Spiral Knights - Shroud of Apocrea mission almost impossible to play solo

Shroud of Apocrea mission almost impossible to play solo

7 replies [Last post]

Tue, 11/21/2017 - 16:19

Sir-Anti-Fun

Hello, Im an old player who returned to try out some of the new content, and since I never really got to try out the Shroud of Apocra mission, or craft the associated items, i thought now would be the perfect time.

I was wrong.

Since the community is almost dead and only people who want to trade are "playing" the game at this point I've mostly been playing solo, and i have no problem with that. Well, except the Shroud of Apocrea mission, where i can barely free one soul before the harvester either teleports right on me, or just comes out of nowhere. Since the mission is designed in such a way that one player should distract it while the others get the tokens and complete puzzles, doing both at the same time is infuriatingly difficult, especially when the harvester teleports around.

A simple solution would be just to disable the harvester teleporting when playing solo (so you could atleast have a chance), but i doubt any developers read the forum posts at this point and i doubt even more they would patch something like this.

If you have any advice on how to handle the mission feel free to advise me.

Tue, 11/21/2017 - 17:38

Zero-Chill

Advice on SoA farming

When you're solo you can lose the harvester by dashing. Whenever you are if you dash he'll be gone for a short time and comes back after some time so all you need to do is dash whenever you hear the harvester's voice, however if he started attacking remember that you can always use your pet's skills to get away. BTW this mission is actually easier to solo since the souls' HP drop significantly and are much easier to kill (I advice you to use a brandish, a cutter or WRH with autotarget for killing them quickly). You also don't have to complete puzzles but usually you'll find the solution by just walking around and solve them all after you've cleared all the graves.

Note: This shouldn't be on general discussion, maybe put it on new recruits and BTW the developers DO read the forums.

Tue, 11/21/2017 - 19:08

Bopp

not hard once you know how to do it

I know it sounds like a cheap answer, but: Apocrea is not hard, once you know how to do it. Here are three strategies:

A. Dash, as Geo-Senpai said.
B. Use a maskeraith cloak.
C. Watch out for the harvester and run away from it.

I'm not kidding about strategy C. It's the one I use most often (just because my SK skills stopped improving in 2011 or maybe 2012).

Wed, 11/22/2017 - 00:39

Froggit

I've had some rough times

I've had some rough times myself with this, but lemme tell ya, you don't even KNOW the salt for gun users. Dang spirits keep wandering into different directions spontaneously, walking out of my charge shots... bleh. But if I do land the charge while solo or in a duo, I usually kill em instantly.

Spirits are definitely a beast to be handled with swords, those are your best bet. Bombs may be good; I'm not sure how the recently changed Shard bombs may help, they seem pretty interesting to use with them. But with swords, use a quick mouse/gamepad to accommodate their changing directions. I recommend the fast 3-stroke weapons. A WRH may be good if you can quickly snap onto them, and could provide tentacle-avoidance.

Also, to add onto what Geo said, I believe dashing right/during when he shakes the ground removes the trailing function of the tentacles. Also, avoid the Prometheus School Of Running Away From Things (tm) and run in a curving direction.

I understand your frustration, I think it's best to not do the quest if you're still 4* or transitioning. Just rack up those ASI, and a little MSI can go a long way.

Wed, 11/22/2017 - 04:49

Zero-Chill

Some more things I forgot to mention

Just to clarify I said that you can dash even if the harvester is not near you and it'll disappear for a short time. This strategy is more convenient than waiting for the harvester to try to grab you and dash. If you're using an autogun (a blaster or an antigua is fine too but kinda slow) I advice you to use the normal attacks while single-switching it also remember that autotarget helps A LOT since souls tend to wander at random directions. I also believe that bombing is the slowest way to farm this mission but you can nail it with Torpor Tantrum and Dark Briar Barrage, or vortex chaining (electron is better here cause it makes chaining easier). I don't think shard bombs are by any means an efficient way to kill neither souls nor scarabs. I'd like to point out something that's less known about the harvester which is that he CAN be put to sleep, so if you have torpor tantrum and you get caught, just charge and drop and you're safe. Also so far the weapon I've had most luck and fun with with souls is Dread Venom Striker cause it's extremely fast even if you have little attack speed and does A LOT of damage with its multi-hits and poison and the combo pattern follows the soul's movement if you're using autotarget.

Wed, 11/22/2017 - 20:39

Poothis

Sacrifice

It's really not that bad. I'm just assuming that you're trying to break every single grave no matter what, but you kinda really have to run when a Harvester gets close and just leave nearby graves until you're safe. You should be able to get a decent amount of sigils if you do that. And of course the dash and cloaking would immediately de-aggro the harvester.

Tue, 11/28/2017 - 18:45

Alienf

i tried doing this solo, it

i tried doing this solo, it was hell, and then i get to the boss guy on harvester, and he glitches through the gate so im forced to restart it all because i cant hit the idiot. lol. needless to say i am salty to all hell.

Tue, 11/28/2017 - 19:00

Falminar

You aren't even supposed to kill the Harvester.

It isn't a boss, it drops no loot, it respawns. It's just there to make your life that much worse.

It also can teleport, so if you just walked away it'd get back to you anyway.

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Shroud of Apocrea mission almost impossible to play solo