Lord Recluse Strike Force
Overview
 Future of Freedom | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Contact | Lord Recluse |
| Zone | Grandville |
| Suggested Team Size | 8 players |
| Level Range | 45-50 |
| Merits | 25 |
| Badge |
Servant of Recluse Master of Olympus Annihilator Master of Lord Recluse's Strike Force |
| Enemy Groups | |
The Lord Recluse Strike Force is the fifth of five main Strike Forces on City of Villains. Lord Recluse is located in the The Tangle neighborhood of Grandville, within the main building of Spider City, inside the Patron room. Lord Recluse Strike Force is the premier Strike Force in City of Villains. The Heroes spawn at fixed levels (51 to 53 depending on foe) regardless of team composition, so the majority of your team will need to be level 50 in order to succeed.
Merit Rewards: This activity awards 25 Reward Merits.
Missions
Agree to Form a Strike Force
Briefing
I have witnessed your journey through the Rogue Isles. You have clawed your way to the top, performing all manner of vile act to prove yourself stronger and more capable than the rest of my Destined Ones. You have even bested one of my trusted lieutenants, a feat few have done before. In the end I thought you a liability, having used Project DESTINY to see into the future and witness a possible death of the world - my rightful domain! - at your hands. But you have a depth of villainy and strength more powerful than even I had imagined. You discovered my contingency plans and sent me a very clear warning as to what would happen if I enacted my plans, and it is something I will not forget!
You know of my plans for Project DESTINY, to engineer my eventual victory by manipulating the timestreams of the future, eliminating unfavorable results until only my ultimate triumph remains! And you know the greatest threat to my goals is that epitome of foolish heroic virtue, Statesman! Statesman. Long has he been a thorn in my side, him and his legion of heroes who constantly attempt to thwart my operations at every turn. If you help me deal with the troublesome Statesman, I will asure you a place of honor in my future triumph!
Mission Acceptance
There is an Arachnos flyer ready to take you to your destination. As soon as you get there my operatives will start jamming transmissions so they don't let anyone know you have the security codes. We also have an advance force there to assist you in the assault.
Unnecessary Solicitation
The Arachnos flyer is waiting for you outside of Grandville. Head to the Longbow island base and get those security codes!
Mission Objectives
- 5 Bombs to set: located in towers and lab; waypoints mark locations
- Kidnap Technician: spawns randomly in towers and lab; will catch up if left behind
- Defeat Crimson: located in Laboratory
- Destroy 12 Chasers: located randomly above the island's airspace
Enemies
Notable NPCs
- Agent Crimson (Hero)
- Numerous Longbow Ballistas (Elite Bosses)
Agent Crimson:
- Put the base on full alert! I want those suckers taken down!
- I spent too long in that Arachnos prison. It's time for some payback!
Debriefing
With the security codes in hand you should easily be able to overcome the worst of the Vindicators' base security!
You have done well, Strike Force Name!
Strategy
The map for this mission is similar to that of the Longbow base in Nerva. The team will zone in at a submarine just off the island housing the Longbow. Three waypoints will be visible on the map, marking the entrances to Tower 1, Tower 2, and the Laboratory, respectively.
Longbow Chasers are randomly placed over the map, which can be found fairly easily to anyone with travel powers.
Bombs are located in both the Towers, and the Laboratory. Setting the final bomb will spawn an ambush.
The Technician is located within one of the Towers, and will spawn an ambush containing a Longbow Ballista upon rescue. The Technician will not follow the team if stealth powers are turned on (especially group stealth powers), so remember to turn them off.
Crimson awaits with a retinue of Longbow Ballistas inside the Laboratory. Depending on the team, it is usually wise to take out all the Ballistas before engaging Crimson, as Ballistas are Elite Bosses while Crimson is a Hero.
Assault Malta Base
Briefing
Now that we have the security passcodes, we can continue with the next stage of our plan! Malta has proven to be an important asset to Arachnos. Their advanced weaponry and skilled personnel are excellent, and they are the perfect mercenaries to use when Arachnos wants to disassociate themselves from a delicate operation. However, they sometimes overstep their bounds, especially when it comes to acquiring knowledge aiding them in the defeat of super-powered beings. Not long ago, we found a Malta infiltration team in one of our Project FURY research labs, downloading information on the project. Some of their infiltration team must have escaped with the data, because some of our Arachnos spies have discovered Malta has developed a very interesting weapon based on Project FURY theoretical technology - the Orestes Rifle! This potent techno-magical weapon is designed to dispel mystical enchantments derived from the Well of Furies, such as those derived by Ms. Liberty's magical belt! This should prove very useful in the upcoming battle.
Malta has developed a robots and weapons manufacturing base in Warburg, a hotspot for armed conflict between heroes and villains. The base is headed up by a robotics engineering genius known as Slinger. While the main goal is to obtain the Orestes rifle, Slinger must be punished for his involvement in theft from Arachnos. Head to the Malta base, destroy their research databanks, steal the Orestes Rifle and take down Slinger!
Mission Acceptance
Malta has many secret training enclaves spread throughout the Rogue Isles. Because of the theft from Arachnos they chose to develop this weapon on the mainland. There's an Arachnos flyer waiting to take you there. Once you have acquired the Orestes Rifle you will need to hurry - once it is removed from the special Malta power feed, it will lose power quickly.
Unnecessary Solicitation
Steal the Orestes Rifle from Malta!
Mission Objective(s)
Once the Orestes Rifle is in your hand, you will be unstoppable!
- Assault Malta base
- Steal Orestes Rifle
- Defeat Slinger
- Steal keycard
- Destroy main frame and guards
Enemies
Notable NPCs
Slinger:
- They're destroying our base! I bet they're after the Orestes Rifle!
- I've got to stop them! But how?
- I know! I'll use the Temporal Disrupter! Even if it doesn't stop them, it'll show them what happens to people who mess with Malta!
- Take that, ya varmints!
Ambush! There will be an ambush of Battle Drones when Slinger reaches 75% health.
"DESTROY ALL INTRUDERS!"
Ambush! There will be an ambush of Battle Drones when Slinger reaches 50% health.
"DESTROY ALL INTRUDERS!"
Ambush! There will be an ambush of Battle Drones when Slinger reaches 25% health.
"DESTROY ALL INTRUDERS!"
Ambush! There will be two ambushes of Battle Drones when Slinger reaches 0% health.
"DESTROY ALL INTRUDERS!"
"DESTROY ALL INTRUDERS!"
Defeating Kronos Class Titan awards the Master of Olympus Badge.
- Hero
- You have destroyed the Kronos Titan, showing Malta that the Heroes of Paragon City defend their turf.
- Villain
- You have destroyed the Kronos Titan, showing Malta that you are a force to be reckoned with
Debriefing
The Orestes Rifle! Use it well, Strike Force Name. It is a powerful weapon!
You say that you got hit by some sort of experimental weapon? We will need to fix that before you fight Statesman. Though I despise that foolish hero, I know he is powerful, and you will not survive against him while you are in this weakened state.
You are indeed a worthy ally of Arachnos!
Ranged, Special (Temporary Power)
The Orestes Rifle was created as an experimental weapon by Malta as part of their ongoing agenda to control the heroes of the world. It is designed to nullify enchantments granted by the Well of the Furies. Once removed from the power feed in Malta it will only be effective for a period of 5 hours.
Expires in 5:00:00 of real time
Speak with Operative Grillo
Speak with Operative Grillo
Mission Briefing
The Orestes Rifle should prove most effective against Ms. Liberty, but the condition the Malta Temporal Disrupter left you with may jeopardize our eventual goal of defeating Statesman! I have spoken with Operative Grillo at Project DESTINY, and he has related some interesting information regarding your current state. Go speak with Operative Grillo, then follow his orders necessary to removing the temporal disruption!
Mission Acceptance
Operative Grillo said his people discovered something rather interesting in his investigations into Project DESTINY.
Unnecessary Solicitation
Do not delay!
Mission Objective(s)
- Speak with Operative Grillo
Ah, you must be Strike Force Name! Lord Recluse told me to expect you. You have a most interesting condition which I can explain. The Temporal Disrupter the Malta agents hit you with caused your team to be weakened considerably by causing you to be 'split in two' along the timestream. That is, part of you is here in the present, while part of you is in a possible future. The reason we know this is we recorded a temporal anomaly in one of the future timestreams and further investigation showed us your team in this future with a temporal 'trail' leading to the present! Fascinating, isn't it?
In any case, you're probably wanting to be rid of your condition. While it doesn't have an immediate effect upon you, the longer you go without fixing it, the more chance of it causing irrepairable damage to you. Lord Recluse gave his command to do whatever is necessary to remove the temporal disruption. We have the coordinates queued up in the Destiny Portal to the future timestream where your other half is. Going to this future and returning to our timeline will allow you to 'sync up' with your future selves and then with the present, thus removing the temporal disruption. There is a catch however. In this future, the Freedom Phalanx are putting up a strong resistance to Lord Recluse's plans. As part of Project DESTINY, we need to remove this future possibility. Enter into the Destiny Portal and eliminate the Freedom Phalanx resistance from this future reality!
Defeat future Freedom Phalanx
Mission Objective(s)
- Defeat future Freedom Phalanx
Enemies
Notable NPCs
Manticore:
- Keep fighting! We need to survive!
Sister Psyche:
- Manticore, we can't hold out much longer!
Manticore:
- I know, Sister Psyche. We're out of H-Boosters, and they're the only reason we've held out this far.
Sister Psyche:
- Justin, how did it come to this? Statesman dead, Synapse and Citadel missing, Positron powering Lord Recluse's ultimate weapon...
Manticore:
- It doesn't matter now, Shalice. All that matters is we survive and keep fighting...
Back Alley Brawler
- Stay frosty, folks. We got some trouble.
Numina:
- It looks like more of Recluse's villains!
Manticore:
- Great. Just what we need.
Sister Psyche:
- Will they ever stop?
Manticore:
- Keep it together, Shalice!
- The Freedom Phalanx is not about to let the world fall to these scum!
Debriefing
Excellent! You have shifted my eventual victory that much closer to becoming reality!
These 'H-Boosters' you found in this future reality are most interesting. I will put my top scientists onto unlocking their secrets.
Completing this mission awards the Annihilator badge.
- Heroes
After the beating you handed them, the Freedom Phalanx is very glad that you're on their side now.
- Villains
Nice smackdown of the Freedom Phalanx. Lord Recluse is pleased with your performance.
Assault Vindicators Base
Mission Briefing
Now that you have recovered from the temporal disruption, it is time now to obtain the bait for the cursed Statesman! You have the Orestes Rifle and the security codes to the Vindicators' base. Go now and kidnap Ms. Liberty!
Mission Acceptance
Ms. Liberty is the leader of the Vindicators and will not be taken down easily, especially in the defense of her base. Proper use of the Orestes Rifle should suppress the more powerful of the enchantments granted by the Well of Furies!
Unnecessary Solicitation
It is only a matter of time before the Vindicators discover their base is vulnerable. Assault the base at once!
Mission Objective(s)
- Assault Vindicators base
- Steal access code
- Find base key
- Defeat Ms. Liberty
Upon Exit of Mission
Arachnos operatives arrive to take away Ms. Liberty!
Enemies
Notable NPCs
- Malaise (Hero, level 51)
- Swan (Hero, level 51)
- Luminary (Hero, level 51)
- Mynx (Hero, level 51)
- Valkyrie (Hero, level 51)
- Ms. Liberty (Hero, level 51)
Swan:
- We all know what's going down. One of our Longbow island bases was attacked by a gang of viscious criminals from the Rogue Isles, and they got hold of our security codes!
- By the look of it, they've already breached the base. What's more, one of our Warburg warzone operatives reported they might be after Ms. Liberty with some sort of special weapon!
Valkyrie:
- Do not worry, Swan. The Vindicators will not let these villains get to Ms. Liberty!''
Ms. Liberty:
- Those Rogue Isles villains are fools to break into the Vindicators stronghold! This is where the power of my Liberty Belt is the strongest!
- For Liberty!
Debriefing
Excellent! Now that we have Ms. Liberty, we can force the final confrontation with Statesman!
Defeat Statesman and Freedom Phalanx
Mission Briefing
The final confrontation with Statesman is at hand! I have sent word to my arch-enemy in Paragon City, setting the terms for the conflict. He is to clear Atlas Park so only true heroes and villains may clash! He will show up with some Longbow agents to cordon off the area so citizens would not get hurt. I also allowed the Freedom Phalanx to aid him - it will make his eventual defeat all the more satisfying! Go now and defeat the greatest of heroes, the mighty Statesman and his precious Freedom Phalanx!
Mission Acceptance
This will be a great triumph! To have Statesman publicly defeated will be a glorious victory!
Unnecessary Solicitation
Why do you delay? The defeat of Statesman is so close I can taste it!
Mission Objective(s)
- Defeat Statesman and Freedom Phalanx
Mission Objectives
- Defeat Statesman and Freedom Phalanx: located underneath Atlas Globe
Enemies
Notable NPCs
- Numina (Hero, level 53)
- Sister Psyche (Hero, level 53)
- Manticore (Hero, level 53)
- Positron (Hero, level 53)
- Synapse (Hero, level 53)
- Citadel (Hero, level 53)
- Back Alley Brawler (Hero, level 53)
- Statesman (Hero, level 53)
- Ms. Liberty (Hero, level 51, NPC)
Statesman:
- No... Ms. Liberty!
- How dare they do this? Ms. Liberty stood only for truth and justice!
- Curse you, villains!
- If you want a fight, you've found one!
Defeating Statesman awards the Archvillain badge.
You have claimed victory over the greatest heroes of Paragon City, the Freedom Phalanx!
Debriefing
The mighty Statesman and his precious Freedom Phalanx are defeated! It was a great and glorious battle - you have proven yourself to be a true Archvillain! Let it be known that Lord Recluse does not forget services rendered to him. My scientists have finished analyzing the 'H-Boosters' you acquired in the future timeline. They are temporary power boosters created from the being known as the Hamidon! Arachnos science managed to stabilize the temporary synthetic compound, making them permanent. These I give to you for carrying out my task - use them well!
You have broken Paragon City's 'best.' Let everyone fear you!
Master of Lord Recluse's Strike Force
If you successfully complete the Lord Recluse Strike Force with challenge settings of zero defeats (no one on the team can be defeated throughout the entire strike force) and no Temporary Powers (other than the Orestes Rifle power a player obtains), you will receive the following achievement badge.
You have proven yourself Master of Lord Recluse's Strike Force.
Souvenir
Statesman's Helmet
Lord Recluse recruited your Strike Force to publicly defeat the greatest of heroes, the mighty Statesman! His plan involved kidnapping Ms. Liberty to force a controlled confrontation with Statesman. In order to get Ms. Liberty, Lord Recluse had a plan to storm the Vindicator's base, which involved getting hold of their security codes to shut down their base defenses. This involved assaulting a Longbow island base, planting explosives destroying their transports, and kidnapping a Longbow technician to access the necessary codes for you. Once this was done, you returned to Lord Recluse.
The next step was acquiring a weapon to use against Ms. Liberty. Lord Recluse discovered that Malta had developed a weapon known as the Orestes Rifle based on information they stole from Project FURY. The Orestes Rifle was capable of suppressing magical energies derived from the Well of the Furies, such as those Ms. Liberty calls upon from her Liberty Belt. You broke into a Malta weapons lab and stole the Orestes Rifle, but were hit by a Temporal Disrupter during the assault causing you to be drastically weakened.
Lord Recluse sent you to speak with Operative Grillo, who told you the temporal disruption you were experiencing was because you were essentially 'split in two', with half of you in the present and half in a future timeline. Grillo tracked the temporal anomaly to the future, and allowed you to travel to this future through the Destiny Portal as long as you won this future for Lord Recluse by defeating the future Freedom Phalanx. You faced down Citadel, Sister Psyche, the Back Alley Brawler and Manticore in this future reality, bringing Lord Recluse's triumph closer to becoming a reality.
Returning to the present, you carried out your plan to kidnap Ms. Liberty. Assaulting the Vindicators Justice Fortress, you fought Swan and Mynx before facing down Ms. Liberty herself.
Lord Recluse set the terms of the battle. You set out to Atlas Park to face Numina, Synapse, Positron and the mighty Statesman himself! Returning to Recluse, he gifted you with stabilized synthetic Hamidon boosters, taken from the future Freedom Phalanx you fought earlier on the other side of the Destiny Portal.
Strike Force Strategies
Lord Recluse's Strike Force has earned much notice and generated much discussion amongst the City of Villains community, given its high difficulty and entry threshold. Thanks to this discussion, there are a number of viable strategies discussed - even though most proponents of one strategy voice dissent at the validity of the other strategies.
Ignoring the controversy for now, the Strike Force has a number of possible strategies to make play easier, and for some players, make defeating the Strike Force feasible.
General Strategies
Listed here are some basic tactics employed by many players. Some of them are regarded as exploits, and others signs of design problems, rather than as entirely legitimate tactics in their own right.
Time Saving Tips
Spawn levels: Recluse' contact should have his/her reputation set to the lowest possible. Additionally, the team might also consider using the lowest level teammate for this role. The heroes will spawn at defined levels, but the Longbow and Malta agents key off the leader's level.
Zone time: Another option is to have the teammate with the fastest zone time be Recluse' contact, so that (s)he can reach Recluse and grab the next mission as quickly as possible. The rest of the team can meet directly at the launch point for the mission without having to head into Grandville's center.
Critical Powers
There are certain powers that many teams won't consider starting the strike force without. Again their necessity is a subject of much debate on the forums. It is quite possible to finish the mission without any given powerset in this list.
Stone brutes: They have the highest resistance of any brute defensive set, and have the highest survivability against heroes.
Kinetics corruptors: Stone brutes move incredibly slowly, and they in particular need kinetics to help them out. In addition, kinetics heals have a -regen component and speed boost is widely regarded as one of the best buffs in the game.
Radiation corruptors: The debuffs in this set are amazingly strong, and given the huge regen and resistance base that the Freedom Phalanx starts with, they are in high demand. The debuffs in this set serve much the same purpose as Chemical Burn warheads from Warburg (see below).
Thermal corruptors: The buffs and heals in this set are nice, and particularly if you have a non-stone brute for holding aggro on the last map, you may need them for sheer survivability. The debuffs are also welcome although not held to be as critical as Radiation's.
Dark corruptors or masterminds: Tar patch is a great AoE resistance debuff, and resistance debuffs seem to be a critical component for succeeding against the ridiculously high hit point and regen base of the Freedom Phalanx.
Vengeance: This is a critical component of rush strategies that require huge initial buffs (see above). While vengeance does not, by design, stack (i.e. subsequent casts after the first have no effect), it is possible to exploit a timing bug to stack it nonetheless, by casting simultaneously. Apparently the window for stacking is the length of the cast time for Vengeance, which, while small, is nonzero. The key to stacking vengeance is having everybody with the power set it on auto, while targetting a dead teammate, out of range of the power. Then, have someone with Recall Friend teleport the dead teammate to the group, and the Vengeances set to auto will fire simultaneously. This is considered an exploit and devs have stated it will be fixed one day.
Stealth or Grant Invisibility + Teleport: There are several opportunities to stealth and TP through parts of the first five missions - particularly the middle of the second and fifth missions. Using a stealth + teleport strategy can help keep the team moving quickly and the faster you reach the last mission, the fresher and more alert you will be.
Temp Powers
Shivans: The Shivan Shard is a temporary power acquired by completing the Shiva Strike Mission in Bloody Bay. Each of its 5 uses summons a powerful Shivan Decimator, which is an Elite Boss capable of going toe-to-toe with even the Freedom Phalanx heroes. With some practice a team can fully equip itself in about ten minutes - well worth it for any team build. Starting this Task Force without a full complement of Shivans is usually considered foolhardy.
Warburg Weapons: These are quite powerful, but extremely tedious to gather; the instructions are detailed in the article Missile Launch Mission. It's easiest to use teams of three, where you grab three technicians at once and trade them off to whoever is getting the nuke at the time. Gathering these in advance is highly recommended, since large teams getting techs all at once just get in each others' way, and overall, more time is wasted before the strike force proper can start.
Here are the possible warheads and their capabilities, listed in order of desirability:
- Chemical Burn - Ranged AoE Foe -Res(All), -DEF: These are critical for lowering the Freedom Phalanx resistances so that your damage output exceeds their regeneration.
- Biological Mutagens - PBAoE, Ally +Regeneration, +Dam. These can help buff the damage from Shivans as well as teammates. Shivans do huge amounts of damage at base; with damage buffs they are unbelievable.
- Nuclear Blast - Ranged AoE, Extreme DoT(Energy), EMP, Foe -End, -Recovery. Combined with Bio and Chem, these can dish out a huge amount of damage all at once.
The warheads really shine when they are stacked, and the bio warhead shines when it buffs the Shivans. Chemical warheads are such a huge debuff stacked that they can cut the time to defeat an individual hero down into half or less of the length of time a set of inspirations lasts - meaning you can max your defenses with inspirations and get a good part of the way through the Freedom Phalanx before they wear off. See the "Warhead Rush" strategy above.
Enchantment of Serafina: The Enchantment of Serafina is a team buff awarded to the leader of a successful Ice Mistral Strike Force. Activation not only grants resistance to psychic damage, it also adds psychic damage to all attacks - both very useful for the final battle with the Freedom Phalanx. The buff has 10 charges.
Accolades
Demonic is very commonly used by aggro brutes to increase survivability.
High Pain Threshold and Born in Battle are desired for any character to help survive the high burst damage from the Freedom Phalanx.
Inspirations
You will definitely need to use Inspirations throughout the whole Strikeforce. You can get them from the Arena in St. Martial, from the vendor in Ouroboros, or from base storage. Most useful are going to be defense, resistance, and life inspirations.
With the issue 7 changes, characters with no other defensive powers will max their damage mitigation from purple inspirations on the 4th small luck. After that characters should start using orange inspirations. Brutes and stalkers may have additional defense that makes the 4th or even 3rd luck wasted. Both purple and orange inspirations are recommended for the final encounter because it is so brutal.
Mass Hypnosis Strategy
There is a way to single-pull every hero in this Strike Force by having a Mind Dominator. The information below is quoted from a now-deleted post on the Official forums.
- I will only list my tactics for the last mission, as it can be applied to the 3rd and 4th as well. You will need to 6 slot Mass Hypnosis with 2 acc / 2 sleep / 2 recharge to start. If you can get 3 Acc/Mez SHOs and 3 recharges you will be golden. Also have hasten with 3 recharges obviously.
- On your team you will need 1 brute of any type, and a minimum of 2 /Kinetic Corruptors. After that you just need damage dealers; Stalkers, Masterminds, any Corruptors, and more Dominators. Still try to have the debuffs and heals, but the Kinetic's heal alone seems to be enough.
- Start off with targeting Citadel, as he is most centered among the heroes. Then pop megalomaniac and force of nature. Stacking as much duration as you can is most important on first few pulls. Jump up and hit Mass Hypnosis, and keep at it until you are sure all heroes are asleep. Then have a corrupter pull Numina to start, avoid flying because even though Statesman is asleep he can still call out for Liberty
- As long as Statesmen doesn't say "This is for Liberty" the heroes won't join the fight if they wake up from a missed sleep. However as soon as Statesman says "This is for Liberty" any heroes you miss with sleep, and awake, will attack. You must use your single target sleep on any missed heroes after this point. The single target sleep does have a damage componant, so heroes will sometimes get one shot in. Always make sure you are at full health to avoid being one-shotted.
- You can pull heroes in any order, but if Statesman does call for Liberty, I always go for Synapse after he says that. The reason being if I have to single target him he runs so fast he can run out of aoe sleep range fast.
- The /Kinetic Corruptors MUST keep the Mind Dominator with 2 SB at all times, or Domination will stop and the heroes will wake up, and it becomes ugly.
- This method has given me a 100% completion rate on the LRSF.
Rewards
Upon defeating the last member of the Freedom Phalanx, each member of the team will be presented with a reward choice table. Players may choose either 25 merits, or a Synthetic Hamidon Origin Enhancement. Players have an opportunity to clear space in their enhancement trays before accepting the reward.
To prevent "farming" of the LRSF for the rare recipe, the option to take the recipe will only be enabled once every 24 hours.
Because of the high number of hero opponents, running this strike force is a great way to earn the Hero Slayer Badge, which is a prerequisite for the Force of Nature Accolade.
Defeating the Kronos Titan in the second mission awards the Master of Olympus Badge, along with Monkeywrencher Badge progress from the numerous Zeus Titans.
Completing the fourth mission awards the Annihilator Badge.
Defeating Statesman in the last mission awards the Archvillain Badge.