How to do a Beacon Mission.....

PINKY

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I recently took part in a Robot Beacon mission for the first time. As I was new to it, I looked up for a sticky guide, but could not seen one, only 3-4 threads of tips but no comprehensive instructions, so thought I would attempt some. Please feel free to add any comments and correct any errors and I will edit the posts accordingly. :girl:


Instructions​

Robot Beacons can be obtained from mining or in Auction. I wont go too much into detail here, as I assume you already have one if you are looking for instructions how to use it…

If you look at the details of your Beacon, it will give you co-ordinates to go to.

Get your party together – I would suggest at least 8 people, or you will never loot all the boxes at the end of the mission in time with fewer people.

Before you start, co-ordinate your team. Decide who will be doing what.
My tips are:

1. Assign your three most powerful people to lead the team. They will encounter the bots first and can look after themselves - It is vital that you do form a team, otherwise only the beacon holder will blast off with the ship and everyone else will be left behind.. It also makes it easier to comunicate when you are all on seperate levels in the looting stage

2. Everyone else can help and/or FAP the leaders. These three leaders will also be the ones that take out the boss at the end. (More on why later)

3. You also need to allocate everyone levels on the bot ship, so everyone upon destruction of the boss knows where they are looting. There are 6 levels on the ship. The first level you encounter is the easiest and has the fewest boxes, but you will need someone fast to reach it on the way back as you will be on the clock. I suggest you have one person looting the top level on the way back down, and split the rest of the team evenly amongst the level. Again, people with the highest agility should be assigned to the lower levels as they will be faster and time is everything!

4. On the way up to the boss level you have 60 minutes (any longer and the countdown starts). Use this time to your advantage - scout out the levels looking for the boxes - they generally wont "load up" so you can see then until you are virtually on top of them. As you find them, call them out e.g. "2 Boxes on east wall". Add them up so the person responsible for clearing that level knows how many they are looking for.

5. On the way back down speed is EVERYTHING. Before you go, put everything you dont need in storage to keep your wieght down. Also worth remembering, you cant run as fast as normal because the gravity in space is lower than that of the planet. Try running at CND or CP to experience the speed you will run at.

6. The lighting on the ship is very dark (all blues and greens) I highly recomend truning your gamma all the way up in optinos, or increasing the brightness. It will prove invaluable once you are up there! (most on my screenies had to be lightened in photoshop for them to show up!)

7. Recomend you take reasonable armor protection to... Shogun or Vigi for the lower level beacons, adding 6a Plates for the biggere ones would help too!

8. Your lower skilled players are just as valuable.. remember this is all about the loot and it is very hard to loot ALL boxes even with a full team. So the guy in Goblin with a FAP 5 must be protected!

9. You may have heard Bots can shoot through walls in other beacon mission threads - let me expand on this, they can actually stand inside thick walls and shoot you from inside them. We found the best way to deal with them is to aim roughly where the shots are coming from and shoot. However, a recent update means you only need to kill 75% of the bots on any level to progress, so you can leave them if you want, alternativly, Keep shooting and eventually you will hit it.

10. For a map (print it out!) click HERE and some info of potential loots and bot levels, click HERE
.............................................

Ok, so you got you beacon, you have organised you team and you are in the right co-ordinates…. What are you waiting for, activate the beacon!

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Once activated, the ship will come down like this

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A door will open and a “light bridge” will appear. Run up it!

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Ok, don’t panic yet, this is only a shuttle to the mothership, there are no bots here!
 
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You need to insert the Robot Beacon into the control panel and then the ship blasts off on its way to the mothership. (this is done by dragging the beacon from the inventory on to the control panel)

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Once you reach the Mothership, you are officially on the first level of the beacon mission. You need to find the teleporter to the next level. On my beacon mission there were no bots on this level (it was a 29 pedder) I don’t know if harder missions will have bots on this level, so be warned…

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Notice in the last picture above the green box… This is a storage box. It is what you will be looting after completing the levels…. On all levels you go through, take you time and look for Storage box positions… This will help you on the way back down to find them and loot them.

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Continue working your way through the levels. The bots you find will be increasingly harder. On each level, the object is to kill at least 75% of the bots and find the teleport to the next level. Remember where these teleports are, you will need them in a hurry on the way back down.

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There are two teleports in each level. One is the one you arrive via the previous level, and one will take you to the next. The Teleports are only funtion between two floors, so you cant keep clicking one to get to the top, or to get to the bottom (on the way back down). You must remember where the TP's are to get back down quickly when looting

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One of the levels is a maze. Its vital to remember the route to and from the entry and exit teleports. Also where the boxes are on the way up, so you can find them easy on the way back down!

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On the final level, there will only be the boss, although on higher level Beacon Missions there may be additional bots too! On the 29 ped mission I did, it was a Warrior Gen 06. It is now not necessary to kill the boss, providing you kill 75% of any bots on the bosses level. I you do need to kill the boss, send your three best players to kill him. Everyone else, wait by the teleport. Once the boss is dead, or 75% of bots on that level are dead, a message will tell you the self destruct has been activated and you have 8 minutes.

NOTE: ALL PLAYERS MUST BE ONE THE FINAL BOSS LEVEL AT THE TIME OF ITS DEATH OR AT THE TIME 75% OF BOTS ON THAT LEVEL ARE DEAD. THOSE WHO ARE NOT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LOOT CONTAINERS!!!

This is why most of you waited by the teleports… everyone should run directly to their allocated level and loot the storage containers. (TIP: It may be faster to use auto run). If you clear all the ones on your level. Type LEVEL X CLEAR. And run to the next level down and help in there.
You cant tell which boxes have been looted and which haven’t, this is why you must say in the chat window when you clear a level, or your team will loose valuable seconds opening boxes that have already been looted.

It takes 10-20 seconds to open a storage container.

The messages will keep coming up, giving you a countdown to the self destruct until the ship blows and you all revive back on Calypso. (Or if you open all the boxes and make it back to the start, you will return to the mission start point)

If anyone dies before the end, that’s it – you are out of the mission, so look after each other. If one dies, that a lot less boxes you will be able to open!

However, if one of you is bugged, it IS safe to relog - we tried!

When it comes to splitting the loot, the team rules do not apply, and anything an individual loots they keep, so if you do plan on sharing it out at the end, make sure you decide the loot splitting rules before hand and take only people you trust...

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GOOD LUCK!​
 
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Long awaited by alot I bet...+rep for taking the time..... ;)
 
Thanks for the info...next time my soc goes on one, I will definitely be part of the team.

:D :D
 
Very nice step-by step guide +rep, I'm sure those who have never been on a mission before will find the guide and pictures very useful.



You may want to add that there is very little gravity in space, so you run much slower. It's a good idea to take only what you absolutely need with you, and drop the rest of your stuff in storage before you go to make yourself as light as possible so you're not weighted down. :)
 
Silver Ice said:
You may want to add that there is very little gravity in space, so you run much slower. It's a good idea to take only what you absolutely need with you, and drop the rest of your stuff in storage before you go to make yourself as light as possible so you're not weighted down. :)

Have added as tip number 4 thx! :D


Is this good enough to ask MB to make it a sticky? Or does it need more work? Would appreciate everyones input :D

Thx!
 
this is definately sticky material: 5 thumbs up on the ZAMMA-SCALE! :silly2:

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

(i'd do 10 but u can only draw 10 on the post :p)
 
Good job, +rep for that.

Few more observations of my own.

If it's your first mission, it's gonna be quite a big stress. Dark atmosphere, the music, limited time, fear to fail and ruin it for the whole team - everything will be getting on your nerves.

This robot base is located in space. So be ready to enjoy different gravitation. It won't feel the same as on Calypso. Running will be slower. You can go to Crystal Palace or Club Neverdie to know what it will be like there.

All action will be taking place inside of the dark building. The light is pretty unnatural there (mostly green & blue) and it will often be not enough. So if your game settings are set to dark, it can cause you many problems. May be for the first time it's worth making gamma a bit lighter for better orientation there. It really does feel relieving after you find yourself back at outpost and the stress is gone.

Make sure you are actually ready to take this trip. I'd suggest having at least Shogun or Vigilante set on (6A plates won't harm for bigger beacons either but fine-skilled player on small beacon can survive without those of course). Everyone is at risk, even ones that come there to open boxes only. Such people must stay alive through all the trip, so decent armor and fap won't harm. In case you have guys in goblin with fap5 with you, someone must watch over them with the fap always ready.

Bots shoot through walls. Sometimes you won't even see them. The 'killing' part of your team may be somewhere ahead fighting bots there but don't be surprised if some distant laser flashes in the darkness to get you. Yeah, bots are that mean.

Plan the mission and choose the beacon carefully. Team of 15 can easily fail and team of 4-5 can complete it successfully if people know what they are doing. Technically it's possible for 1 player to open all boxes on 1-2 floors on his own. But if it's your first time you can find it hard to clean 1 floor together with your friend.
Try to find as much information as possible and act accordigly. If you can take Warrior Generation 1 with lots of over-fapping on your own, it doesn't mean you'll survive on a mission with Wars Gen 1 as main contenders. They won't be waiting, they'll attack you all at once. If neither of you can take Second Entity alone or with a fapper, most likely 15 of you won't kill it either or you'll loose half of your people trying. Keep it in mind choosing your beacon.

Remember that there are 2 elevators on each floor besides 1st and the last. They are located on different sides of the room and work as the direct link between 2 floors only. So the elevator that took you from 2nd floor to the 3rd one can take you back from the 3rd to the 2nd, but will never help you to get to the 1st one. There's usually no time to think about it there, so usually you will just step out of the one elevator and rush to the other side of the room to go futher (either up or down).

Try not to get lost between the floors. You need to clean one floor to move to another. After all bots on the floor are dead, you get the message the floor is clean, so you don't have to wonder and check again. If everyone in your team participates in shooting, then just move to next floor together after getting the message. If some of you are just 'runners', then it makes some sense to stay on the clean floor while shooters are cleaning another one. Just remember: whole team must be on the very last floor before you kill the boss.

Oh and watch out for the Labirynth. This floor seems really evil when it's your first time. It's hard not to get lost when running from one elevator to another alone, opening boxes is even more complicated. It seems much easier after you get used to it, but the problem is that you won't have time for it.

Here's the example in case someone finds it easier to understand this way:
on the last beacon we took we had 6 people. It was a tough one with various Warriors on the floors and Second Entity as the boss.
A was the most skilled and could kill the boss alone.
B, C were shooters with minisweepers, nice faps and armor
D, E were in plated vigi and had decent faps and weapons but weren't meant to shoot
F was a runner in rascal

Team arrives to the base. First floor is clean by default, so we just choose player C (as he has nice agility and it's a long way to run from the last floor) to clean all the boxes later. He checks the surroundings fast and A, B, C move to the next level to check if there are any bots near elevator. Few moments later D, E and F follow. A, B, C go ahead and kill all the bots while D, E shoot only ones that attack them and fap F if needed. These last 3 stand near elevator.
Upon recieving the message about the floor being clean, A, B and C move to next floor, D, E and F start running to the elevator on the other end of the room to get up as well. D stays a bit longer to check where the boxes are as team leader picked him for this floor.
Same happens for all levels with the only difference that 2 people are chosen to take 1 side of Labirynth each.
On the last level D, E and F arrive when most of the bots are dead but boss is still there. Player A goes to take care of the boss, at the same time player E is running arond allocating the boxes but not coming close to A and The Boss. All others are waiting near elevator ready to jump in there after the signal.
When Boss is dead, E gets busy with opening boxes on this floor and all others together jump in the elevator. One starts opening boxes and rest run through the floor together to get to another elevator down. On each floor running team looses 1-2 people (depending on how many is picked for this floor) and the last elevator is taken by the player C, as it is his floor.
Everyone opens his boxes and reports if the floor is done to the chat. People that finish their part hurry to hardest floors with many boxes or to the floor of someone who has unexpected difficulties.
Then time is out. There's a big Boom and everyone revives at the outpost to count profits\losses.

Mmm what else.. oh, Storage Box is working as any terminal. You can open it by double clicking, Operate function from shortcuts or right click - operate. After its open you either get message in the chat that this container is empty or typical loot window pops out.

And I remember seeing schemes of all floors drawn somewhere but can't remember where now. So if anyone can provide the link here and also exact information on "TT - level of bots and the boss" here, it could be quite useful I believe.
 
I was on that mission. What a blast.

A few points to add if i may Ms pinky.

Running speed..Agility is the key here. Assign people with the highest agility to the lower levels.

Set Gamma to high in options or it will be very dark.

If you die you leave the ship..game over...BUT! If you are having problems and a relog is needed you will remain on the ship when you log back in.

Bots can and will fire through walls. If your being hit and cant see the bot, thats why. Navigate further through your level to reach the other side of the wall. You will just waste ammo for nothing otherwise.

All bots on a level MUST be killed before you can procede to the next level.

Everybody MUST be on the boss level when he is killed.

Many thanks to bristena for using her beacon rather than selling it. And respect to licky for doing the mission in his underpants.
 
Just wanna say this...


PINKY REWLS!!!! Yeeeey... thanx for the pics. :D
2 bad about the crappy bugs with drones in the walls and my "cant run" bug :) damn that was fun.. lets doit again... :cool:
 
Everybody MUST be on the boss level when he is killed.
that reminds me - if you go down before he gets killed, you wont be able to loot boxes. ive heard you can fix that and going back up, and comin down again.
 
That's a great guide,with pictures too,good to who don't have a clue how beacons work. +rep for the work :)
 
Adding the following points to the guide now:

la aurora said:
Good job, +rep for that.

This robot base is located in space. So be ready to enjoy different gravitation. It won't feel the same as on Calypso. Running will be slower. You can go to Crystal Palace or Club Neverdie to know what it will be like there.

All action will be taking place inside of the dark building. The light is pretty unnatural there (mostly green & blue) and it will often be not enough. So if your game settings are set to dark, it can cause you many problems. May be for the first time it's worth making gamma a bit lighter for better orientation there. It really does feel relieving after you find yourself back at outpost and the stress is gone.

Make sure you are actually ready to take this trip. I'd suggest having at least Shogun or Vigilante set on (6A plates won't harm for bigger beacons either but fine-skilled player on small beacon can survive without those of course). Everyone is at risk, even ones that come there to open boxes only. Such people must stay alive through all the trip, so decent armor and fap won't harm. In case you have guys in goblin with fap5 with you, someone must watch over them with the fap always ready.

Bots shoot through walls. Sometimes you won't even see them. The 'killing' part of your team may be somewhere ahead fighting bots there but don't be surprised if some distant laser flashes in the darkness to get you. Yeah, bots are that mean.

Remember that there are 2 elevators on each floor besides 1st and the last. They are located on different sides of the room and work as the direct link between 2 floors only. So the elevator that took you from 2nd floor to the 3rd one can take you back from the 3rd to the 2nd, but will never help you to get to the 1st one. There's usually no time to think about it there, so usually you will just step out of the one elevator and rush to the other side of the room to go futher (either up or down).

Oh and watch out for the Labirynth. This floor seems really evil when it's your first time. It's hard not to get lost when running from one elevator to another alone, opening boxes is even more complicated. It seems much easier after you get used to it, but the problem is that you won't have time for it.

Mmm what else.. oh, Storage Box is working as any terminal. You can open it by double clicking, Operate function from shortcuts or right click - operate. After its open you either get message in the chat that this container is empty or typical loot window pops out.

And I remember seeing schemes of all floors drawn somewhere but can't remember where now. So if anyone can provide the link here and also exact information on "TT - level of bots and the boss" here, it could be quite useful I believe.

Thank for the input! The maps have broken links, so cant use them anymore...

As MB would say, thats what you get for not uploading your pics to the forum! :D
 
mrchips said:
I was on that mission. What a blast.

A few points to add if i may Ms pinky.

Running speed..Agility is the key here. Assign people with the highest agility to the lower levels.

Set Gamma to high in options or it will be very dark.

If you die you leave the ship..game over...BUT! If you are having problems and a relog is needed you will remain on the ship when you log back in.

Bots can and will fire through walls. If your being hit and cant see the bot, thats why. Navigate further through your level to reach the other side of the wall. You will just waste ammo for nothing otherwise.

All bots on a level MUST be killed before you can procede to the next level.

Everybody MUST be on the boss level when he is killed.

Many thanks to bristena for using her beacon rather than selling it. And respect to licky for doing the mission in his underpants.

All added! thanks!
 
Have spoken with MB about making this sticky, and he will do, but suggested it is left a couple of days for everyones comments to be incorporated into the intial post, then we can have a finalised sticky version...

So get posting those comments! :D
 
+rep i've never been on one but i've always wondered wat happens.
 
What kind of loot you get there? (items, average peds, etc)
 
Bit of a bump...

Anyone got anything more to add to the guide?
 
PINKY said:
Bit of a bump...

Anyone got anything more to add to the guide?

Hmmm.. yes.

When you are on the ship, drag and drop the beacon onto the thing in there to activate it.

And very important : When entering the spaceship, you must have created a team! Might seem obvious, but since the team has no real function up there (everyone gets their own loot) you might get the idea to skip the team. If you don't have a team, only the person with the beacon will go with the spaceship, the others will fall down to the ground. :(

Main posts says there's only the boss at last level, but that's not right. There are usually a few bots there as well.

A few other suggestions :

The levels are in a different order on different beacons, so you might want to do the final planning (who cleares which level) just before you kill the boss, just to make sure everyone knows what to do.

When killing the boss, drag him back so that you are right next to one of the boxes. That will save you a few seconds of running.

On your first beacon, watch out for the pithole on the boss level. It is easy to fall into it if you don't know it's there. Look for the bridges that are on both sides of the room.

Don't engage too many bots in combat at once, and work as a team. This is especially important on some levels, like the labyrinth for example.
 
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Darkaner said:
Hmmm.. yes.

When you are on the ship, drag and drop the beacon onto the thing in there to activate it.

And very important : When entering the spaceship, you must have created a team! Might seem obvious, but since the team has no real function up there (everyone gets their own loot) you might get the idea to skip the team. If you don't have a team, only the person with the beacon will go with the spaceship, the others will fall down to the ground. :(

Main posts says there's only the boss at last level, but that's not right. There are usually a few bots there as well.

A few other suggestions :

The levels are in a different order on different beacons, so you might want to do the final planning (who cleares which level) just before you kill the boss, just to make sure everyone knows what to do.

When killing the boss, drag him back so that you are right next to one of the boxes. That will save you a few seconds of running.

On your first beacon, watch out for the pithole on the boss level. It is easy to fall into it if you don't know it's there. Look for the bridges that are on both sides of the room.

Don't engage too many bots in combat at once, and work as a team. This is especially important on some levels, like the labyrinth for example.

Thx for extra info - I will add when I get home (at work now with Painfully slow net connection!) :D
 
Some really important things you've metioned there. +rep

I'm not sure I fully agree on these ones though:
Darkaner said:
The levels are in a different order on different beacons, so you might want to do the final planning (who cleares which level) just before you kill the boss, just to make sure everyone knows what to do.

When killing the boss, drag him back so that you are right next to one of the boxes. That will save you a few seconds of running.

Yes, the levels are in different order indeed but I believe planning shouldn't be put on till the last level. It can cause situation when people responsible for some level don't know where the boxes are there. IMHO planning should be done on the way up. The levels are same, just in different order, so you have an idea what to expect. Lowerest levels are for fast runners, labirynth is for ones with experience or better memory. It makes sense to choose the person resposible for the level right after it's cleaned, so he has some time to look around and remember the boxes.

Actually boss problem is solved easily. Depends on how many people you need for it of course. But if 1-2 of you can't kill the boss alone, imho it's quite a risky thing to pick up this beacon. Those 2 could be responsible for the boss level and the one before it, so they don't need to run much. It will leave them enough time. Others should be waiting right near televator.
Of course dragging the boss a bit closer can make sense in some situations, but I'd do it only if there's real need for it, otherwise risking him getting distracted and going to kill half of your team is not worth it.
 
+rep, wanted this for a long time! to take the time out to write up original post, and then everyone contribution just shows how helpfull people are :)

now who gonna lend me some expensive gear to go do one :D
 
PINKY said:
Bit of a bump...

Anyone got anything more to add to the guide?

Hope these havnt already been mentioned, if they have ignore them :)

Auto run on the way back down. Some say its faster, but i cant see hardly any difference. One advantage auto run has is that when approaching a level teleporter you can keep running into it and teleport, and when you materialize the other side you are already running. This can shave seconds oFf your time on the way down. It does take a little practice to make sure you heading the right way when you come out of the teleporter ;)

Teams from 5+ can complete beacons optimal being 6. Although this does depend on beacon experience, skills, equipment & beacon TT. NotA have completed beacons with only 5 players several times so it is possible to loot all boxes with 5 players.

If you disconnect dont worry, when you log back on you will still be on the ship. However if the whole team disconnects then panic cos its most likely the mission will be lost.

On the boss level only those that are going to kill the boss go further than the teleporter. The rest of the team to stay put after killing the drones gaurding the teleporter. This saves any accidents falling into the pit. It also gives time for players to remove armour/clothing. Not that this makes any difference but it can be amusing.

:)
 
i have a question if i may.
is it worth it on a financial basis? do these missions pay well in general? one lucky loot or just general bits nothing special?
 
GOOSE said:
i have a question if i may.
is it worth it on a financial basis? do these missions pay well in general? one lucky loot or just general bits nothing special?

I have only done the one mission, and (including items) we scored about 150 ped between 8 of us. However, it was a 29 ped beacon which is worth roughly TT+200...

It is worth noting however, we did not succeed in opening all the boxes so who knows what we might have got.

I would say however that it was worth the investment just from the level of fun that was had... (or it would have been worth the investment if I had invested anything - but it was a present to the society from BeautyGal) :D
 
well thats ok then, dont mind paying for entertainment!!
 
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