Archipelago (Completed)

Mission 58/83: Fire in the Sky

Still on Char, Tychus deployed all seven of his Gorgon Battlecruisers as expected, and razed our base in the Acid Marsh to the ground. We regrouped and built a new Zerg Hive Cluster near some abandoned Scourge Nests in the Bone Trench. Scourges are one of the only things capable of piercing a Gorgon's armor plating, and though we can't build them, there are enough here that we have just enough to take down the Gorgons. We had Kerrigan and some Swarm Queens go through the area and clear out the Terrans long enough to get Creep Tumors to the Scourge Nests, and reinforced them with Devourers once we had teched up enough. Once that was done, we destroyed the Terran bases and unleashed all the unused Scourge Nests, bringing down the last three Gorgons, and killing General Warfield in the process.

We got lots of treasure among the Zerg corpses here, most importantly an HM04 (Strength) for Arcaneum's LeafGreen. We also got a Hanging Chad joker for 5qwerty's Balatro, and a Rawst Berry for their FireRed. We found a mere Five Rupees for Alex in Zelda 1, and a Projectile Refill and Cure Potion for confused_piplup. We found a Furnace for CoolKid's farm in Stardew Valley as well, and after we destroyed the last Gorgon, we found High Templar reinforcements who had been trapped on the planet ever since the Brood War.

With the Gorgons destroyed and Tychus kicked off Char, we're going after Skygeirr to get the station back. We will return to Char, eventually.
 
Explorer of Time said:
Is it possible to hint for other peoples' items? I have a hint available and a path to complete every mission in my game without any more items. (Not for Alex, I'd use it on the Surf HM for 5qwerty.)
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Oh I know where surf is, I just need coolkid to send it to me in stardew, but apparently he's been having internet issues. But thanks, I appreciate the sentiment
 
Explorer of Time said:
In that case, I'm just going to hint for Tech Reactor. It's at Clan Rank: Paragon of Justice (2) in Arcaneum's FF12. You do not need to worry if you don't find it, but it'd help me a little bit.
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I do technically have the rank already but the issue is it's all hidden behind one item, which is the Clan Primer (and I can't hint for it atm as I've used them all up and running kinda low on checks).

In terms of hints generally, just a reminder that sitting on them when you know what's gating you is also holding up other players doing things! Or at the very least, it makes things a lot easier for people such as myself who still have over 1,000 checks and would rather not be having to sift every single one to find something that I could've found in 10 minutes if I knew where I was going!
 
Arcaneum said:
(and I can't hint for it atm as I've used them all up and running kinda low on checks)
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Don't bother hinting for it, the Tech Reactor is helpful for me, but not having it doesn't block me in any way. if you get another hint, it's better off used for something gating a more important item.
 
Mission 59/83: Infested

We returned to Skygeirr Station to find the exterior heavily fortified by mutineer troops, with large numbers of poorly-equipped infantry in particular. This being a weakness we could exploit, we had our Zerg Infestors infest eight Garrisons to create massive Infested Terran armies, a strong ground force which we supplemented with Devourers yet again. We also infested three Science Facilities that had some treasure, the first holding captive Protoss Centurions for us and the other two holding a Mega Armor and Box of Rockets for Doomguy.

All but the starting Garrisons held treasure as well. One had technology to boost the Kerrigan clone's regular attacks with a Chain Reaction, and another had a Heart Scale for 5qwerty. The middle Garrison didn't have much but we took Five Rupees a Marine had left on a counter and gave them to Alex's Zelda 1. Two more had a Hi-Potion and Knot of Rust for Arcaneum's FF12, and the last two had a Full Restore and PP Up for their LeafGreen. Finally, we found a Nomel Berry stuck between the two gates to the interior of the station.

We move forward to the facility interior, with Tychus's mutineers trapped within. Should we win here, we'll be able to blockade Korhal and keep them contained to the planet's surface.
 
Mission 60/83: Hand of Darkness

We sent our Zerg back to the interior of Skygeirr Station, where Tychus's mutineers had been tampering with some of the stasis chambers holding eight Hybrid Dominators. We easily swept through the facility with the Kerrigan clone, her summons, two Brutalisks we rescued along the way, and, yet again, more Devourers. I didn't want to wait for the Hybrid Dominators to break free, so I pre-emptively cracked their stasis chambers open so I could kill them.

We got a bunch of treasure here, too, each taken from the corpse of a Hybrid, except a Bracer of Kings for one of Ness's friends and a Burn Heal for 5qwerty's FireRed, which were both taken fron a Brutalisk holding cell. 5qwerty also got an X Special and Energy Root. My Swarm Queens analyzed the Hybrid DNA and used it to learn how to Deep Tunnel, and we also found a Carbos for Arcaneum in LeafGreen. Finally, a Hybrid was wearing a Dark Anklet, which we gave to Sora.

With Skygeirr now secure, we're going to position our Zerg army to blockade Korhal until it's time for us to launch a full invasion. Everything else in the sector that we need to do will involve our Terran and Protoss armies. It's getting a little boring to just crush things with Kerrigan and swarms of Devourers over and over again, so our next mission will likely not be a Korhal mission.
 
Mission 61/83: The Moebius Factor

Back to controlling our Terran army, we traveled to the planet Tyrador VIII, nearby the planet Tyrador IX that we visited earlier, to rescue the survivors after they sent out a distress signal. Alas, we got there too late, and the planet had already been overrun by the Zerg. What's more, those Zerg were led by the Queen of Blades herself, so taking the whole planet back was out of the question as we don't have the means to permanently kill her yet. However, we were able to evacuate several dozen survivors, and plunder the buildings she was searching before she could get whatever it is she came here for.

To do this, we first sent both our Medivacs around the area to rescue all the survivors, as well as call in a Solar Bombardment from the Spear of Adun to kill a Brutalisk, which held a Heart Scale for 5qwerty's FireRed. Next, we built up a large aerial army of Banshees and Wraiths to raze the nearby Zerg bases and the three Data Cores that we suspected held the treasure the non-clone Kerrigan wanted.

The survivors gave us some minor gifts, which we all sent offworld. 5qwerty got a Spelon Berry and Pink Scarf for FireRed, and Raven got a Potion for Red or Blue. Arcaneum also got a Handkerchief for FF12. The Data Cores held better treasure, which makes sense as the Queen of Blades was trying to find them. First, we found an Overstock/Overstock Plus Voucher for 5qwerty's Balatro. The second Data Core was unfortunately looted before we got there, but the third held the treasure we think the Zerg were looking for. A Poke Doll for Arcaneum's LeafGreen... and 10,000 Gil for Arcaneum's FF12.

We won't return to the Tyrador system. Our plans to defeat the Zerg Swarm don't involve taking this planet.
 
Mission 62/83: Welcome to the Jungle

We got a request from James to travel to the planet Bel'shir and retrieve a Key for Mario. To do so, we had to fight the Tal'darim Protoss, who were hoarding large amounts of treasure, and assumed we were here to harvest their Terrazine nodes. Unfortunately for them, we're not here for the Terrazine and didn't bother harvesting any, instead just cutting the proverbial Gordian Knot and killing all the Tal'darim with a massive army of Terran Goliaths.

We did find the Key for Mario in a relic on the way to the main base, along with a new Pickaxe for PoryKid's Stardew Valley and a Magic Mirror for confused_piplup in two more relics. We also found a Letter from Tony, addressed to Jeff in the city of Winters, in the Tal'darim's secondary base. We're not sure how this ended up being shipped all the way off-planet when it was supposed to be an intra-city delivery. The FoggyLand Postal Service ought to be ashamed of themselves. In any case, we don't trust them to not simply ship it through an unneccessarily-long route through outer space again, so we sent it to Ness and entrusted him with the delivery.

Once we destroyed the main Tal'darim base, however, we found much more treasure. First off, we found Targeting Optics for our own Cyclones, and a Refreshing Herb for Ness and co. We also found a lot of goods to increase the Stardew Valley Traveling Merchant's Stock Size, which in retrospect we probably should've given directly to PoryKid. The Traveling Merchant told us that they'd give the items directly to him but instead started selling them. We're sorry for that. The base also had a Persim Berry for Arcaneum's LeafGreen, and a valuable Ultima Blade for Arcaneum's FF12. Finally, since we don't actually care about any of this Terrazine, we siphoned it off and told everyone else that the Bomb Rush Crew stole it all before we got here under the Tal'darim's noses, giving them 8 REP points.

Bel'shir is now ours and we will have no further missions here.
 
Mission 63/83: Outbreak

This mission, we traveled to the planet of Meinhoff, where refugees from Agria were under attack by Infested Terrans. We easily secured our base exits and then built up Banshees, which were nearly unstoppable because the Infested Terrans had no non-building detectors and no air units.

We found some treasure here too. A Zerg Infestor, when slain, lost control over a Protoss Colossus dominated by a Neural Parasite offmap, which we took apart, reverse-engineered, and figured out how to construct ourselves. Several of the infested structures also had items. The two Infested Command Centers had a Neptune card for 5qwerty's Balatro and a Jar of Hot Sauce for Ness. The three Infested Bars had 100 Time Shards for Setsuna, a Cure Potion for confused_piplup, and information on how to morph Zerg Brood Lords for less resources. Finally, we found a Seashell for Vendily in the last destroyed structure.

Meinhoff is now completely secure and we have no missions or items left here.
 
I've gotten another hint and used it on Time Stop, and it's in 5qwerty's Balatro. This item is by no means required, it just makes me a little more powerful, so feel free to ignore it if it isn't convenient.
 
Mission 64/83: Purification

This mission, we played as the Protoss and traveled to the abandoned warship Cybros, which had been infested by the Zerg and was powerful enough that we really don't want them having it. We trained up a Protoss army, mostly Instigators backed up by a few Carriers and other miscellaneous units, and began destroying the twelve Null Circuits to activate the dormant Purifier Protoss armies and wipe out the main Zerg hive clusters. I didn't destroy the main Zerg bases like I usually do since I don't have any static defenses for the Core I needed to defend, so I rushed to the Null Circuits and destroyed them quickly, and my Instigators' extra Blink charges were really helpful for doing so.

I also destroyed a Purifier Warden with a massive orbital bombardment from the Spear of Adun, but it only had an X Accuracy for 5qwerty's FireRed. I also found a Burn Heal for 5qwerty in a Null Circuit. Most of the Null Circuits also held treasure, with Raven getting a TM49 (Tri Attack) for their Red/Blue game, confused_piplup getting a Heal Potion, Arcaneum getting a TM49 (Snatch) for LeafGreen, and Arcaneum also getting a Reverse Mote and Celebrant's Miter for FF12. We also got four upgrades, Wild Mutation for Kerrigan, Flux Vanes to make my Destroyers (and later Void Rays) move faster, a Roach upgrade I can't use yet, and a shield upgrade for all my Protoss units.

Cybros is too dangerous to leave claimable by the Zerg, so we evacuated the Purifiers onboard, then set it to self-destruct after the Zerg were cleared off. We will, quite obviously, not return to it.
 
First game of three finished - FF12!

Absolute SLOG of a playthrough this time. So many huge roundabout paths I had to take to get to things, combined with the fact I had to re-do half the run anyway because of my items messing up...

Fun as always though! Hopefully the released items help!

Now to clear up the remaining Surf checks from Leaf Green and pray to RNGsus some more for YGO...
 
Mission 65/83: Death From Above

The time has finally come to take Korhal from Tychus's mutineers! Our first step is to attack and destroy the Psi Destroyer aerial platform, a device capable of killing nearly any enemy unit in its vicinity, and movable to anywhere on the planet to shut down any ground offensives before we start. Fortunately, Primal Zerg are immune to the Psi Destroyer's power, so we sent a small army of them led by the hero Dehaka to destroy the three Power Links and shut it down long enough for us to destroy it.

Once all three Power Links were destroyed, we built up a massive army of Devourers, but completely ran out of Vespene Gas before hitting our population cap, so we had to supplement them with a dozen or so Swarm Queens since they're our only Mineral-only Zerg military unit. Combined with Kerrigan, we crushed the Terran armies as usual and razed a path to the Psi Destroyer itself. Once this was done, we evacuated the platform as it crashed into the planet's surface.

We didn't find many treasures here. First, we found a Max Elixir for Jbsundown's Crystal. We also found two TMs in the Power Links, a TM27 (Fissure) for Raven and a TM03 (Water Pulse) for 5qwerty's FireRed. The Psi Destroyer itself also contained a Nugget for 5qwerty's FireRed.

Now that the skies of Korhal are clear, we are clear to make planetfall at any time. However, we have received a request from Cherrim to retrieve an item from Aiur before the ground invasion can begin.
 
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Mission 66/83: The Host

We received the location of a Lucky Emblem that Cherrim needed, on Aiur itself, guarded by the Xel'naga Amon and his forces. This presented us with a problem. To deal with Amon, we need a Keystone. And we destroyed the original Keystone back in our space pirate days during the first Moebius Corps attack on Korhal. Thankfully, Amon had several Void Shards located nearby, which contained raw materials which we could use to construct a second Keystone.

To destroy these Void Shards, we built up large armies of Protoss Carriers, supplemented by Archons because of our large Vespene Gas supplies, and first razed the eastern Zerg bases and Void Shards, then moved on to the western Khalai Protoss. We also received reinforcements from the Purifier, Nerazim, and surprisingly enough, Tal'darim Protoss. It seems that Amon's war on the rest of the sector has made him a common enemy of both us and the Tal'darim, so we called a truce for the time being. With their assistance, we destroyed all five Void Shards and, having gathered enough material for a new Keystone, retreated. Amon wiped out much of one of our bases in the retreat, but his body is, thankfully, stationary, so all we need to do is charge the Keystone somewhere on Aiur far enough away from him, and all we need to worry about are the Zerg and Protoss armies he controls on Aiur.

We did find treasure here too, of course. The Tal'darim warp-in zone had a Power Star for Mario that we recovered from the ashes of the former Khalai Protoss base, and the Void Shards held treasure as well. The Southwest Void Shard had a Certificate Joker for 5qwerty's Balatro, the North Void Shard had a Hyper Potion for Arcaneum's LeafGreen, and the Northwest Void Shard had both the requested Lucky Emblem for Cherrim's KH2 and a Baddest Beam for Jeff, once Ness and his other friends reunite with him.

Taking down Amon can, however, wait until we've liberated Korhal. We will shift our focus away from Aiur for now, but we will return soon.
 
I got another hint and used it for Automated Refinery, which is in the Goldenrod Warehouse in Jbsundown's Crystal. This is not a high priority unlock and I can beat my game without it easily, it just makes my Terran economy somewhat better, but I would like it if it isn't too out of the way to get.
 
Mission 67/83: Planetfall

After our detour to Aiur, the time to land on Korhal has come at last. We sent our Zerg forces down first, deploying Bile Launchers to destroy Tychus's orbital defense cannons to allow our more valuable Terran troops to land as well. Protecting these Bile Launchers was easy, with our ultra-powerful Kerrigan-clone and overpowered Devourers, and we were able to raze the all the mutineer bases before the last Bile Launcher was even deployed.

We found eight treasures here on the surface of Korhal. When deploying Bile Lauchers, we found a Mercury Planet Card for 5qwerty's Balatro in the second landing site, a Marauder upgrade we can't use yet in the third, a Revival Herb for 5qwerty's FireRed in the fourth, and Planetary Fortress schematics in the fifth. A failed ground assault on a Bile Launcher got us a Box of Bullets for Doomguy, and a failed outlaw aerial assault got us a Red Flute for 5qwerty's FireRed. The East Gate had several Junimos imprisoned behind it who, once freed and given transportation to Stardew Valley, built a Junimo Hut for PoryKid, and we also found a new Dagger for him in the ruins of a mutineer base, though we can't identify it in our game since it's too primitive of a weapon for our sci-fi armies.

With the Bile Launchers deployed and the air defense cannons gone, we have secured most of the planet, with the exception of the former capital of Augustgrad, where Tychus and his most loyal mutineers are holed up. The planet is... not in good condition. Tychus's troops were the most lawless of our former space pirates, and they were bolstered from the worst murderers that Korhal's prisons had to offer. There was no attempt to curtail war crimes or even provide basic government services anywhere on the planet. There has effectively been no law enforcement, power, healthcare, running water, public transport, fire department service, or even garbage collection and sanitation in civilian areas of Korhal ever since the fall of the Dominion.

Mutineer marines were allowed and encouraged to murder civilians at will, most non-military planetary infrastructure was used for target practice and never rebuilt, and the economy is in total collapse from the constant robbery by the mutineer armies. Tychus himself has reportedly taken up a hobby of blowing up major landmarks as a demonstration of the Odin's power. He needs to die. And we are coming for him.
 
Question for everyone: How do you feel about completed games using !collect? Basically grabs all of that completed game's items from other games.

Example: Completed Civilization 6. Types !collect into the client. Takes Progressive Space Port out of Bom-omb Battlefield (Star 1) in James's Mario 64 game. (Disclaimer: Did not look at the spoiler log to see if that was there.) Might show as that star having been collected. Cannot really say for sure.

Positive: Collects fewer useless items. Speeds up the people still playing by removing things for them to do.
Negative: May become confused why something that normally gives an item does nothing.

Personally views it as a good idea. Wanted to hear what others think.


Earthbound (Part 8)

Bundled a few minor things together. Received Paula (from Cherrim) and Poo (from Rafflesia) within 24 hours of each other, going from 0 party members to 2. Associated two checks with each of them. Could not tell you what, off-hand, but probably nothing too fancy.

Complains a little about one of the settings. Should level up party members based on the sphere they were in. Expects a Sphere 11 Paula to come in stronger than level 7. Leveled up both of them to over 50. Grinded on the Fobbies in Lumine Hall. Yielded the best experience for time spent, despite being scaled down (240 hitpoints -> 145 hitpoints). Gave out pretty similar experience to the standard version, actually (maybe a hair less?).

Originally only expected Paula to be of much use. Serves as the victory condition, for one. Learns PSI Shield, which is very handy for Starmen that like to use Starstorm. Had none of Poo's unique equipment at the time. Cannot equip normal items without taking a defense drop. Received two items since then, but especially the Diadem of Kings from Porykid. Protects against Flash, which is the main danger against Giygas.

Got two odds-and-ends checks: Tendakraut for one and the Bad Key Machine for another. Finally posted because of the Magicant Teleport from Cherrim. Represents the last larger source of checks that has not been hinted yet. Trashed everything there pretty easily, as a Sphere 3 area. Beat Ness's Nightmare without it getting a turn. (Drops the hitpoints quite a bit. Also intends you to take on this boss solo in vanilla.)

Still needs the Meteorite Piece from Porykid's Island Resort check to hopefully beat the game. Hinted for the other three Sanctuary items already. Fortunately received almost all of the Winters-based progression items, minus the Key to the Locker. Waits on the Winters Teleport for probably over half of the game's remaining items.
 
Devalue said:
Question for everyone: How do you feel about completed games using !collect? Basically grabs all of that completed game's items from other games.

Example: Completed Civilization 6. Types !collect into the client. Takes Progressive Space Port out of Bom-omb Battlefield (Star 1) in James's Mario 64 game. (Disclaimer: Did not look at the spoiler log to see if that was there.) Might show as that star having been collected. Cannot really say for sure.

Positive: Collects fewer useless items. Speeds up the people still playing by removing things for them to do.
Negative: May become confused why something that normally gives an item does nothing.

Personally views it as a good idea. Wanted to hear what others think.
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This likely won't speed up my game much because of how SC2's mission structure works, but I highly approve. It'll make it so that I don't have to worry about certain checks, so I can prioritize missions that I know have more items for people that are actually still playing.

EDIT: I would get the permission of the people playing those games first, though, in case anyone's playing through postgames and such and wants limited items for some reason.
 
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Mission 68/83: The Reckoning

This mission, we fought Tychus's traitors in the most grueling battle we've faced yet, against the most highly-advanced Terran army in the sector short of our own. Our Zerg forces held the line for a few minutes while we waited for Terran reinforcements, then we built up an army mostly of Terran Marines and Goliaths, with a few Mercenaries and air units, and fought the mutineers head-on. There were no gimmicks this mission, just a straight-up fight to reach the Imperial Palace and kill Tychus Findlay in the Odin. He was just as powerful as he was during Media Blitz, but Kerrigan at this point is in every way his equal and he was taken down by a Kinetic Blast.

We found only two treasures here, a Revive for 5qwerty's FireRed and an Energy Root for Arcaneum's LeafGreen. Past that, nothing. But, more importantly, Tychus Findlay is now dead, we have full control over Korhal, and we will face no further Terran opposition this Archipelago. Our remaining enemies are exclusively Protoss, Zerg, and miscellaneous neutrals.

For that matter, this is also the last Zerg mission that doesn't also have us backed up by Protoss and Terrans, meaning that Zerg items matter a lot less from here on out. Furthermore, we only actually control Kerrigan in her non-Ascended form for one of those three missions, making Kerrigan Items (excluding Automated Extractors and Improved Overlords), completely irrelevant for everything except Into the Void.
 
Mission 69/83: Salvation

Now that Korhal is secure, we can turn our attentions back to Aiur, and our plan to use the new Keystone to save Amon. We started this level with an already-huge Protoss base, thanks to the option we took to take over allies' bases in certain missions. What's more, we had an absolutely huge supply cap of over triple the regular 200, that made this mission much easier than it had any right to be.

I heavily fortified each of the three chokepoints and had it guarded with Carriers, Annihilators, Dragoons, Archons, and a few Colossi, plus one hero for each. Alarak, the cheapskate who shortchanged us a long time ago, fell in battle while I wasn't paying attention to the middle path, as did Karax on the right path. Vorazun, however, survived the mission, albiet wounded, because of her permanent cloaking ability. Once that was done, all I had to do was wait for the Keystone to charge up, and when it did, it unleashed a massive blast of energy that killed Amon, along with every Zerg and Khalai Protoss on the planet that he had corrupted.

We obtained three treasures from this challenge. First, we found an Ice Heal for 5qwerty's FireRed in some orbital debris early on in the battle, and likewise, we also found a Bloodstone Joker for 5qwerty's Balatro from more debris late in the battle. Finally, from analyzing the Keystone's energy blast, we were able to discover how to use Form Boost to increase Sora's Drive Form duration, and we promptly sent the info over to Cherrim.

The Tal'darim may have had a truce with us, but with Alarak having been slain in battle due to our negligence, there is basically no chance that the truce will last. As we have now completely conquered Aiur, our next goal will be to defeat the Tal'darim once and for all.
 
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