Spore: New Kids on the Block

[Part of the Direbug Saga]

With the Flixxels defeated, Buglybugs suddenly runs into new races back near the home planet Pyrachs - the Stomachio (Red Slaad), and Dubels (scientific clown spiders) who both open contact by donating thousands of spore bucks... and the Chibby (pink cyclops ducks) whose first contact is to attack!

Probably wouldn't ally with actual Slaads though...

After upgrading to a mega laser thanks to the Spikelors (those dinos love developing weapons), Buglybugs helps the Stomachio in their war against the Chibby by attacking their home world. The mega laser doesn't quite cut it, but the terrorforming does. Buglybugs absorbs all the moisture of the T3 planet leaving it as a dry T0 husk.

For this both the Stomachio and Dubel agree to an alliance, and the Dubels give an interstellar drive level 4 along with specific terraforming gear that Buglybugs needs to terraform one particular Direbug outpost on Tiffan. In addition, they now dub him "the All Powerful".

Neverwinter Online: Spinward Rise Vigilance Guide

[Part of my Neverwinter Online: Vigilance Quest Guide.]

Welcome to the final zone of Elemental Evil! It is actually more travel friendly than all the previous zones as you unlock each island, however it can also be brutal in the way of combat, especially on the last island. Like before, be careful of pure melee groups of enemies. While it is easy to tell if a bunch of cultists are skirmishers, it is a little less obvious for air archons. Simply count the number of bows / blades they carry to know what to expect.

The repeating quest here is "Howling Hatred". Don't go out of your way to complete that until you reach the second island. There are also jumping puzzles (yay!) which are the easiest tasks to complete on each island. Basically you just have to find the correct jump point and then press and hold space bar while moving forward. If those big chunks of rock can fly through the air, why can't you?

Once at the top, you can either jump back the way you came or simply "fall" down. If you dodge just before hitting the ground, all your vertical momentum is halted and you take zero falling damage. Neat trick huh?

Last thing of note is a personal one here. I didn't go into -any- instanced dungeon as I felt there was enough to do top side so I can't give you any tips for those this time (other than don't go alone). At least it makes it exciting for you right? ;P

No point in changing the color coding now:

Green - Easy and/or fast.
Pink - If there's nothing else to do.
Red - Better to take a break than do these solo.

AVIA LANDING

The first island introduces you to Kenku, Axebeaks, Owlbears and jumping puzzles! Unlike the cramped confines of the Fiery Pit, it's pretty safe to wander around here. There are two entries to the cult barracks, and the Western one next to the Kenku camp is less defended. You can also go in with style by jumping in from a glider tower.

*Harper Evandriel

• Tome of Air - Jumping Puzzle! Starts at the tall western glider tower.
• Learning to Fly - Collect 12 "flight" supplies from Glider towers (drops and pickup), kill 40 cultists
• Air Cult Assault - HE Encounter Silver - self completes sometimes. Odds of getting help to complete is high.
• Elemental Assault - HE Encounter Silver - self completes sometimes. Odds of getting help to complete is medium.
• Air Supply  - Sabotage supplies 6 then 6 airships. Lots of Fighting.
• Twin Breezes - Raid air cult barracks instance

*Skreel Swiftwing

• Birds of a Feather - Rescue 6 kenku eggs. All guarded. Pickup.
• Shiny Metal - collect 10 weapons from kenku (pickup from camp barrels and drop), kill 30
• Kenku - defeat 40 kenku (goes well with two above)
• Fight the Wind - defeat air archons in barracks instance

*Pirri The Swift

• Target - Blackfeather - miniboss kenku. Kill fast as a kenku spawn lives right outside his cave.
• Target - North Wind - miniboss hurricaine cultist. Kill fast he appears next to a large group of cultists.

*Brokar Ironshod

• Flightless Fury - kill 15 axebeaks, 5 owlbears (doesn't mix well with any other quest)
• Lesser Air Runes - Available after your first 16 tasks, mandatory to open teleporter to next island.

WINDCALL TEMPLE

The second island is home to the rather safe cultist binding workshops, and the more dangerous air elemental summoning portals and altar of Yan-C-Bin. The encounters are a little stacked at Yan-C-Bin's place so expect multiple groups during combat there. Fortunately you should only need to do that a few times.

*Harper Evandriel

• Greater Tome of Air - jumping puzzle! Starts from the only glider tower near the workshops!
• Clearing the Air - add incense to 5 shrines at Yan-C-Bin's altar
• Air Cult Assault - HE Silver - self completes sometimes. Low chance for players to assist.
• Elemental Assault - HE Silver - self completes sometimes. Low chance for players to assist. 
• Slaad Summoner - Kill the summoner in the Howling Maw instance

*Skreel Swiftwing

• Order out of Chaos - Gather 15 Slaad control gems from cultists (drops). Can get them from Avia landing - easier fights = faster
• Fiends of Limbo - Kill 40 Slaad at the pool of chaos. Slow to kill, doesn't even count if not in pool. Stupid.
• Feeding the Slaadi - free sacrificial victims in Howling maw instance

*Pirri the Swift

• Target - Windshear - Miniboss air archon - spawns near campfire. Kill fast to avoid archon respawn.
• Target - Glark the Rancid - miniboss death slaad. Tough fight: Hardest of these mini boss assassinations. Expect to continuously evade moving AoE "monster" while fighting him.

*Druid Okobo

• Unbound Anger - release 5 air eles. Easy, you only have to fight cultists to do so.
• Windbreaker - disrupt 5 air ele portals. All guarded.
• Archon Anarchy - kill 35 air archons (goes well with above)

*Brokar Ironshod

• Greater Wind Runes - Available after you finish 16 of this set to unlock teleporter to the final island.

THUNDERHEAD REACH

The final and most dangerous island is home to Cloud Giants who are rather adept at defeating adventurers since they never come alone. You'll get a "Scrying the Skies" mandatory quest to look through four telescopes which doesn't count to your Vigilance Quests but does give you a good idea of how the last island is laid out. The instanced dungeon here is Nimbus Tower which is probably where the Air Prophet is, but after hearing it takes 40 minutes to clear solo I opted to just leave it alone.

*Harper Evandriel

• Grand Tome of Air - jumping puzzle! Starts from low broken tower next to two giants.
• Eyes in the Sky - gather 6 intel reports from cultists (Farm at Avia)
• War Chests - recover 12 war chest treasures (pickup, often guarded by cultists)
• Whispers on the Wind - collect 10 messages from cultists. (drops at a low rate. Best farmed at Avia)
• Air Cult Assault - HE Encounter. Very tough.
• Elemental Assault - HE Encounter. Very tough.
• Tempest in a Bottle - stop rituals in the Nimbus tower instance

*Skreel Swiftwing

• Giantslayer - kill 8 cloud giants. Good news: they mostly come in pairs. Bad news: they mostly come in pairs.
• The Cloud Forges - kill 4 cloud giant smiths. Usually come with air archons.

*Druid Okobo

• Archon Anarchy - slay 40 archons at Thunderhead Reach.
• Lofty Ideas - collect 5 air magic scrolls from cloud giants (drops)
• Cloud Magic - collect air magic lore and win Nimbus Tower instance

*Pirri the Swift

• Target - Rastari - kill cloud giant miniboss, the easiest cloud giant to kill since he comes alone!
• Target - Grackel - kill owlbear miniboss, hits hard with no telegraph. Good practice of controlling AI, has no nearby allies.

Once that is done you just need to collect the Seed of Air, which might look like it's guarded by a giant and a bunch of air archons but if you dash along the left side and go all the way to the edge of the cliff they ignore you long enough for you to collect the seed and get out of there. Once that's done, congratulations - you have finished Elemental Evil! Enjoy your new artifact weapon. Don't forget that if you hit level 70, you can get an off hand artifact weapon too. See Sgt. Knox.. :)

Neverwinter Online: Reclamation Rock Vigilance Guide

[Part of my Neverwinter Online: Vigilance Quest Guide.]

Reclamation Rock is home to very dangerous bulettes, but it also has the easiest starting area of all the zones to complete. Personally, I've been using it as extra XP for my characters who already have finished the campaign. This guide will be using the same color coding as last time.

Green - Easy and/or fast.
Pink - If there's nothing else to do.
Red - Better to take a break than do these solo.

BEACH CAMP

My favorite spot as it gives easy access to quest givers and to traveling back out to the world map. The instanced dungeon here is the Crypt of Ascension, and if you do decide to go in there you will find the entrance behind an illusionary rock face. Make sure you have both quests to make the trip more worthwhile if you do attempt it.

*Dassar Truebow

• Adepts of Ascension - rescue acolytes    
• Scouting Ascension - kill enemy scouts   

*Imbross Irri'karr

• Black Earth Survey - investigate / disrupt training camps   
• Cult Infiltrators - talk to infiltrators (usually on ground level)
• Stealing Their Mettle - steal cult weapons
• Scouting the Forest - talk to ranger scouts (usually on higher ground)
• The Heroic Way - complete HE, rescue merchant
• Tombs of the Watchful - Visit 5 tombs (open world) fight inhabitants, interact with something.

*Baram Hannikar

• H1 - Heroics - As of this post, currently bugged and finishes by itself: Free XP.
• Deployment Orders - get orders (pickup or mobs)   
• Training Manuals - get training manuals    (pickup or mobs)
• Cult Connection - gather journals from cultists (goes well with below)
• Fighting the Earth - kill Rock Claws (the West cultist camp has 7 in the vicinity)
• Grinding the Gravel - kill mercs and throwers  Leading the Avalanche - kill elementals (doesn't really mesh with any other quest)   

CITY CAMP

Ah the city. The grind of this zone begins now. Fortunately there is a secret tunnel (near one of the scouts) that leads up to the tavern to save travel time. There's also a new secret tunnel that leads from the cathedral to Scar Keep. From inside the cathedral if you are facing the doors, turn right and look for stairs down. The instanced dungeon here is the Underlift, and because the quest selection here is so poor I actually do recommend going in there (with 2 quests) to save time. The crazy bomb throwing dwarf boss in there isn't too bad. Just kill the adds and you will win. I sure hope you know how to tell the difference between a mimic and a treasure chest though (cursor has bag = regular chest).

*Brother Satarin (Cathedral)

• Posting the Truth - put up posters. If contested by other players, switch channel.
• Warding off Madness - gather materials to reinforce wards (tainted water x4/archon dust x4)
• Holding the Streets  - draw out cultists on street. Use corners for cover or leave quest circle if hard pressed.
• Rocky Foundations - kill 40 earth elementals. Not too bad since the marked zone has around 20. Archons count.
• Rock Tumbler - kill galeb duhr. (Rare to find in the area, especially if contested)
• Voices of Stone - kill 10 blackmantle sorcerers (more rare than above, even with the new summoning scrolls)

*Councilman Graves (Cathedral)

• Rescue Mission - rescue workers from Underlift
• The Verge of Collapse - stop bombs in Underlift

*Hedgewizard Nottin - (Scar Keep)

• Hedging against Plague - not a vigilance quest (doesn't take up a slot), but good for bonus XP. Collect notes from cultists (100).
• Call to Alms - collect alms (drops anywhere and pickup from zone) then hand them out
• Recovering Reconstruction  - collect construction supplies (drop / pickup) and rebuild
• Hero of the City- complete ANY HE (good combo with below)
• Shaking up the Town  - complete Earthquake HE - High odds of others doing this as it is right outside the cathedral. If currently active, try get this and Hero of the City to complete both.
• Hostile Induction - Complete Press Gang HE - can be difficult without aid or sniping from cliff top.

MEMORIAL FIELDS

The most annoying area of all the zones purely because of it's crappy quest choices and tough or rare opponents. Expect to be here awhile. The instanced dungeon here is the Lost Tomb which happens to be where the Earth Prophet, Markos Unrayle is encountered. He has a pretty big room to fight in but isn't that much of a threat. Kill his adds while fighting (so kill him slowly) or lure him near the entry so you can murder him with ease. Because of the low quest choices here, I do recommend visiting this at least once (with two quests).

There are also Slaad (frog men) present who are numerous and pretty annoying to fight (long to kill/use up too much resources), so I try to avoid them.

*Captain Dunfield

• Black Earth, Stone Heart - stop ceremonies in Lost Tomb
• Stay of Execution - rescue captives from Lost Tomb

*Captain Lynn

• Stone by Stone - Kill 3 Blackmantle Generals. All are casters. Not all are equally defended. Choose targets wisely.
• By the Horns - hunt 6 gorgons. Slightly rare, one in Graveyard and one next to graveyard. Alternate as they respawn or channel hop.
• Landshark - hunt 8 bulettes. Easy to find, but very dangerous.
• Defying the Rock - HE Encounter. Very tough to win. Concentrate on the non-silver/golds on the wings to up the kill count quickly. Better odds for randoms to assist than the HE below.
• Bannermen Forever! - Raise banner to spawn a Silver HE. Defend.
• Taking Measures - take 500k damage and live. 15 min limit to complete. As a rogue and ranger I couldn't do this. Might be ideal for Cleric / Pally.

*Brother Theodosian

• In Memorial - Check on Graves - Easy.
• Stolen Memories - collect mementos (drops). Good combo with Defying the Rock.
• Memorial Heroes - complete grave robber Silver HE. - Soloable but be careful.
• Toad Bait - Close Slaad Limbo Portals. Often contested by other players. Best right AFTER the Slaad invasion event finishes.
• Toadkiller - Kill Slaad, can find many to the East along the outer cliff.

Once that is all done, you just have to pick up the Earth seed and are finished with this area. That might be a little challenging though as one of the Blackmantle Generals sits right on top of it with two or three groups of lackeys. Get a buddy to help you clear it out or channel hop to find one that has recently been cleaned out. If you skipped the last part of Drowned Shore like I suggested, it is time to go back there and curb stomp everything.