Trap Map: Unification
Name | Unification |
Minimum level | 140 |
Maximum number of participants | 3 |
Size of a party | main + 2 |
Time limit | 40 min |
Total number of vehicles allowed | 1 |
Entry fee | 18 M |
Total upgrade cost | 20 M |
Catapult cost | 15 M |
Reward | 12 x Chieftain’s Treasure (“240 gc”) |
XP victory bonus | 2,275,000,000 |
When you consider doing this mission it can be assumed that you are an old hand at TBS missions. You know what to do. Go forth and kill and don’t run into traps, the whole thing. And of course you have your sworn-in TBS mission troupe which is invariably the same.
You want to succeed in Unification? Forget it all. Ok, not all – but a lot.
In this mission your task is to befriend the Zulu. Friendship is gained by NOT killing Zulu monsters while they still try to kill you. At the start all is normal. There are a few monsters and a few traps. Do as you always do and kill them.
Then a cut-scene interrupts your routine, announcing a test phase. From now on you must not kill any monsters which have “Zulu” in their name (that would be mainly Zulu snakes). At first that is no issue but they will appear quite massively after the “Second Test” is announced. That lasts until a cut-scene comes near the boss area and all Zulu monsters disappear.
During the test phase (the phase where you must not kill Zulu mobs) you have obviously a problem. This problem won’t get better if you factor in the magic the Zulu snakes can cast. So it is time for radical measures: Take an empress or a monk (yes, that old weak bastard) with you. I would recommend an empress because she is better in dishing out damage later on.
These Zulu mobs can’t do real harm when you are in holy guard state (or empress’ blessing). As a side effect you could walk through traps unhindered but there aren’t any when the test starts. You have to avoid being stunned, too, so take awakening scrolls VI with you.
My party consists of cannon main, sheriff and empress for this mission. When the test phase begins, the routine is as follows:
1. Turn 1:a) Sheriff moves forward but not too far and spams awakening VI.b) Cannon main moves forward and attacks non-Zulu monsters (if any).
c) Empress moves forward and blesses the whole group which stands usually in a vertical line so that the blessing gets to all members. The formation I strive for is: Empress stands at the top of the queue, followed by cannon main, followed by sheriff. If I can I use the stockades to block the Zulu monsters. You want to be not surrounded totally by Zulu mobs because then you would have to kill one of them. |
2. Turn 2:All toons advance and kill if needed (or drink potions if necessary). |
Rinse and repeat until test phase is at an end.
If you are not holy guarded you are utterly screwed and your party will be wiped out: first petrified (frozen/stunned), then killed slowly.
The catapult moves far behind, so far behind in fact, that the Zulu monsters don’t attack it.
If you get totally blocked you may kill a Zulu monster or two or even three. But be careful to kill no more than three (or three times, I am not sure which exactly triggers the fail condition of this mission). If you do it right you should come through with at most killing one.
After the test phase ends all Zulu monsters disappear. To be accurate, the test phase does not really end but the nasty “Don’t kill Zulu”-condition goes away. All what is left is the Final Test. That is a boss fight, and you know how to do it.
I move a bit back to heal up and get ready, then I attack the boss (the boss usually is quite eager to be attacked and moves conveniently up to you).
The boss has two forms, like some of the monsters in the Mysterious Saloon or the 1000 year old python at the end of the Hwarang quest. While the second looks quite sturdy he is only a minor improvement of the first form, as far as deadliness goes.
Here is a video – with a lot of mistakes, but I commented them so they may even useful to learn from them.
wow. By descriprion it’s a great mission. I’m eager to play it. But in Russia we will wait this mission whole year.
By the way. Sorceress is cost such money?
p.s. sorry for my bad english. i’m only learning it now.
In this mission u dont need oracle. In thebes, most people solo this mission without using oracle…only reason is Boss always aim the sethed merc…Common merc they bring is empress and odys…Odys is great tank with HG and have debuff. Just giving the idea
Interesting idea. I have no ody and my cannon main is already a good debuffer but bringing another mercenary (say: sheriff) seems to be attractive. That said I have no problems killing the boss with the tactic described. In that way the boss does nearly no damage. He can’t use his magic on cannon main and empress who stand directly before him. He can’t do it on oracle and catapult who stand far away. What he does is his ridiculous physical attack. So I think both are legitimate ways to do it.
TO answer the above question Mwindo is not available in iAO yet, beause they planning to release her during 2nd maintenance which is on 7th December together with Santa Villa event
One question, Claudia
Do you use traps time to time or just advance with your party, resisiting all the attacks of the zulu monsters all the time until they dissapear?
I don’t use traps because all my mercenaries get continuously hammered at. I am afraid that would cancel the trap setting.
i have this question in mind since long time a go, what if you have Queen as your mercenary? She has an upgraded-seth will, she has blessing which decreasing combo every turn, and she has protection which regenerate you health.
would you take this mercenary as a first choice rather than Oracle?
I won’t speculate about Roro Kidul until she is here (with “here” being international AO). I was too often surprised about what mercenaries can and cannot do compared with the hype about them. But if Roro works out as promised she is a very interesting candidate to replace my oracle, that is true.
Hi Claudia
Do you know how many Zulu Serpents can be killed before failing the mission?
I have killed 3 of them and still sucess, but no idea if one more die…
(I killed them by accident when casted Devastation Shell on them…)
I don’t know more than I have already written in my article about that mission.
hi claudia…happy xmas
Hi Ellen, I would wish you the same if you would care about it. Instead I wish you a happy new year when your country gets the next one.
Hi great page. I have a question though:
Is it not a viable way to decrease pressure by using arrest on the zulu mobs with your sheriff? Do they have enough hp to support this? Or maybe traps… a net trap could get you 3-4 free-of-harrassment turns – unless they are as fragile as the npcs in journey home for example…
No, they are not THAT fragile. I will try arrest in the next run. Traps would work, but keep in mind that thay hammer on your toons the whole time. Chances are great that this would cancel the setting of the trap.
Lately I tried somewhat successfully to use my catapult to bind 3 or 4 Zulu serpents. Let it trail behind you so that some separate from the main mob and try to kill your cata. My cata lasts 4 to 5 turns and that is a welcome respite.
After it play on without cata (or build another one as failsafe, if you feel you could fail).
I tried my thories just a bit ago and they worked nice. To tell the truth I saw an opportunity in what you marked as a mistake in the video. When there were a 2 squares wide “channel” between the wall and a barricade. You said it was a mistake to stand to the wall. While usually that’s true, if the channel is only 2 squares wide you can actually clog it with 2 mercs. Lets say main and empress (I advise a diagonal “clog as teh mobs are axe type so this way you get minimal damage). Main keeps them awake and empress keeps them unfrozen. The third merc can lay 2-3 traps ahead before next mob gets within sight then you can follow on with the “stand in a line” pattern But the enemy mobs will be trying to follow you through a minefield from then on. Usng Net trap 3s I could catch 5-7 mobs turns at these narrow spots actually making the run a cakewalk. I usually had 2-3 turns when I just walked without anything around me even at test 3. Arrest helped too when only one was on me.
Clau,
Do you know if the mobs after the boss are avaliable to kill?
If you notice, there is a easy-to-destroy fence, and 9 mobs ahead. I saw a boss like a tiger, 4 snakes and 4 something-else mobs. Any ideas?
I killed four mobs over the wall of this “post-boss” room. They are very, very easy to kill but nothing special happens (and no special drop). I can’t kill them when I confront the boss, though. Because I have to replace my oracle with empress killing the boss in his second form takes a while, and when he is dead, the mission ends. I can’t afford to let him live only to chase the monsters after him.
I assume that the original design of this mission has been dropped, and the part which was dropped involved those monsters.
Nive, ty.
Sorry. I mean: Nice, ty.
yesterday i hit like 6-7 burning traps, i got trap even in the second test area :((
and because i don’t have empress and my monk is left behind, somewhere around of level 121, i decided to go with gunM, tarkan and oracle. the only problem is that tarkan cannot hold the aggro and i cannot understand why. if he running around to “collect” aggro, it works for 1 or 2 turns but on third for sure he will lose aggro and my oracle or main will be attacked. it.s not a big issue but still … sometimes they are lucky and are not frozen, sometimes mobs get caught by my traps to … but in general i don’t like this situation. How can i improve tarkan’s aggro capability?
By using your monk and not the oracle. Really… Unless you attack the mobs or spam offense scrolls they will sooner or later loose interest and go after the nearest mercs. And you cant attack or use scrolls as you fail by default if you kill them… A level 121 monk is enough mobs are weak . But you see this is the only tbs devised to need a monk/empress. Tarkan wont be enough or will be a torture. And you can finish only by luck. I dont like if my tbs deoends on luck. Well taking tarkan-monk-gn main is pretty awesome I think (would be only better with roro)
Senex, i understand your point of view, but …. i’m not uber geared, i rely more on attacking instead of defending myself, so my armors are only evil +1, +2 and the oracle is a must for me in almost every mission at boss fight. If i go without her then i’ll need a huge amount of res scrolls which i cannot afford.
going with gunM, oracle and monk can be a pretty long fight with the final boss because i’ll lack attacking power … so, i prefer to improve tarkan if is posible, she is imune to be frozen
+2 evil is enough as the zulu mobs have very low damge. Boss fight can hurt but its greatest damage source is the aoe – monk helps. If the third merc is a defense debuffer the boss fight isn’t at all long if you have evil +4-ish weapons on tarkan and gun main(maybe you use the event weapons from coupons then you really shouldnt have a problem). – So your weakness of defense only applies till the 2nd test phase is announced. Thing is, You CANT make it sure that they always attack the Tarkan. And if you cant you will freeze – then killed slowly probably not getting a new turn ever again. Dispell scrolls wont be enough as they dont give the turn back to the frozen mercs.
According to the Objectives, you are allowed to kill up to FOUR serpents before failing, and you receive another turn upon killing 1 and 3.
You get always another turn upon killing one serpent.
I am not sure that the stated objectives are true. For me they were but I got reports of players who failed killing the fourth serpent.
I didn’t geta turn on killing the second… i dint nee dit just saying that the 1-3 might be true…
Found an interesting video about an attila soloing the tests http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLZkbyyQg88
I heard one of the best merc there is Attila. They cant stop it with skills. Need only run to end, and the main can go after Attila.
But my tactic is maybe better. I just go forward, and if there is a lot of mob, my witch cast a meteor shower. Everybody die, and i got 1 warning. You can kill almost all mob with 2 warning.
Well When I used aoe to clear them up I lost the tbs all the same if more than one died in the balze… Doesn’t really matter if it is to scrolls or meteor or whatever… if yo kill 3 you are dead..