Keyes Island Reactor Trial/Strategy

Overview

This is a player-made strategy guide for the Keyes Island Reactor Trial

Map of the Keyes Island Reactor complex with user created markers

Reactor Hope

After players have spawned on the map, the first phase will begin either when players move toward Reactor Hope or automatically after 5 minutes. A cut-scene with Anti-Matter will play unless every participant has already done this trial before. The first goal of this phase is to defeat 30 WarWorks that spawn around the Reactor. When the required number is met, all WarWorks will despawn for a few seconds before the second part of this phase begins. Small boxes of electronics scattered around the base of Reactor Hope will start to glow shortly after the WarWorks despawn. Simultaneously, new groups of WarWorks spawn again. Clicking one of the glowing boxes will bestow the player with a temporary power "Power Cell". This temporary power is needed to fully charge any 6 of the 12 terminals on Reactor Hope in order to re-establish the magnetic containment and prevent the Reactor from blowing up.

The terminals are located on the small walkways pointing towards the reactors core on all 3 levels of Reactor Hope, and all are guarded by small groups of WarWorks. These WarWorks have to be defeated before a terminal can be charged because they prevent players from using the Power Cell power. Each terminal needs 3 charges to be fully recharged. A small message appears over the terminal when the power is used showing it's current recharge level (33%, 66% or full). Power Cells and WarWorks at the base of the Reactor respawn roughly every 2 minutes. The "charged" level of any given terminal is shown by its endurance bar.

After 3 minutes, Anti-Matter will make his appearance and fly around the area, attacking players. Additionally, every 30 second, the whole map is hit with an Anti-Matter Pulse for large amounts of damage. The time of the next Pulse is shown in the HUD. The only safe location from the Pulse is the in-map hospital, so before leaving the hospital it is good to look out for the Pulse timer. If Anti-Matter is damaged by players, the Pulse will grow in strength.

After all 6 terminals have been fully recharged, Anti-Matter will disappear for a while, the Reactor Hope is secured and battle will continue at Reactor Genesis.

STRATEGY: For Reactor Hope, Antimatter does not need to be near the terminals to apply power cells. Only the WarWorks mobs guarding the terminals need to be removed (defeated or pulled away).

Have the league leader designate the following groups of players from the teams:

1) AV Puller(s): This should be one or more tank(s) or brute(s) with taunt. It is this person's job to move Antimatter away from Reactor Hope since he is not needed and will only impeded the process of activating the terminals.

2) Everyone Else: Ignore the mobs on the ground level and immediately clear the mobs guarding the terminals as soon as they appear. Folks with stealth powers can easily obtain the temp powers but a tank or other robust decoy can help distract the nearby mobs while the glowys are clicked. Clear a couple spots in your top power tray so you can see the temp powers drop and don't have to hunt through your power listing to find them. Most leagues clear the entire first floor and 2 of the 4 second floor terminals.

Antimatter needed at terminals? No

Mobs need to be cleared at terminals? Yes

Reactor Genesis

The second phase is pretty similar to the first phase with some minor twists. First, there are no glowing boxes scattered around the reactor's base, but groups of WarWorks containing Goliath War Walkers. These War Walkers will be labeled as Recovery Team Goliath and players have to defeat them to get the temporary powers. Again there are 12 total terminals on Reactor Genesis, guarded by WarWorks, but these guards have a problem with their RFID tags so you can recharge the terminals without defeating the guards. After a time of approx. 3 minutes, Anti-Matter will re-appear. In response to the RFID problem, Anti-Matter uses his override code to prevent players from recharging the terminals. Therefore, once he appears, Anti-Matter has to be near a terminal for the terminal to be rechargeable.

The usual strategy here, since the terminal mobs do NOT have to be cleared, is to have the first six temporary powers applied to six DIFFERENT terminals. Once a terminal is charged with a single Power Cell (33%), Antimatter is not needed to fully charge that terminal, even if he appears before the charging process is complete. With six terminals primed in this manner before Antimatter returns, Reactor Genesis is even easier than Reactor Hope. Once six terminals have been primed, the league can continue to focus on defeating Goliaths (which drop two Power Cells each) and then complete the terminal recharge process as they drop. The AV Puller(s) can simply taunt Antimatter to the street and out of the leagues way if this is completed quickly enough.

If six terminals are not primed before Antimatter returns, he will need to be brought to the remaining unprimed terminals in order to apply the first Power Cell.

After all 6 terminals have been fully recharged, Anti-Matter will disappear again, the Reactor Genesis is secured and battle will continue at Reactor Infinity.

Antimatter needed at terminals? Only after he reappears.

Mobs need to be cleared at terminals? No

Reactor Infinity

The last reactor is no different from the first two reactors, just that this time the temporary powers are stored in locked bunkers. Players have to open the bunkers and get access to the glowing boxes containing the Power Cells. There are three bunkers, one beneath reactor Genesis (reactor 2) and two beneath Reactor Infinity. Once opened, there are WarWorks mobs inside and a single glowing box which drops two Power Cells and a clickable blast door that opens up to provide access to two additional glowing box, each with two Power Cells inside. Thus, each bunker can provide six Power Cells, enough to fully power up two terminals.

This time, all WarWorks guarding a terminal have to be removed and Anti-Matter has to be near the terminal for the players to be able to recharge them. After recharging 6 terminals and securing Reactor Infinity, the Anti-Matter Pulse will stop and Anti-Matter will retreat to the Truck Depot for the final fight.

STRATEGY: Characters with stealth powers have an advantage here. The rearmost glowing box inside the bunker is outside the perception radius for the WarWorks near the front of the bunker. Characters with invisibility or superspeed + a stealth enhancement can easily obtain the power cells from this box, then move diagonally across the back room and hide behind the small wall to click the two remaining boxes.

Most leagues only remove the main door of the bunker unless they are trying for the Bunker Buster badge, which requires the 3 doors of each bunker to be defeated within a few seconds of each other. Once the main door of the bunkers (often just bunkers 2 and 3) are defeated, the league should immediately begin clearing the terminal mobs. Working quickly, it's easy to clear the entire first floor and prime the 4 terminals located there, thus removing the necessity of pulling AntiMatter to those terminals. It's possible for an extremely quick league to clear and prime six terminals during this phase.

If the league splits in half and opens the main door on bunkers two and three, then ignores the WarWorks inside and proceeds directly to clear the terminals, they maximize the chance of not needing AntiMatter. A few stealthers (Stalkers or other invisible types) can obtain six Power Cells per bunker. Thus, in a single pass, two stealthers can fully power up the terminals on the first floor. Remember, the league has approximately three minutes to get the terminal mobs cleared before AntiMatter returns, so if the first floor is cleared in two minutes and two terminals are cleared on the second floor, an efficient league can get those terminals at least primed. If that is the case, the AV Puller(s) should taunt Antimatter to the street, otherwise they should bring him to the floor with the remaining unprimed terminals.

Once successful the pulse damage will be eliminated for the rest of the trial. Proceed to the Truck Depot.

Antimatter needed at terminals? Only after he reappears.

Mobs need to be cleared at terminals? Yes

Fighting Anti-Matter

Anti-Matter will re-appear fully healed (if players did damage him in the previous phases) at the truck depot. His arsenal of attacks is devastating and he is surely no walk-over. Anti-Matter will have the following powers:

1) Entanglement: Each player will be randomly assigned with either Alpha or Beta Entanglement. Players of opposite entanglements close to each other (Alpha near Beta, Beta near Alpha) will to damage each other. This effect stacks so more players of the opposite entanglement inflict more damage. However, this phase of the trial is so fast paced that it is impossible to take the time to really pay attention to this, and any decent incarnate league should have enough healing that this effect is negligible. However, if it is troublesome, simply have Alpha move to the north of wherever Antimatter is and Beta move south.

2) Obliteration Beam: Anti-Matter will command his space station to fire an Obliteration Beam onto the battlefield. For several seconds before the beam hits the ground, a huge green circle will appear and players should immediately leave this circle. Characters caught when the beam fires will be held, then crushed by the beam itself. Players who exited the target circle (big green area) should be careful to not run back into the field as they can still be damaged after the hold phase ended. Also, fliers should try to stay on the ground because the target circle is difficult to see if it is airborne. If a league has six team members with Incandescence, they can use their league teleportation abilities to pull the league into the clear. This is the most common strategy for the Avoids The Green Stuff badge.

3) Disintegration Ray: Probably Anti-Matter's most annoying attack is his Disintegration Ray which targets one player at a time. A warning will appear above the players head that he has been targeted for disintegration. The character will suffer 3 (or 4) hits of increasing damage and if the victim dies (even due to normal combat damage), Anti-Matter will heal from the event. This can be as much as 20% of his total health bar from one single Disintegration Victim and is the main reason for this phase to fail. Thus, if you are targeted with the Disintegration Ray, announce this fact to the league quickly so you can be healed. Leagues with kinetics heals will often have you move directly to Antimatter's location so you can be healed, others with Empathy or similar heals may have other instructions. It is possible, but difficult, to self heal with green inspirations. Regardless, make sure you do not die because it's not worth the risk to have the AV heal to this amount. Players who survive the disintegration will be drained of endurance.

Three times, at 80%, 50% and 20% of his health, Anti-Matter will freeze time and retreat to small bunkers around the Truck Depot. During this event, he will rapidly regenerate health. The event will temporarily immobilize everyone in the league. Use this time to tab and target one of several clusters of terminals around one of the three nearby bunkers. There are 4 terminals around the bunkers (2 on each side, so be sure to clear both sides) which need to be destroyed. Do so as rapidly as possible to stop the regeneration process. Don't be disheartened if the first time he fully heals, it's likely that insufficient damage has been inflicted to stop this.

The order of the regeneration terminal bunkers are: The set closest to Reactor Genesis (and the hospital), then the set closest to Reactor Infinity, then the remaining set.

The moment he starts healing, the freeze will break and players can rush to the bunker for destroying the consoles. When all consoles are destroyed, Anti-Matter's healing will be interrupted and he will fight again.

Thus, the strategy for this phase is as follows:

1) Attack Antimatter with everything you have. Pets, lore pets, you name it. 2) Watch for the green Obliteration Beam targeting circle. If you see it, make sure you don't queue up additional attacks -- the animation time usually guarantees you will be caught in the beam. 3) Watch if you are targeted by the Disintegration Ray. If you are, announce this fact and follow the league leader's instructions as to what to do. 4) Use the "freeze time" window to tab across the available targets and determine which bunker the terminals are at. Move quickly to them (follow command works well) and blast them with everything you have.

Good luck!

Helpful Macros

As the temporary powers can be gained several times, a macro can make the usage of these powers more easy.

/macro Cell "target_custom_near terminal$$powexec_name Power Cell" - targets the nearest visible Reactor Terminal and queues a Power Cell for activation

External Links

• Keyes Island Reactor Trial Guide on the City of Heroes Forums