A strong sword is to deal as much damage to the souls as possible before they despawn in an attempt to get all 3.
MSI can be used but it is not wise to travel fiend/undead levels in any Mercurial set and not every player has access to the BK set.
The Ash of Agni and Voltaic Tempest are excellent bombs to deal with the Scarabs, not only can they deal damage but the status HIGHLIGHTS them on the screen. It becomes much easier to see scarabs in the distance when you can see them smoldering.
2. The dash jump temporarily halts monster agro. (Here it will cause the Harvester to despawn if he is not attacking)
I seem to recall reporting this as a bug [ingame] during the first apocrea. It doesn't particularly seem in the spirit of the game to use this strategy.
Thanks for explaining the bombs. And I too used swords on souls.
But keep in mind that Black Kat Hood (3-star) is easy to get. And an MSI sprite perk is not hard to get either. So MSI+2 or MSI+3 should not be uncommon. But of course MSI is not needed either. There are many ways to beat this thing.
What about other Apocrea farming tips, such as searching systematically, leaving landmarks until the very end, etc.?
Well as for patterns I usually try to follow this one: https://knoji.com/images/user/lawn-striping-pattern.jpg
Landmarks are not needed you just need to put the keys and statues at the elevator and when you find the place it goes use the elevator as your "North star"
The Water and Ember Puzzles are a bit similar but you should give a good run over of the map before attempting to try and get those spots and their locations in relation to the elevator in your mind.
Some graves with have little plants beside them, if you break them they may drop hearts so try to leave them if you have full HP.
On the levels prior to the Plateau try to kill as much as you can till you have 3 HP pills and a Vitapod, if you are rich and don't mind dropping some CR just buy them from Basil before the mission (or is it Vatel? whatever...)
The Harvester is a bit buggy sometimes and may spawn directly on top of you (a real pain)
In this particular set Bomb CTR is a nice sprite perk since that is probably the most vulnerable moment in the whole process. If you run Chaos, VolcDemo, Mad Bomber, (or for some strange reason Full Kat Hiss armor) or have CTR UVs then feel free to use MSI.
@ Skeptic
This whole strategy pretty much evolved from my last year's strategy. Now I just have a Maskeraith and when your party abandons you in the Plateau but you don't wanna leave you figure stuff out......
As a side not this is a pretty tough strategy to do, screw up the timing and you're dead. Since you're the only one here you have to deal with the harvester between dashes and cloaks.
My tactic is pretty simple. Run solo and WRH the graves with the first two attacks. With full black kat (which I'm running right now) you'll kill most of the scarabs, which you can then finish off afterwards. Previous events I ran BKC + radiant silvermail, and had a similar result. Important to attack them from the sides and not head-on. Shield canceling prevents bombies from being too dangerous, and you get a head-start on souls. Hammer is wonderful at tracking souls down so you don't waste time chasing them.
Personally, I prefer a seraphynx to a maskeraith for this event. I don't really get caught frequently(being the aggro magnet in a party teaches you to do that, and additional boredom will teach you how to DVS the harvester to death while not getting caught), as I have MSI: Very High plus dash, shield bash, and hammer dash all available to me to avoid the tentacles or unaggro the harvester. Seraphynx shield allows me to keep being aggressive on the souls I've spawned when the harvester is attacking, so I don't lose any to it because of an awkward spawn or simply forgetfulness to dash.
So, if you go down the aggressive path, seraphynx is more useful. If you go down the defensive path, maskeraith is more useful. Only difference is that if a stray scarab or bombie bolt hits your cloak you're going to get gazed upon, and if you seraphynx shield after being grasped you're going to meet the same fate. Seraphynx prevents the problem while maskeraith gives you a panic button. Really a matter of preference here.
This information is good and all, but all you really need to know is that if the Harvester is spawned in, and you dash (regardless of where), the harvester will despawn, even if it sees you. This means that you only need to worry about the harvester spawning directly on top of you.
If Skeptic reported it as a bug, but it is still in this time around, then it is not a problem. OOO kind of misleads people by recommending doing the mission as a party, but due to this trick it is easier to survive solo. Also, more reliable, since random people might miss souls
I've dashed plenty of times and the Harvester never despawned for me.
Landmarks are not needed you just need to put the keys and statues at the elevator and when you find the place it goes use the elevator as your "North star"
Of course they're not needed. Nothing in this thread is needed. But they are helpful.
And don't put the key next to the elevator. That effectively collapses two landmarks into one. Keep them separate, to help you triangulate your position better.
As a side not this is a pretty tough strategy to do, screw up the timing and you're dead. Since you're the only one here you have to deal with the harvester between dashes and cloaks.
Soloing the plateau is not very difficult once you've practiced it, especially with maskeraith. It's easier than Vanaduke I'd say. Easier than some of the arena rooms leading up to the plateau.
@Fangel
Hammer is a great weapon but is not the only choice (but yes I do prefer to run using one).
Seraphynx is also nice but the Aura has a longer cooldown that the Maskeraith cloak. It can be used instead but it really depends on your playstyle, confidence around the harvester, and well (as mentioned in OP) how bad your lag in the mission tends to get. Not to mention that a more expensive Harness benefits it much more since cooldown is so long.
If you get caught and use the cloak you can get hit by other enemy attacks but a well times shield bump can push back scarabs and bombies tend to all go out together. I tend to run with a tankier shield so if you use the SSB you will have trouble holding off multiple dashing scarabs.
@ Knee
You can tell when a Harvester spawned in by the sounds. I the Spawn/Despawn noise is comparable to a gurgley sink drain.
@ Hex
Has to be solo, when he is in the map, and before he goes into the attack animation. There may be some other factors but it never works if he is already attacking.
@ Bopp
True you can use the key as another landmark, preferable make it the last puzzle and use the key to mark Candles or Lava to help with the Ember and Water Puzzles.
It isn't very difficult but as I mentioned in the OP I have trouble with lag sometimes. You just have to be active and knowledgable. Lag creates issues with shield timing, shield canceling, reaction time to scarabs and bombies, etc. Simply put it's tougher for me.....
Lag can make anything difficult. Even just walking in Haven. Cheers.
Needlers, for me at least, are very effective against freeing the lost souls that spawn from a broken tombstone. While not the most practical when it comes being hunted, if you manage to get a breather, or know how to time dashes properly and avoid the grip attack... you can actually shred through lost souls with just one well-timed, or simply point-blank, charge attack.
So far, I've played this event mostly solo, twice with a fellow friend, and I honestly think soloing this mission is probably the best way to go, as the Harvester will not go after you prior to your world loading, even if you hear it in the background. Every time I spawn in the plateau, it's nowhere near me, which is quite a reliever.
My tools of the trade would be a Valiance, Blitz Needle, and an Obsidian Carbine, coupled with a Swiftstrike Buckler (I'm crazy, I know), Perfect Mask of Seerus, and either the Sacred Grizzly Hex Armor or the Shadowsun Slicker. My sprite has the Handgun Focus II perk, and my two trinkets are an Elite Trueshot Module and the Gift of Autumn. Nothing too 'glass cannon'-y, but still a well-balanced loadout for my tastes.
@Holy
True that
Yeah for apocrea, max dmg guns would be the best loadout imo. You need range for the random floaty souls, and the damage on solo is sufficient. Also, the dash trick makes islt a cakewalk. But whatever works for you guys I guess
I recommend just killing the harvester for fun. The few times i ran through there looking for arenas to spawn, you can just learn to time the dash when circling him at the tail end of his grab range. A few magma/storm driver shots usually do him in - and are great for ticking damage on those pesky souls that wana run while you're fighting him :).
Maybe this is just for those that need to be multitasking get that added mental stimulation...
I've had him insta-spawn right on top of me before though - no fun for sure
Your three strategy points are good. But "need" is a strong word. Most of the items you claim are needed are not truly needed.
For example, if you have MSI+4 or know the AI well, you can simply outrun/dodge the harvester.
Also, maybe you could explain how Ash of Agni or Voltaic Tempest gets used?