Bot]: HEL Revolver/Machinegun/Shotgun Sentry/Hammer

*I was testing weapons and forgot to bring ice. Oops! That said, I guess it means it can be done without ice. :P

From the drop, clear and loot then find the regular scan security door to the East. There's a tiny room of fog which if inhabited by sleepers is easiest cleared by shooting into the room and luring them out to the previous hallway. Lots of fog repellers are provided, but only use one or two to traverse to the SE door up a ladder to look for a key. This unlocks the security door in the fog pit which is a class IV cluster alarm and all the circles are in the terrible fog. Before starting that seal all the doors on the map and particularly ice/mine/inner sentry the one directly West of the first security door (from the drop point heading North, it is the first door on your right) as that is where all the baddies will come from. Use repellers here as you will definitely need to fight while doing the last few scans.

Continue making your way North to a large chamber where you'll find the first terminal uplink. Enemies will be spawning from the South while you must type in the security codes (x4) displayed on your screen (which you can't see if you are using the terminal lol). Also, you need to stay near the terminal for your typed codes to validate, but you can "look away" to help shoot. Communication with your teammates is handy.

You then need to go East through the blood door (just mine it, open and run away then shoot whatever comes out). For all blood doors always run back to cover as salvo-shooting hybrids often are behind them. I don't think there were any with this first one though. Find the key in here then go all the way West to unlock a checkpoint scan! Yay! Beyond this you'll find a large pit with both a bulkhead key and the bulkhead controls which is where you can choose to do extra missions on top of the main one.

Since we're only doing Main, select that and open the bulkhead which is a blood door. We defended the narrow passage/cliff to the right of the door since that made a pretty good kill corridor and had cover to hide from hybrid fire. Proceed as far North as you can until you get to a huge room with a sea of mist. There is a class V alarm (all team scans, so no "holding the door" tactics) which WILL put you in and out of that dense soup so make sure the room is clear, shut all previous doors to the bulkhead room, and particularly ice/mine/sentry the single door that leads into the fog sea room which you are defending. Use fog repellers and fight well. If you win, the door also turns into a checkpoint scan. Yay!

The next terminal is near, just travel in a tight U to find it in a small corridor submerged in fog. There are three doors into here, so use whatever gear you have left to defend. For non terminal users, jump on top of the terminal as with fog repellers this gives some decent sightlines across the whole room. Uplink the four security codes like last time and fight well. If you survived, good job! Now head East towards extraction while closing doors behind you. The last chamber is a big one with three scouts. I recommend bopping them quietly (or bopping 2 and shooting the last) but if you stuff up you'll need to fight more. Hopefully you shut those doors to buy yourself some time.

The door to extraction is under lockdown, to unlock it you need to go to the left of it and down into the dense fog beside the bridge (ignore stairs, just use the metal ramp near the wall to go up and down). Type in the command and get through the door. If you can do that without even touching the scouts you can. Get through the last door and onto extraction to GTFO!