Messages

[Barracuda]

Barracuda

All missions apart from mission 4 will be accessed via the helicopter on the north beach of Grandville's south island. Mission 4 is accessed via the portal inside the main Arachnos building in Grandville. Several portions will require the party leader to go and talk to someone, but the rest of the group can stay by the helicopter/go to the portal as is applicable, and simply teleport the team lead when it is time. Unless you are feeling particularly villainous then you can make them walk. An ideal team composition would be tank, damage/debuffs, healer, and a controller/dom. In order to defeat Reichsman a defender/guardian/mastermind must be on the team. More Power info at the bottom of the guide.

Mission 1: Things Thought Forgotten

The first mission starts in the Southwest corner of the map with the team looking towards the south of the Atlas statue plaza. The objective here is to enter city hall so it is easiest to move straight forward then turn towards the statue, go up and over the platform it stands on then straight up the stairs to the door. Engage mobs as you find them but like all SMo content try to engage them one at a time, and as you will be facing PPD mobs there WILL be resurrecting bosses, so be sure to deal with them before moving on to the next mob to avoid any unpleasant surprises for the squishies in the back. Also be careful when pulling mobs around the entrance to city hall as poor positioning can easily pull in extra mobs creating problems for the team.

Once inside city hall you will want to go immediately to the right and down the stairs, be careful as there are multiple mobs in close proximity here so chaining them is possible, especially with the mob hiding out in the MAGI section. You will be heading to a non-descript door in the back of the GIFT room, making sure the team is together and ready before going through as it leads to a tight corridor with multiple mobs.

Once the mobs in the corridor are dealt with, get everyone together again and proceed through the next door into the Hero 1 memorial, this room can be painful for squishier groups as it contains an Elite Boss: Holoman, and multiple mobs packed together making separating them tricky. Also, three ambushes will spawn in the room with no set location, so there is a chance of them appearing on top of the squishier party members.

Once all ambush waves have been dealt with, interact with the glowy in the centre and then proceed to the exit to city hall, the journey to the exit will be trouble free as no mobs respawn inside the building. Ms Liberty and her goon squad will be waiting at the base of the stairs outside of city hall, so have everyone together and ready by the door before exiting, and be careful not to spread out outside and risk attracting mobs.

Once Ms Liberty is defeated you can safely retrace your steps and exit via the helicopter.

Mission 2: Wrong Place, Reichs Time

Mission two begins inside of a typical Freedom Phalanx base with an NPC waiting through the first door. Herr Muller will engage in dialogue then begin to follow you, the first move will be through the doors to your immediate left, but BE WARNED, once Muller moves towards the doors an ambush will spawn along the corridor behind where he started. Deal with them before progressing onwards.
The base is fairly easy to handle, just take mobs one at a time while watching out for the occasional resurrecting Spines/Regen Scrapper longbow boss.
On the third level of the base the endpoint will be a room which has several tightly packed mobs and the Hero 'Numina', the best way to approach the room is to have the tank pull mobs and then hide behind the door frame to pull them away from each other a little. When engaging Numina the group should take care to stay away from her if they are squishy as she possesses a highly potent PbAoE psychic wail (good time for Elusive Mind).
Once the room is cleared and Numina is down, bring Muller to the console in the centre and prepare for inevitable Nazi betrayal.

In the second section of mission 2 you will be trapped in cells inside of a 5th Column cave base.  Have everyone break free of their captivity and regroup outside of the cellblock.
The path is easy to follow, simply take every left, be extremely careful when moving into larger caves as enemies can and will aggro from high catwalks that you might move under or next to.



Care should be taken when moving into larger rooms as several higher levels can contain mobs that will aggro behind you and attack your vulnerable nether regions.
The final boss is the Arch Villain "Schadenfreude".

Mission 3: Foil the 5th Column in Boomtown

Mission 3 is fairly simple on the face of it, but can easily become the first failure point of the SMo. The area is wide open with 5th Column units, after killing two mobs an ambush will spawn (CAUTION: Ambush waves can be delayed!), then another after two more mobs are killed (not including the previous ambush), this is the point where preparations need to be made.
In place of a third ambush Reichsman will appear, in this mission he is completely invulnerable and can easily wipe the party, the objective is not to defeat him, instead when he appears you need to exit the map and wait, the mission will complete then proceed onto the next mission, the problems here arises with the exit door, the helicopter's door is notorious for being difficult to click and often only allows one person to exit at a time. To remedy this follow this tactic:
After the second ambush defeat one more group, engage a second group but leave one or two enemies alive, then everyone other than the tank should exit the mission via the door (villains and rogues can exit via Ouroboros portal, but Vigilantes using Ouro will be forced out of the Strike Force by the game so be careful!) The tank should then defeat the final enemies and exit the mission as soon as Reichsman appears, sometimes a third mob has to be engaged before Reichsman appears, but once he does simply bail and wait for the mission to complete.

Mission 4: Find the Source of Reichman's Power

Mission 4 is very straightforward. You will enter into a city block on Axis Earth, simply fight your way straight forward towards a pit in the ground leading to a bunker door, the objective of gaining information from Axis troops will always require a mob that spawns around this pit, so feel free to ignore any mobs on the streets.  Defeat mobs around/in the pit one at a time until you obtain the information, then enter the bunker.

Inside the bunker things are still pretty standard but be careful in the close confines of the tunnels as Axis grenade and missile troops can deal a lot of AoE damage in such tight confines.



Slaughter your way through the corridors making note of any out of place looking computer consoles, as once the boss in the base is defeated five consoles will become clickable, one of them is the right one, once clicked everyone is free to exit the mission.

Mission 5: Defeat Reichsman

Here it is, the dreaded final mission of Reichsman, this is where the most coordination is needed and where the importance of team makeup comes into play.
The team will enter on a high platform above a room, the room contains a mob with an AV, this mob can be completely bypassed, simply fly high and land on the far side of the room by some doors, or teleport your team down there.
Enter through the door on the far side of the room and fight your way through the corridors to the first junction.



The map is laid out as a rounded square loop with an extra loop attached on the north side and a big room in the center accessed from the top of the big loop. Your first objective will be to locate the four Arachnos patrons, they will spawn one at a time in one of three places: The South West corner where you first enter the loop, the northern smaller loop, and the South East inside of a smaller room off of the corner of the loop. BE WARNED an ambush will spawn once you free each patron, this can come from any direction so navigate carefully so that no one gets sniped too far ahead of the group or lagging too far behind.

Each patron needs to be taken to the central room, specifically to the front of the machine with the large glowing upside down dome. When the patron is brought here they will become hostile and must be defeated, BE WARNED any buffs applied to the team prior to the patron becoming hostile will affect the patron and remain in effect when they turn hostile, so avoid buffing the team either until the patron is made hostile, or have the group other than the escort assemble off to one side for buffs.
Black Scorpion is the least troublesome having only a lot of health and a taunt to his name.  Cap'n Mako is fairly squishy but can unleash a few nasty cone attacks, so the tank should face him away from the group.
Scirocco can drain endurance, stun, and unleash dust devils which can deal some nasty damage to squishies, so ranged engagement is advised.
Ghost Widow is the trickiest of the patrons, she has a PbAoE draining heal, so the more people in melee the more she will heal. She has a high magnitude hold and is also capable of using Black Hole to isolate the tank and cause her aggro to recalculate onto other players.

BE WARNED  prior to defeating the final patron make your preparations for the final fight as when the final patron is defeated a 1-2 minute timer will begin, at the end of which Reichsman will spawn. Every player should enter the machine in front of which they just fought, it will give each player a set of passive temp powers and one active temp power (this won't enter your bar automatically, so you will have to find it in the power menu), sometimes flying toons will have to toggle off flying inside the machine for it to work, and sometimes jumping around in it is required. In your chat window it should indicate when you get the various temp powers if you've not removed that from the tab.
Once you have your powers all players should retreat to the metal doorway at the entrance to the room, this is your safety marker, do not move further into the room than the door frame.
The tank will be engaging Reichsman at the bottom of the stairs at the end of the red carpet.



The final room explained
The room is on two tiers, the upper tier is composed of the machine that empowers the team (and Reichsman), two sets of cloning vats on either side, and two rooms guarded by insta-kill laser grids. These two rooms are completely ignored for the tactic we will be using. The lower tier has another two sets of cloning vats, one on either side, and an ambush spawn point (unmarked) at the end of the red carpet. The main mistake groups make in this final fight is that they engage Reichsman as if burning him down before the group can be overwhelmed by the reinforcement waves is the objective, this simply cannot be done, Reichsman has a monstrous amount of health making even a well slotted group take 15 minutes of dedicated pummeling to bring him down, so instead we approach it differently. The waves are numerous but WILL run out, the tank should keep Reichsman's attention while grabbing the various reinforcement waves, the rest of the group should ignore Reichsman completely and concentrate on slaughtering the cloned troops. After roughly twenty minutes of fighting all waves apart from the one from the carpet will stop spawning, this final group WILL constantly appear but as it is just one group it is easy to handle alongside Reichsman.

The key to success with the reinforcements is control. Attract puddles, holds, immobilises, confuses, all these tools should be used to stop the press of bodies from over running the squishies.

The temp powers gained by Controllers/Dominators and Blasters/Corruptors can really make a difference here. Controllers/Dominators' power will hold all 5th Column mobs (other than Reichsman) in a wide area, then Blasters/Corruptors' power will unleash dust devils that deal extreme damage to any held mobs. Together these powers can obliterate the reinforcements.

The temp powers will eventually run out, this takes around twenty minutes, the time left can be seen by right clicking your temp power and looking at its info.
When they run out you will need to replenish them by reentering the machine. When doing this wait until he uses his lightning and stomp so you have enough time to get to the machine and back without running into them.

When the reinforcements have stopped coming (apart from the carpet group) you will be ready to take on Reichsman. Reichsman is potent but simple, his main threat comes from a combo of powers both of which have identical animations and very little telegraphing. He will briefly raise his right hand and strike with lightning, this will inflict a high magnitude stun on anyone in the AoE (It is highly recommended that Mez protection be stacked on the tank for this), he will then follow up with another raised hand and an extremely damaging AoE ground punch. If squishies get caught in the stun they are almost guaranteed to die to the follow up ground punch. If the tank holds Reichsman on the carpet then everyone else should be out of range of these powers if they remain behind the door frame.

After taking a certain amount of damage (roughly 75%, 50%, and 25%) Reichsman will begin to regenerate his health.
CAUTION: THIS PART IS BUGGY
Reichsman SHOULD teleport back to the machine for this part, then teleport back when he is done regenerating or forced out, but quite often he simply starts regenerating in place on the carpet. Look out for your damage numbers dropping to single digits, this will let you know when he has entered his regen cycle. This is the part where party makeup is most essential, to break Reichsman out of his regen you need the temp power given to Defenders, Masterminds, and Guardians. Once he begins to regenerate one of these archetypes will need to use their power forcing him into a vulnerable state again (if he retreats to the machine as he should, you may need to go into the room a little ways for it to work).
Other than this the fight is simply a case of hacking away at his horrific HP pool.

Once defeated, exit the mission but DO NOT QUIT THE TEAM YET, the leader will have to go talk to Lord Recluse to finish off the taskforce and award the badges.

The Powers gained from the machine after defeating the Patron Archvillains.

• Power of Ghost Widow: +Res (End Drain) +Regen - Tankers, Brutes, Warshades, Peacebringers, Arachnos Soldiers & Widows
• Power of Scirocco: Special (Summons dust devils that do extreme damage to held enemies) - Blasters & Corruptors
• Power of Scirocco: Special (Very Wide PbAoE that holds all 5th column enemies) - Controllers & Dominators
• Power of Black Scorpion: Special (removes dimensional phasing from Reichman allowing him to regenerate) - Defenders, Guardians, & Masterminds
  
• Power of Captain Mako: Max Stealth (allows user to step through laser guarded doors to approach Fail Safe devices) - Scrappers & Stalkers

[Dr. Kahn]

Dr. Kahn

The majority of Dr. Khan's missions will require you to "Use Transit" to access the mission, the easiest way to do this is to interact with the tram line and select the top option

Mission 1: If I Could Save Time in a Capsule

You will begin in the South West corner of the map looking towards the Atlas Plaza, the first objective is to make your way into the town hall, the easiest route is to proceed straight forwards towards where Ms Liberty usually stands, then head up and over the Atlas statue platform, and up the stairs to the town hall doors. There are numerous groups of Arachnos goons in the area, be sure to cautiously clear the ones in your path and be especially careful when climbing the stairs towards the town hall as it is easy to pull additional groups from the sides by accident.
Gather together at the door before entering and allow the tank and healer to enter first as mob placement in the first hall can occasionally put you right into a fight.
Punch your way through the town hall being careful of the mob hiding inside of MAGI and proceed to the inconspicuous door at the back of the GIFT section, again allowing the tank and healer to go first. Defeat the mob in the inexplicably separate corridor and then take the same precautions transitioning into the Hero 1 memorial room. The group in the corridor and then Hero 1 room can be close enough to the door to immediately aggro. The Tank should go first, and call when in, as there is a transition window. Which means means if you click on the door at the same time the squishie might have front row seats to an angry mob with no Tank chaperone to guard their dignity.

Inside will be a portal device however before it can be used several waves of ambushes will need to be defeated.
The portal will lead to a 5th Column base, the room it places you in will be safe, the first group of enemies will be ahead and around a corner to the left, this group includes the Arch-Villain Schadenfreude, it is best to have the tank pull him and his cronies back around the corner where all squishy party members remaining as far back as possible.
Once Schadenfreude has been dealt with, proceed into the room he was in, defeating the mobs waiting there, then proceed through a corridor to the next room where there will be a portal (similar to the one that brought you here) that must be destroyed. While it IS surrounded by mobs they can be ignored if the party feels confident enough, and simply destroy the portal and quickly hit Exit.

Mission 2: A Boomtime in the Old Town

The mission begins in a wide open city in ruins, the objective is to destroy five portals, each one will only become available when its predecessor is destroyed. It is HIGHLY ADVISABLE to use flight powers and temps to fly high to avoid unnecessary fights.
The first and second portals are out in the open, but the third is inside of a south facing tunnel a little ways back from the second portal. Carefully navigate the tunnel defeating the mobs inside as flying over them isn't an option.
Portal four is again out in the open, and portal five will be back near the beginning.
!!!!BEFORE YOU DESTROY THE LAST PORTAL!!!!
Once the final portal is destroyed Reichsman will spawn and attack, on this map he is totally invincible, the way to complete the mission is for everyone to leave the map.
To avoid any panic or deaths it is best to defeat the group around the final portal then have everyone other than the tank leave the mission, the exit is a glowing red square which can give some people issues (hence the early exit for everyone else), if it won't let you out try disabling flying powers, also try jumping up and down inside the zone.
With everyone out, the tank destroys the portal and quickly exits the mission.


Mission 3: Infiltration

This mission is a cave. Such fun. The layout is randomised so no clear guide can be given to navigate it. The objective is to defeat the base leader and then find the information. When proceeding through the tunnels be sure to stick together and be careful of gangways above you as mobs up on these can easily aggro onto groups passing underneath them. You will notice several (not yet) clickable computers as you navigate the caves, make note of their location as once the leader is defeated you will need to go back and click these to find the information. One will contain the info you need but it is randomised as to which will be the correct one. The next mission begins in Portal Corps in Peregrine Island, so go ahead and head there while the leader turns the mission in.

Mission 4: Visiting the Old Country

Portal Corps will send you through to a city block in Axis America, the objective here is quite simple, close five portals, each portal will spawn an ambush so be careful and keep an eye out, especially on the first two as the ambushes from those two can be heavily delayed. The portals will always be in the same locations, from mission start head diagonally forward and right, this should easily bring you to the first three portals. The fourth will be at the back of the map on top of the pit area filled with 5th Column troops, then the final portal will be on a side street to the west heading back towards the start of the mission.

Mission 5: A Meeting of the Minds

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have run this TF before and still have charges on the temp power, it will NOT be refreshed, so it is best to use up those charges prior to this mission so you get a power with full charges.



The Final mission will see you enter Reichsman's HQ in the South West corner high above a larger room. Directly below the balcony you begin on will be a group including an Elite Boss, this group can be entirely bypassed by flying along the ceiling of the room and coming down at the far end near the blast door.  Proceed through the blast door following the path until you reach the first branch.
This point is the Southwest corner of a large loop, the path to get to the central room is North, following the curve East ignoring the next branch that leads to a small additional loop on top of the larger loop, then taking the path South when it appears. This room has two tiers with Reichsman waiting at the top of the stairs. Reichsman will be invulnerable unless someone uses the Temp Power you gained. If you ever see your damage numbers fall off then go ahead and blast him with the beam again, you should be in no danger of running out.

While Reichsman is not as difficult as in the Barracuda taskforce you should NOT underestimate him. His wide area stun and AoS followup can instantly kill people and the telegraph of these attacks isn't very forgiving. Keep Mez protection stacked on the tank and any frontline fighters to mitigate the stun.
At 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20%, an Arch Villain will appear to help Reichsman, it is advisable that all effort should be immediately put onto killing the AV before returning the Reichsman. While the order will be random their spawn location will not.
Lord Nemesis and Gyrfalcon will appear on the upper platform to the left of the stairs, while Vanessa DeVore and Countess Crey will spawn on the upper platform to the right of the stairs.  The AoE capability of both Vanessa and Crey are big threats, so taking them down quickly should be your focus.
After all have been defeated, take down Reichsman and exit the mission.

BE SURE TO NOT LEAVE THE TEAM UNTIL THE MISSION HAS BEEN TURNED IN BY THE LEADER.

[Lord Recluse]

Lord Recluse

Rewarding the same enhancement set as Ms Liberty Task Force despite the Heroes at the end it is the easier and shorter of these two.

Mission 1: Assault the Longbow Base

This mission launches from the submarine located near an island in the North West of Grandville. Once inside the map is composed of two main parts:  A landing strip with a bunker on the left and a tower on the right, and the base propper located up and along bridges at the back of the runway.



The initial objective sees you destroying the longbow forces on the runway, be careful of any Longbow Wardens wielding bubbles as they can use Containment Field to temporarily take out the tank and make aggro go crazy, and there are Longbow Wardens with Spines/Regen that WILL resurrect again after their first defeat, so be sure to deal with these before moving on to the next group as they are a potential threat for squishies in the back.
Be careful of the turrets around the edge as they can hurt the squishies as well.
The first group of Chaser flyers will patrol above the runway, send flyers or use long range to take them out.
In front of the bunker will be a group of Longbow with a captured Bane Spider, freeing him will result in an ambush coming out of the bunker door.
Upon taking out the last turret on the runway area another ambush will spawn on the runway itself in front of the bunker.
Once all forces on the runway have been dealt with enter the tower via a door at its base, the two towers on this mission are identical, consisting of a ramp down from the door to a double set of doors, moving through a corridor towards a wider open room containing several mobs of Longbow. Once you have cleared the tower look and listen for two placeable barrel bombs, the locations of which change with each instance of the taskforce.





Back out of the tower once the bombs are planted and head across the sloping bridges up towards the base proper, there will be several turrets along their length as well as several mobs.  Once you reach the top and pass under a large gate there will be a second set of Chasers that will need taking down by flyers/ranged. There are several mobs in a small courtyard to the left of the gate that can be safely ignored, your destination lies straight forward across another pair of twin bridges.



Once you have crossed the bridges and defeated the surrounding mobs a group of Longbow will appear out of the tiny hut at the end of the bridges as if it were a clown car.



Mop them up before defeating the turrets around the edge.
This platform will lead to further bridges but you won't need to cross them, however another ambush will come out of the furthest door on the main building as well as another clown explosion from another tiny hut.



Once all jokers have been defeated head into the second tower opposite the un-crossed bridges and repeat your prior efforts, defeating the enemies within and planting two barrel bombs.
Exit and head to the double doors of the main building you moved past earlier.
Enter, progress through a corridor filled with human speed bumps and enter the elevators at the end.
This is where more care needs to be taken.
Ahead is a wide room with a small underpass in the centre and a balcony along the back.  A final bomb will need to be placed in the centre of the room which could aggro any mobs that might spawn in the underpass beneath it, so be careful. Two other mobs will be on this lower area, you could take them both out to choose a side and only clear those.
The upper balcony contains the real threat, a AV difficulty Hero accompanied by four Elite Bosses which may contain the power to Containment Field your tank and cause aggro to go crazy, it is probably best to eliminate these Longbow Ballista before dealing with the Hero. Once all have been defeated and the final bomb is placed, exit the mission.

Mission 2: Assault the Malta base

This mission is entered through the helicopter on the northern beach of the main Grandville island, you will spawn in at the end of a pier with a warehouse running down its centre.  While there are mobs on either side it is only the left side that concerns us.
The main threat along here is the inclusion of sneaky Malta Sappers that can easily detoggle the tank.
By using this macro: /macro SPR targetcustomnext alive sapper
You will be able to pick them out from amongst the crowd and deal with them quickly.

Kronos Titan

Generally, he has a sapper in the mob at his feet, the tank should taunt him and then fall back around the corner of the building near the dumpsters to break the line of sight. The goal is to draw him away from the mobs at the back.

Once he and the mob with him are dead the team should have the key. Enter the building being aware there is a mob in the room at the very top of the ramp. Deal with them, and the group in the corridors until you reach a large workshop. If your tank is still gearing up, dissemble this room by taunting things around the corner at the top of the ramp leading downwards.

You can avoid fighting some of this room by sticking to the left and slipping into the corridor. It's easy for snipes to grab extras accidentally. It happens often when queued powers decide to re-target when the original target dies.

Boss Area

There is an outer corridor that forms a reverse L, with two roller doors leading into an internal chamber. First, clear both sections of this outer corridor with mobs normally scattered on the platforms along the wall.

Once it's clear, open the first roller door, and the tank should taunt individual groups to dissemble the room. Using the corner to break the line of sight and draw the taunted mobs out for the team to kill them.

When you have only the boss and two groups around him left, repeat this with him. Be aware that when his health gets low a continual stream of bots will spawn from the right hand side of the long corridor. If the tank is positioned on the corner they can control the boss, what stranglers are left and the boss. If you have an off tank or an earth controller with quicksand they can help lock down the bots while the dps kill the boss.

As soon as he's dead the tank should rush for the safe in the back and grab the temp power from it. When the exit button shows up everyone should hit exit asap. The tank usually leaves last in case of anyone being stunned; they can grab aggro until they recover.

Mission 3: Defeat Future Phalanx

This mission will be accessed via the portal inside the main Arachnos tower in Grandville, there is a mechanic in this fight where the players will begin to phase out, rendering them unable to interact with the team or the enemies, we are uncertain what triggers this but it seems to intensify as time goes on, so the working theory is that a timer begins when the first person enters the map, so it is probably best to have the entire team group up outside the mission then enter together.

The map for this mission is a ruined Atlas Park, there are many mobs scattered around but 99% can be avoided by flying high and then having everyone meet up on top of the shattered globe on the Atlas statue.



Getting close to town hall will trigger a cutscene showing the remaining members of the Freedom Phalanx. Once it has ended you will be able to get ready for the fight.
There are four AV level Heroes here, Sister Psyche and Manticore on the roof, then Backalley Brawler and Numina down below.
Sister Psyche and Numina are capable of flight, so they will be the first to respond, Backalley Brawler WILL be able to get up on the globe but will take his time to find a path.
Have a ranged player snipe either Numina or Sister Psyche, whichever is closer to you, you will want to focus either one of them down, be sure to communicate clearly with one another as to which will be the primary target so damage isn't split.
Both Sister Psyche and Numina can do heavy psychic AOE damage, so non-tank characters stay far back. If the tank feels confident then they can pick up Backalley Brawler when he eventually makes it up there, or you can have an off-tank grab him until you have dealt with the ladies.
Once those three are down you can fly across to the roof of city hall to deal with Bruce Wayne from Wish.com.
Typically you will have to take out some of the Freedom Phalanx below Manticore as they will be counted as part of their "group", it isn't clear which ones are needed so just stick together and kill away until the mission completes.

Mission 4: Assault Vindicators Base

This mission is accessed via one of the south islands in Nerva Archipelago.

Inside the Vindicator's base the first level has a simple layout. Straight ahead from the entrance will be a fork, the right corridor can be ignored, and the left corridor will be easily navigable, though there will be mobs along the way. The first stop along the path will be a room featuring the ladies of the Vindicators. Swan, Luminary, Minx, and Valkyrie.

Have the squishies stand back from the doors that lead to their room, then have the tank taunt them and pull them around the edge of the door frame to group them up.

READ THIS BIT FULLY BEFORE EXECUTING

The order of defeat is Swan >> Luminary >> Minx then HOLD DAMAGE ON VALKYRIE.
Swan is another nasty Psychic AOE user, so stay back from her, and Luminary will unleash a nasty nuke when at low health, Minx however is less of a threat.
When it is down to just Valkyrie we will want to take her for a walk.
Usually upon defeating Valkyrie she will resurrect and become invulnerable for an utterly obnoxious amount of time, this however can be skipped.
Pull her all the way back to the room with the mission entrance. Have the rest of the team stand in the T junction and fire away at her. It is best to keep her in the doorway so they can easily see her.
Keep an eye on her health, when she goes down IMMEDIATELY run back to the room where the ladies spawned, if done right she will lose aggro upon resurrecting allowing you to move forward without having to fight her again.
If she DOES remain aggroed then simply keep each other alive for the five minutes of her power then take her down again.

Proceed through the room where the Vindicators were and into the next big room. Pick a side and head around to the elevators at the far end, be careful of aggroing any mobs on the upper balcony around the centre. Communicate if any aggro so that no one gets picked off.
From the elevators it is a straight shot towards another big room. You will clear a path to the corridor on the right. This corridor leads to a tight set of corridors that are not shown on the map.
Enter the small corridor and follow the right-hand wall around to a slightly bigger room.



You will enter the back left of the room, your objective is the far corner (upper right) of the room via the upper balcony, this next short corridor leads to a sort of conference room with a computer.



Use the computer then wait in this room as another meeting that could have been an email an ambush will be on its way. Defeat the ambush and then return to the large room and head through the door on the right, this will lead you towards Ms Liberty and a room full of mobs. To render Ms Liberty vulnerable the tank will need to use the Temp Power from the previous mission.
IMPORTANT NOTE
Do NOT use the temp power to aggro her, this will prevent it from actually stripping her protection, so you should either hit her with an attack or a taunt THEN use the power.
Remember the mantra:
Tap then Temp™

Take out Ms Liberty and her followers and exit the mission, then return to the northern helicopter in Grandville.

Mission 5: Defeat the Freedom Phalanx

Stealth or fly the team past the edge of the square.





You will want to apply stealth to a sniper with extended range to try to pull Numina. A non-damaging, single-target debuff can also be used if a snipe is not available.
Try to target through the tank and carefully peak just above the lip (see screenshot) so as few of the Heroes are visible as possible when you pull.
Have someone watch to see who is pulled while the puller drops below the ledge with the team. If Synapse is pulled with Numina you should be ok, but still focus her down first. If you pull more than that (or after defeating these two), have the team fly immediately up to the top of the globe. This will limit your exposure to only the fliers (Positron, Numina & Citadel) and Babs (after a delay as he jumps up there). The priorities are Positron & Numina. You can have an off-tank grab Citadel's aggro and fly him around the map, as his fly speed is too slow to catch up and therefore keeps his damage off the team until the larger threats are dealt with.

When all the fliers are taken care of, the team can drop back down to remove the remaining threats. Yin is the largest threat by far; be sure to kill her pet immediately whenever she summons it. Synapse is next, if you haven't already defeated him (mind his whirlwind which can suck in nearby squishies). Manticore should be your last target as the least dangerous.

An alternate, though risky and tedious approach, is to take two characters with non-damaging confusion powers and stealth, and have them continuously stack confuse on Yin from max range. She will eventually kill all her teammates, though this can take a very long time. Additionally, she or another AV can sometimes randomly aggro on you even with stealth and blow this strategy apart. Finally, if Numina ever aggros, you will not be able to continue this strategy without logging everyone off and back on (mission reset). When she aggros, she starts putting her buffs on her teammates, which will stop Yin from being able to take out the others.

DO NOT LEAVE THE TEAM UNTIL THE LEADER HAS TURNED IN THE MISSION!

[Mission 5: Stop Lord Recluse]

Mission 5: Stop Lord Recluse

This is the mission with the most moving parts and therefore the most points of failure.
The mission can be split into three distinct phases:  Patrons, Flyer, Lord Recluse.
The mobs leading from the boat to the main square can be ignored, or if you want peace of mind you can carefully clear your way forward.





Each Patron is a force to be reckoned with in this portion of the Strike Force so it is essential that we take them on one at a time, the problem being that they are stood very close together making individual pulls very difficult.
From left to right will be Ghost Widow, Scirocco, Black Scorpion, and Cap'n Mako, and this is the preferred order in which we want to take them out.
On the west side there will be a nook behind a short tower, this is where we want to pull them.  The mechanism for pulling them will require someone with a range-enhanced snipe and a way to make them invisible, either with their own power or having a team member do it. Other powers that lower your aggro radius are very handy too, such as Super Speed. We found the best result with a combination of super speed (even while jetpacking), stealth, plus grant invisibility and group invisibility on the sniper. The lower you can drop their aggro the better as it seems to stop the spread to Scirocco.

The sniper will be "Target Thru" sniping, this means having the Tank target Ghost Widow, then the Sniper targets the tank, the working theory being that this transfers a portion of the aggro generated by the attack onto the Tank, making it easier for them to gain initial aggro.
The sniper will want to carefully position themselves behind the short tower in such a way that ONLY Ghost Widow is visible when they begin the snipe, it seems that having line of sight on the other patrons can increase the chances of them linking.
If multiple Patrons aggro together they will then be linked no matter what, the only way to undo the link is to have everyone exit the mission via the boat, have everyone log out to Character Select, then once everyone is out log back in and enter the mission, the mission will be fully reset.

If all goes well only Ghost Widow will be pulled. Have the tank pull her into the nook. Everyone will want to keep their distance from her as she has several very nasty AoE attacks, you can position yourselves along the thin ledge that borders the square, but you MUST press yourselves against the glowing wall to minimise chances of additional aggro.
Have someone keep an eye on Scirocco and the others as there is a chance that that will aggro on a delay.

It is essential that Mez protection is stacked on the tank for this fight as Ghost Widow possesses one of the highest mag holds in the game and it can quickly ruin the tank if not resisted. She is a bad fight to bring Melee (including Mastermind pets) to as she can heal herself off of anyone or anything within melee range.
The Third threat is Black Hole, this will make the tank unable to interact with her causing her aggro to wander. A way to avoid this is to have an off-tank on standby standing out of melee range to avoid Black Hole and the AoE heal, and have all other players target through them to give them a portion of aggro.
If all goes well Ghost Widow will go down without aggroing the others, the next obstacle is Scirocco.

You will pull Scirocco the same way, and while he lacks the holds, the heals, or the black hole, he DOES summon Dust Devils that will demolish anyone they touch, the way to avoid them is to pull him into the air and have EVERYONE fly. The Dust Devils will always stick to the ground meaning that as long as you are sufficiently airborne you will be safe. Keep an eye on the tank's endurance as he has a few Endurance sapping moves, but he should be pretty straight forward.

There will be an identical nook on the east side of the square. Transfer over to this side for Mako and Scorpion.
These two are easier but can still hurt. Black Scoprion's trick is that he can taunt those around him, while Mako has a nasty cone attack and a PBAoE. Quite often both will be pulled together but it isn't as much of a problem as it is with Ghost Widow and Scirocco. If both come together then have the off-tank taunt Mako and move into the air. Mako will keep jumping up and down the towers to try and get to you but as long as you remain out of melee he will keep dancing. Just keep taunting him when he gets near to keep his eyes on the off-tank.
While a well kitted out Tank could hold both of them it seems that Black Scorpion's taunt erases all aggro you have with other mobs, meaning that Mako will start to target other people.
Keep them separated until Black Scorpion is down, then let the tank grab Mako from the off-tank and take him down next.
Once all four are down Daddy Stronglegs will appear and give you a cutscene.

The next target is the Arachnos Flyer. The flyer will periodically circle the statue of Lord Recluse making a stop at the North, East, South, then West. Around the base of the statue will be three mobs, one at the west, one north, and one east. Wait until the flyer has moved at least one position ahead of your target group then move in and take them out. Once those three mobs are down you are clear to take out the flyer.
BE AWARE.  THE FLYER CAN AND WILL RESPAWN, ONCE IT GOES DOWN A TIMER BEGINS, THIS MEANS IF YOU DON'T MOVE DIRECTLY ON TO THE NEXT SECTION YOU RUN THE RISK OF HAVING IT AGGRO ONTO YOU AGAIN.
Take the flyer on while it is either at the East, South or West, the North will be in range of Lord Recluse so avoid that.
Have the off-tank be the one to grab the Flyer's attention, after a short while it will deploy a squad of Bane Spiders, it is best to have the Tank aggro them. The team should take out the Banes before taking out the Flyer. Once it is down you have to immediately move on to the next part.

For the last section Lord Recluse will be empowered by four towers, these towers must be destroyed before you can take out Lord Recluse, the problem here is that it is nearly impossible to tank him conventionally as the towers boost his damage output to a ludicrous degree that he is able to two shot even a well slotted tank. Though in normal run some teams skip the blue tower in SMo runs its better to take them all out. Blue feeds his endurance and seems to cause him to spawn his followers faster once he's taken enough damage.
First, an explanation of the towers.



Think of the towers as the corners of a box, no one other than the Tank should ever go inside the box. We will be abusing the AI to keep Lord Recluse busy and being inside the box creates an opportunity for his aggro to recalculate onto someone other than the tank, so keep your backs to the glowing wall unless you're melee. Each tower will periodically summon two technicians to repair it, kill them QUICKLY as they will restore a LOT of health to the towers.
The order is Red (NE), Blue (SE), Orange (SW), Green (NW). Don't move away until you can no longer target the tower, repair technicians spawning at just the right time can recreate what should have been a downed tower.
Once all towers are down Lord Recluse will be as vulnerable as he ever will be.

Now the tricky bit: Keeping Lord Recluse busy while the towers are taken down.
Trying to tank him conventionally is a fool's errand, he has both massive damage output and the ability to bottom out your endurance in an instant, so what he wants is to play a game of keep-away.
Side view:



Tank View:



After the initial taunt the Tank will want to fly up and hover near one of the flag poles. The ideal position is difficult to properly convey as there are no reliable markers to go off of, but the idea is we want Recluse to jump up to the top of the flagpole but still be out of range for his ranged attack, you will also want him to be in range for you to taunt him whenever he gets to the top of the tower. If you have a dedicated healer, have them fly above you so that the Tank is always the closest target to Lord Recluse and be ready with any panic button powers such as Force Barrier in case he gets in range for a shot. This tactic relies on making the AI enter a loop, as such it is possible for the AI to occasionally freak out and change patterns. Be alert, be ready to adjust your position. This part in particular is worth maybe running a few non-SMo versions of Ms Liberty so that you can practice.

Once all the towers are down you can drop down and tank him normally, but be careful as he can still do a lot of damage.

DO NOT LEAVE THE MISSION UNTIL THE LEADER HAS TURNED IT IN!

[Ms. Liberty]

Ms. Liberty

This is the most difficult Task Force as a SMo with many points of failure. We have found that having an off-tank for this TF is very important. Additionally builds specifically made for SMo's should include a panic button of sorts (i.e. Force Barrier, Phase Shift, Personal Force Field, etc).

Mission 1 Disrupt the Web Factory:

The objective of this mission is to destroy 50 pieces of the web then defeat an arbiter to escape.  When the last piece of web is destroyed reinforcements will begin to spawn infinitely, so to avoid issues we have a certain method.
First destroy the web pieces on the barge in front of you, then off to the right, then the web pieces on either side of the upper area (be careful on the left side, there will be a mob here)



DO NOT DESTROY ANY MORE JUST YET



LEAVE ONE (OR BOTH) OF THESE TWO PIECES AT THE TOP OF THE RAMP
With those two pieces left safe continue down the ramp destroying the other pieces, at the bottom the area will turn to the left, this area will have mobs behind the cable piles so be careful moving around.
CAREFUL HERE NOT TO DESTROY ALL CABLE PIECES
As the pieces count down to one it is safest to have a single person attacking cable pieces, when you have only one to go on the mission tracker go back up to the ones you left alive at the top of the ramp.
The Arbiter (who looks like a 90's Keanu Reeves) will spawn with a group in front of the Arachnos helicopter but they won't be there yet. When the last piece is destroyed reinforcements will now spawn on the right (looking up towards the helicopter)



Position the party at point 2 and snipe out the last segment of cable at the top of the ramp.
A cutscene will play then return to gameplay.
Point 1 is where the ambushes will spawn, however a fresh ambush will not spawn unless the full ambush was killed, so have the Off Tank hold a single mob off at Point 1 while the rest of the team deals with the Arbiter and his cronies. Once he goes down more ambushes will spawn regardless of if you kept one alive, so at this point everyone should exit.

Mission 2: Capture Dr. Aeon

This mission is accessed via Portal Corps in Peregrine Island.  Heroes and Vigilantes can access it via Ouroboros, but Rogues will have to travel there normally.  The quickest route is to use the Smuggler ship to the south of Ms Liberty to go to Talos Island, then hop across to the ferry to get to Peregrine.

Once inside the base you will have to sit through a short cutscene featuring the villain alter ego of my worst college tutor, Phil Fauchaud aka Dr. Aeon, then follow the path around to enter a portal that will send you to the future. Sit through another villainous monologue then proceed round to the right, turn to the left, then to the right again to exit out into a Arachnos-captured Atlas Park. Some mobs may stand in your way inside the building while others can be bypassed.  Either clear through to be safe or sneak your way to the exit.
Your objective here is to defeat four AVs, this area can be a bit tricky as there are numerous mobs all over the place that can aggro, you can either carefully maneuver round them or move as a group and defeat them.



The first AV will be forward and to the right after you exit the building.



The second will be beneath the Lord Recluse statue.
BE CAREFUL!  THIS AV DOES HEAVY PSYCHIC AOE SO SQUISHIES STAND CLEAR!




Head to the right of city hall to find the third, be careful of any mobs below on the right as they may tag any fliers.



Be careful heading to the fourth AV as there are often mobs to either side as well as on the plinth of the smaller statue.



Once the final AV is down Heroes and Vigilantes will be able to Ouro out and back to Independence Port, but Rogues will have to proceed back into the building they came from, then out the marked portal.
Use the ferry to go back to Talos, then the Smuggler vessel to go back to Independence Port.

Mission 3: Strike theThorn Tree

Want to ruin some C-list villains' days? Well good, you're about to crash their Respec trial.

This mission submarine takes you to the Thorn Island in the north of Nerva Archipelago. Simply fly high and come down right on top of the door to the inside of the mission, if there is a mob near the door it is best to take them out so that no one gets sniped trying to scoot into the next section.

Follow the corridor around, defeating the Circle of Thorns as you go until you get to the upper level of another room.




This room is... a complete mess.



Two staircases lead down, one on either side, the next platform will have a mob on each side so choose one and descend, then the lowest level will have another mob.
BE CAREFUL a platform between the second set of staircases will have a mob that will often join in when you take on the mob on the floor level.

Exit the room and at the intersection head left to a portal. The intersection may have doubled up mobs so be careful.



The portal will vomit you out into a tight set of descending rooms, defeating any mobs as you go until you enter the upper level of a cave with waterfalls. Either use the portal to get to the lower level or jump down with the waterfalls. A set of steps will lead up to your objective but the tiered steps will have a group of C-list villains doing their Respec Trial, they will all be EBs so take care but you shouldn't have too much difficulty.
You would technically be able to stealth your way through to the Thorn Room from the very start of this level, but one of these EBs sees through stealth and we're not sure which one.
Proceed up and through the corridor to exit out into the Thorn Room.



The Thorn Room is a large donut of a room with the Thorn Tree in the centre, the Tree's targetable face will be pointing towards the door you enter from.
BEWARE THE THORN TREE CAN EASILY ONE OR TWO SHOT SQUISHIES, IF IT AGGROS YOU BREAK LINE OF SIGHT BEHIND ROCKS.
To render the tree vulnerable you will have to kill the vines surrounding the tree, but moving around that circuit will put you in aggro range of the mobs on the outer circle, so for safety's sake it is best to move around the very outer edge of the room (communicate a direction to the group so you don't split the team) killing the mobs as you go until you have defeated every Circle of Thorns mob in the room. Quite often mobs can be hiding around the various rocks, so be careful, take your time, and stick together. If you get aggro from the vines or the tree, break line of sight immediately by getting behind the rocks.

Once the CoT are taken out, follow the same route around the room again, this time defeating the vines.  It is best to start off to one side of the tree's attackable surface to avoid aggroing it.
The vines will periodically respawn so you can't take too much time, but once all of them are down they will stay down.
BEWARE SQUISHIES, HAVING MORE THAN ONE VINE AGGRO ON YOU CAN SEE YOU GO DOWN QUICKLY!
When all the vines are down, break line of sight from the tree to be super safe, then buff up and allow the tank to go in and aggro the tree first.
Most of the tree's attacks are wide cones, so have the tank engage the tree at one corner of its body while the team attacks from the other corner.  The tree hits hard, so be ready with those heals and emergency shields.



With the tree defeated, have the TANK interact with the Heart in the centre and exit the mission.

Mission 4: Capture Dr. Aeon

The objective of this mission is to find the real security chief.  All around this map of Cap Au Diable's centre will be Arachnos mobs, some of which contain a potential Security Chief. Whenever a Security Chief is taken down TWO ambushes will spawn, deal with both of them before moving on to the next Chief.
This part can take a while as sometimes it will make you take out every single potential Security Chief to find the right one.  Either fight your way frome one to another or fly high and come down on each Security Chief mob.
Once you find the real one and get the key, deal with the ambushes (they WILL follow you inside) and enter Aeon's lab.

The route inside is fairly straightforward, there are lots of twists and turns and rooms but there is generally just one path forward.
Inside will be the four Lieutenants of the Patrons, they will spawn in set rooms but which Lieutenant spawns in that room is random.
When dealing with Ice Mistral it is best for the group to quickly take out the Mu accompanying her as they can tank the Tank's endurance.
Silver Mantis and Barracuda can lay down nasty AoEs, so be careful.
Wretch will not be much of a threat.
The final lieutenant will be in a trickier room with mobs on several levels that can easily link together, so it is best to approach it carefully and disassemble the room.





Two slightly raised areas to either side will have mobs, pull them back into the hallway one at a time before engaging the Lieutenant on the upper level.  Be careful of the mob that spawns behind them, if you stay back towards the stairs you will avoid pulling them.
Once the Lieutenant is down the way to progress will be off the balcony to your left.
BE CAREFUL.  A MOB CAN SPAWN DIRECTLY BELOW THIS BALCONY, HAVE A FLYER SKIRT THE CEILING AND CHECK IT OUT BEFORE JUMPING DOWN.
Once you've checked the coast is clear and jumped down you can progress onwards to the final room.

Fighting Aeon:

Aeon here is often a point of failure for this SMo. Enter the final room and clear one side so that you can get up to the balcony he is on.





To render Aeon vulnerable you will have to use the temp power from the previous mission on him.
SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE!  USING THE POWER TO AGGRO HIM MALFUNCTIONS!  ALWAYS AGGRO HIM FIRST THEN USE THE POWER.
REMEMBER:  TAP THEN TEMP™

Once aggroed Aeon will summon a group of his alternate selves, their attacks combo'd with Aeon Prime's attacks can obliterate the tank in a brutal alpha strike, so when jumping in to face him it is best to go in with a big shield power like Force Barrier to soak it.
Once he is vulnerable, burn down Aeon Prime and get the hell out of the mission.

[Post is too long, continued in next post!]

[Lady Grey]

Lady Grey

The main considerations for this taskforce are the Pylons around RWZ and team composition.  While not as restrictive as Barracuda you WILL need Melee damage (with mez protection), Ranged damage, and single target Hold. The Pylons should be marked on the RWZ map but to be extra safe fly really high and come down on each mission door from above.

The Melee, Ranged, and Hold are necessary for the 4th mission against a weakened Hamidon.  It is highly advisable to have the hold powers being used slotted with a Lockdown proc to aid in the process.

Mission 1: The Seer

Go left in the first large room after opening the doors, then through the elevators.



The path towards your destination is pretty simple so it is unnecessary to give every single direction, but there are several locations where you can go either left or right and the path will look around to join back up, just be sure to talk to your team so you don't split.



The first point of interest (marked here as 1) is a room of rather tightly packed mobs, to be safe you will want to disassemble the room mob by mob, pulling them back into the corridor in the west to avoid chaining.



The room consists of an outer ring, and inner ring around a pillar, and then a pit ring between the two. Be cautious when moving near the edge of the runs during the pull as the mobs beneath are likely to aggro.

Once the path to the left has been cleared enough go ahead and progress forwards to point 2.

The last room (point 2) is positioned rather awkwardly. There will be a high balcony to the left with mobs, a lower main area with pillars holding Penny in place, and a balcony around the back of it containing mobs.

TARGET THE PILLARS LAST.
Disassemble the room mob by mob by pulling them back around the kinked corner into the previous corridor, then when all mobs are cleared prepare to free Penny.
When her towers go down a cut scene will play showing the Clockwork King who is now back at the start of the mission. When the cutscene ends an infinite spawn of reinforcements will begin in Penny's room. While pulling Penny back the way you came, fight off the reinforcements, though if you keep a good pace moving back the reinforcements will eventually lose you.
Pull Penny back to the first level via the elevators, then group up and prepare to take on the Clockwork King.

Be careful of getting too close as he is prone to dealing heavy Psychic AOE damage, meaning Elusive Mind can be very handy.
Defeat him and exit the mission.

Mission 2: Repulse the Rikti Riders



This mission is generally one big corridor with more wide open rooms that have a single exit. An important note to remember is that whenever a room lies ahead it is ALWAYS best to carefully check the corners immediately after the entrance, and any little side nooks as mobs love to hide in them.

At point 1 you will encounter the first rider, Famine, he will induce a heavy endurance drain so it is best to focus him down quickly.

At point 2 will be Famine AND Pestilence, focus on them in that order.

At point 3 there WILL be mobs hiding around corners made all the more difficult by a strange graphical glitch that gives the room a dense fog.



In here will be Famine, Pestilence, and War, focus them in that order.

At point 4 there will be the final room.  You will enter on a raised platform with the rest of the room being a lower rocky area.



Enter the lower area on the right, deal with the mobs on that side towards the back, then prepare for battle and cross over to where all four riders await a pummelling.
Famine, Pestilence, Death, War. Annoyed that you're defeating them in the wrong order? Let them know.

Mission 3: Save the Captured Psychics

The easiest and safest approach to this mission is to actually "fail" it by allowing Infernia and Glacia to be defeated by the ambushes that come after they are rescued. Failing this mission just continues the task force and has no effect on SMo outcomes. Make sure to have the tank get Infernia and Glacia by standing near them when their captors are defeated, then pull the ambush onto them. For Glacia it is even advisable to have the rest of the team exit the mission (together) after the tank has aggro so as to not risk a death to an ambush. The tank will automatically be removed from the mission upon failure.

Mission 4: Stop Rikti Hamidon Raid

This mission is accessed via the helicopter atop the Vanguard base entrance.  You can also enter via the little bunker door in front of the helicopter.



This can be smooth if done carefully and slowly. Firstly, all pets should be de-summoned until fighting the Hamidon nucleus, as there is just too much risk of one accidentally catching Hami's attention. Clear the Rikti & pylons all around first, give the tank time to herd the mobs around each pylon as they tend to be fairly spread out.
Once all pylons are down the next step is to tackle Hami himself.  The objective is to take down the glowing blobs inside the giant blue ooze, each colour requires a different approach but it is important that between each individual blob you will want to back out of the giant ooze, move around the outside until near the next target then move in to attack.  If you move between the blobs inside the ooze there is a high chance that Hami's nucleus will target and kill you.
IF HAMI DOES TARGET YOU RUN ALL THE WAY TO THE ROCK PILLARS AND BREAK LINE OF SIGHT.
Have your  melee fighters all target through the tank and start removing the yellow mitochondria. Next all the ranged fighters will target through one person to take out the blue mitochondria at max range. Finally the green mitochondria will require a controller or dominator to apply holds till the green mito is vulnerable, you will know if its vulnerable when the bubble shield around it falls, or if you're having difficulty seeing it just keep peppering it with attacks, you will know when it is vulnerable when your damage starts to land. Once vulnerable your ranged fighters will take out each green mito. Do not fly close to them to use a big hit power as it can put you on the wrong side of the mito, and hami will aggro on you.

Once you are ready to take on the nucleus, regroup, summon pets and buff. You will want to send the tank in to get aggro on one side, followed immediately by the team attacking from Hami's opposite side to try to burn him down as fast as possible. If the tank gets to half health or less, it's usually wise to call an immediate retreat to heal up behind stone pillars. Note that Hami ignores absorb shields entirely, regular heals will lose effectiveness after repeated hits from the Hamidon and only regenerative heals will work on the tank during this phase.

Mission 5: Stop the Rikti:



The first floor of this mission has no enemies, just Vanguard complaining while having a nap.  Navigate through and head to level two.
The second level is rather standard, it is mostly just a single path with Rikti all along it, there are a few turn offs but they can be avoided, follow the map above and you will be fine.
Take care when entering rooms to check corners for any hiding nasties.
The final room is a large room with a portal in its centre. There are two side bridges and a middle raised area with the portal, and a lower rocky area.
Two AV level bosses will be up for grabs in the centre, Hro'Dtoz and Hero 1.
The objective here is to take down the four pillars along the side bridges and defeat the two AVs. It is best to aim for the AVs first, the easiest way to achieve this is to have the team wait around the corner just outside the big room then have the tank pull mobs from the centre and either side back around, defeat them, then pull the AVs one at a time. Only the mobs on the platform or walkways need to be pulled. Mobs on the ground or in the water will respawn so don't aggro those groups.

Once both AVs are down, clear the bridges if you didn't during the earlier pulls, but DO NOT DESTROY THE PILLARS YET.

When a pillar is destroyed reinforcements will begin to spawn, so you can either wear each one down to within a single hit's worth of health then pop them all, or go around as a team burning them down in rapid succession.
Once down quickly leave the mission to avoid being killed by the reinforcements.
DO NOT LEAVE THE TEAM UNTIL THE LEADER HAS TURNED IN THE MISSION

[Imperious Taskforce (ITF)]

Imperious Taskforce (ITF)

This is the easiest of the Secret Masters to run, but that being said do not take it lightly.  We've lost runs because we were stuck on autopilot.  Also, despite its lower required level it is NOT advisable to bring anything lower than a 50 to a SMo run.

Mission 1:  The Oracle of Phoebas

The first part of this mission involves saving hostages (Sybils) from mobs, though their exact location is randomised they will be within three locations: The chamber at the south of the map which is directly left from the entrance; an intersection to the northwest, which is right from the entrance then right again; and then the northeast chamber which is a bend away from the intersection. An extra chamber exists (right from the start then the first left) that holds no hostages and no purpose beyond extra mobs. Once all Sybils have been rescued exit via the top-most northwest chamber.

Upon exiting the cave the natural path will be to your right, HOWEVER it will lead to a sizable ambush. This encounter can be completely avoided by flighting straight up and positioning yourself at the rear of the amphitheatre.


Have the tank pull groups one by one around the corner of the solid section of wall, then when the coast is clear enough the tank can move forward to escort Solaris to the altar and complete the mission.

Mission 2: Take out the Shadow Cysts

The layout of this mission is randomised so no detailed route can be provided, but there is some important general information that can be provided.
The Shadow Cysts are floating crystals which when destroyed will deal heavy AoE damage. It is best to avoid damaging them at all until the mob around them is dealt with, then have squishies bull back away from the crystal to safely pop it. After each Cyst an ambush will spawn, so it is highly advisable to deal with the ambush before moving onto the next Cyst.
Stick together and communicate to avoid splitting the party and risking defeat. For the tank when approaching the groups of nictus and white novas, try to use line of sight to reduce how many can hit you in the opening alpha strike. With large groups hitting, consider powers like Dull Pain or Force Barrier a preventative measure not a heal, and hit them before engaging.

If two cysts spawn near each other it is best to pop one, deal with its ambush, then pop the other. Two ambushes at once let alone two explosions at once could spell doom for the team


Mission 3: Stop Romulus

This mission is once again accessed via the boats at the docks.
Once inside you will notice you have a helper, Daedalus. While helpful he does have a nasty habit of running off to aggro other mobs and dying, so keep an eye on him. The path for this mission is fairly straightforward. Head between some houses and a cliff face, be careful along this path as some patrols can come from over the top of the houses or over the cliffs. Keep an eye out.

Head towards the bridge across the beach and be careful of the Elite Boss Minotaurs and Cyclops. This area has more patrols so be careful. Disassemble the bridge and the beach after it mob by mob.

The viaduct here is where things can get troublesome. As you fight your way up the hill several ambushes will come out of the doors to either side of the viaduct, so having an off-tank to grab them, or simply keeping an eye out and having the tank grab them as they appear is the best bet. You don't want them making a meal of the squishies.

Proceed all the way up the hill and take the left path which will lead you to a 5th Column base at the top of a cliff. There is a gantry that heads around to the base but that can be ignored. Instead your target will be at the foot of the cliff.

Here you will see a three-rank square of 5th Column robots stationed around a computer. The nearby buildings will have auto turrets at their base which should be dealt with first, then begin attacking the computer.
As the computer's health depletes it will awaken the robots one ring at a time. The tank should grab them as they wake up and the others should focus them down before returning attention to the computer.
The final ring of robots has the highest number and can be a very real threat to the party, so it is best to have everyone other than the tank out of the square for safety. If you have an off tank co-ordinate by having the off-tank taunt the opposite side to the tank. To maximise the number of foes that are under control. Any debuffer—do not use things like Fulcrum Shift or any other mass debuff as the robots wake up—they will fire on you before any taunt can take effect.

Once the computer and robots are dead it will be time to deal with Romulus and Requiem.
Have the group maintain position in the square where you defeated the robots while either the tank or a sniper flies high and tags either of the Arch Villains, pulling them down to the group. It's best if the tank can go collect them to avoid the squishy death that can occur. SMo can leave emotional scars get yours today, care of Requiem preferring blaster bait to tank buffet.

They should be easy enough to take out one at a time, once done exit the mission and head to the big gates.


Mission 4: Retake the City

Here you will have another pal, Imperius, if you don't want to babysit him have whoever he latched onto fly high, then when Imperius is at the top of the map turn off their flight power, this should leave him up there where he can't cause any problems.

While you CAN fly to the end of the mission, it is probably best to fight your way there as you will need to thin Romulus' ranks anyway.  Head straight forward and choose either the left or right path. Ambushes will spawn as you begin to head in either direction so keep an eye on your rear to keep the squishies safe.

Follow the path around towards the main courtyard to initiate a cutscene.

The best way to deal with Romulus is to clear your way around to the right side of the main building, there will be a recessed doorway here where ambushes will spawn. Having a sniper or the tank pull Romulus into this doorway will allow you to grab the ambushes and burn them down as soon as they appear. Sometimes the nictus can get stuck on the ledge where they started. If the tank taunts them and gets fully into the doorway, they'll approach to a range that will keep them in taunt AoE and not snipe at other teammates.

Focus on any random mobs that come with him but ignore the floating purple Nictus clouds, you will want to then focus on Romulus himself.

IMPORTANT NOTE
You will be defeating Romulus a total of four times, each time he will consume one of the Nictus to revive himself. AS SOON AS ROMULUS GOES DOWN EACH TIME BREAK LINE OF SIGHT.  Anyone still in line of sight when he revives will be hit with a heavy stun.
Take him down again and again, dealing with the ambushes from the door until he stays down for good, then exit the mission.

DO NOT LEAVE THE TEAM UNTIL THE LEADER HAS TURNED IN THE MISSION

[The Not-so-secret guide to Secret Master, brought to you by the good people at Up to No Good.]

The Not-so-secret guide to Secret Master, brought to you by the good people at Up to No Good.

Foreword

Over the course of the last year and a bit the members of Up to No Good have been running Secret Master on a weekly basis, hammering out tactics to reliably beat each of the six Secret Master taskforces, and while we have been a rather closed group we feel that it is only right to present to the wider Rebirth community the fruits of our labour.

Presented here in are the tactics we have used to successfully clear Secret Master content.  Are they the only tactics that will work?  Probably not, but they are the tactics we have used to achieve victory numerous times.  If you find something that works for you that isn't presented here then more power to you!  Share it with us and we can expand our common knowledge!

What is a Secret Master run?

"Secret Master of" (SMo) task forces are a set of existing end-game task forces with extra limitations applied that reward exclusive badges and enhancements. The badges are rare given the extra difficulty of this mode, and the enhancements provide valuable bonuses as well as altered set bonuses in these challenges.

The limitations required are:

• No Deaths*
• No Temp Powers or Incarnate Abilities
• No Inspirations
• Enemies Buffed
• No Set Bonuses (excluding bonuses from challenge enhancements which are gained from running SMo content)

*No Deaths can be failed and still complete. However the Secret Master badge will not be awarded, and one less challenge enhancement will be awarded. If lesser badges such as "Master of" haven't been earnt previously they'll get awarded if the SMo run is successfully completed.

Roles and Team Composition

The extra challenge rules of SMo mean your team will have to lean more into class role than in the rest of the game. If you are used to being unkillable on your blaster because of incarnates and set bonuses, be prepared to be back to being squishy. Your blaster is still highly valuable, but mostly in its original role of applying max damage. As another example, while a tanker is not required, you may find it too difficult to keep ambush aggro off of your teammates without the tanker's increased aggro cap.

Some SMo's are more sensetive to party makeup than others.  This will be mentioned at the beginning of the guide for each one.

Enhancements and SMo Builds

Enhancements continue to function in this mode, but set bonuses do not unless they come from the challenge sets.

Challenge sets include:

• Imperial Might (ITF)
• Forced Indoctrination (Lady Grey)
• Liberty's Belt (Ms Liberty/Lord Recluse)
• Inexhaustibility (Kahn/Barracuda)
• Synapse's Agility.  Note: Synapse's Agility has a chance to drop for completing any task  force with a time requirement, but still counts as a challenge set for SMo rules.

Procs from normal sets will generally work, unless they apply some buff to your character (ie Miracle +recovery, Decimation Chance for Build Up, various travel stealth IOs). Debuff procs do work. Note that Panacea and Performance Shifter procs do not apply a buff but a single infusion of health and/or endurance and therefore still function in this mode. However, no ATO procs work in SMo.

Pets have an exception to some of these rules and can fire Procs that buff themselves. Namely, this applies to Soulbound Allegiance Chance for Build Up and The Haunting Chance to Summon Ghosts.

Be aware that accolade powers do still work in SMo and take advantage of it. This can be especially helpful with Elusive Mind for the psi damage in multiple task forces.

For your initial setup of a tailored SMo build count on primarily normal IOs, which you can replace with challenge sets to increase stability and damage output as you complete the run.

While guides exist for the normal versions of these task forces, below we will provide tactics we have found successful on SMo runs. The same general rules apply for all of them: play it safe, take the necessary time and stick together as a team. It is recommended for everyone without a flight power to pick up a temporary jet pack for these in either the Shadow Shard (heroes) or Grandville (villains); these are excluded from the No Temps rule.

Challenge Set Aquisition

These IO sets are rewards for completing SMo content and randomly from time challenges on other task/strike forces.

Challenge set pieces are rewarded as follows (you can get up to three from a SMo run):

• One piece for completing the task/strike force no matter how many deaths
• One piece is for completing the task/strike force if it's a WST and you've not completed another WST on the toon you take along.
• One piece for completing the task/strike force successfully with no deaths. (This will also get you the badges)

Team Communications

Using Discord or some other voice chat software can be crucial to success as the time needed to type out adjustments to the plan can be costly compared to a quick spoken word, especially if your team isn't used to working together.  While it is completely understandable that people may not have mic or may not feel comfortable speaking to others, it can be enough to simply have one leader speaking and everyone else just listening.
Being able to call out loose foes, or new targets, or any other adjustments without having to stop fullfilling their role to type can make all the difference.