Silver survival notes

[mysticrose]

This is my list of notes for how to start off playing CO on a silver account.
Some other guides cover character creation, ATs, tutorial walkthrough, etc, so I'm just going to focus on some tips to help new players up and running.
I am by no means an expert since I am a Silver myself. This is a work in progress and I'll edit as I play the game.


* Playing with Friends
- Skip this section if you're all by yourself. ;(

- So you made it through the character creation and are prime for heroism. But where the heck is your pal? If you're playing with friends, call him/her/it on your cell and turn up the speaker phone so you can coordinate.
- Form a team.
1) In your chat box, click the blue on the lower right hand corner. Select Find Team.
2) In the team window, click on the search tab. Set level to 1-10 and type your friend(s) hero name in the text box.
3) Select your friend in the list and click [Invite].
4) After your friend accepts, there will be a team options box. Click deny for now.
5) Add your friend to your list so you can find them easily when they're on. To do this, click your friend's icon and select 'Add friend'.
6) If the team is lucky, all team members would be on the same instance. If not, your friend's instance is indicated next to their name like Millenium City #10. Decide which instance the team should be in. Teammates who aren't in the chosen instance must switch. To do this, click on the globe icon in the compass at the upper right corner of the screen. This brings up a map. At the bottom of the map, there is a button called [Change Instance]. Click on [Change Instance] and pick the instance that team decided
on. You can't go to an instance that is already full. The Instance list will show all the possible instances to go to and how many heroes are in it. Just pick one that has room.

* 1st Missions
- After entering Millenium, head straight and go to the NPCs with (?) over their heads. Do their missions.
- If you are in a team, view the team's list of missions by clicking on the iphone like icon under the (C)hampions icon. Click on the Team tab. Pick a mission and click the [Set Primary] button at the bottom of the missions window.
- Missions are indicated on your map as a green circle if you are solo and as a orange circle if it is the primary mission of the team. If you have trouble seeing where the mission is, click on the globe icon on the compass to see the entire map.
- The global map takes up a large portion of the screen. Once you know where you need to go, you can create a marker to help you find it. To create a marker, click on the map. A red 'X' will appear. Close the map and head towards the X by centering it on your compass.

* Gear
Only some Silver heroes get healing powers and even so, get these healing powers at higher levels. However, it is possible to craft healing items. Unfortunately, you need a crafting skill of 45 to do so. To prepare for this, select Arms items for rewards.

* Powaa Spam
- As a new hero, you get 2 powers. The 1st power builds endurance and the 2nd deals more damage. Assuming the 1st power is mapped to the 1 key, and 2nd to the 2 key, you'll be hitting the keys like so:
211121112111

* Ouch
- There really isn't a way to heal in the tutorial. The best you can do is minimize the damage by blocking. Most of the Qualar have an attack rhythm, ie, attack, 1 sec pause, attack, 1 sec pause, etc... Block during their attacks and fire away in between. With
blocking (the Shift key), the key spam looks like:
21S11S21S11S21S11
- There is a mission where you have to inject Enraged Qualar. The injection has a 5 second recharge, so I suggest injecting and blocking:
Inject, Block 5 sec, Inject, Block 5 sec

* Ironclad
- This is a good way to collect Arms items to increase your crafting skill. This mission is repeatable. I usually run this mission until my inventory slots are half full.

* Black Talon
- Try not to run to the sides of the room. You'll attract fire from droids.
- When you see blue circles on the floor, move away. An attack is going to that spot.
- If you're running low on health, go outside the room and recover. Black Talon will stay in the room.

* Celebration
- Before you go to Renaissance, talk to the other heroes behind Defender for a perk.

* Renaissance
- Do a crafting tutorial. for Arms. Select Alien specialtyIf you pick Arms, I suggest Alien Specialty for convenience since the other ones are really far away from the city center. When you have 45 crafting pts, buy the Low power heal blue print from a vendor. Don't bother crafting a bag. Silver accounts are limited to 1 bag unless you buy a bag slot from the C-store.
- Do the Renaissance Hero mission so you know where the bank is.

* Although you can get missions in the city, I suggest going to Canada to level instead. Deposit your extra gear in the bank or sell it before going to Canada. You'll get a lot of drops there and will need the space.

[kiljaedenas]

I wouldn't say to always select Arms, or even the Alien specialty within it. The specialization that someone chooses should be based off of what type of archetype they are. I'd recommend that before you choose between the three specializations you go to one main trainer of each type and check what blueprints are available. Set the search filter so that it does show Unavailable items, that way you can see what you'll get access to in the future.

As for the sub-specialization (such as Fighting Styles, Alien Physiology or Munitions for Arms) that's purely a matter of personal preference. The names and descriptions of the items you can get from that differ, but stat-wise they are identical. Personally, I play a Behemoth which is an unarmed walking slug-fest, so I chose Fighting Styles. I personally like the thought of a near 8-foot-tall heavily muscled winged demon who fights unarmed is also a highly trained martial artist

[Paul]

I'd like to point out I've never spamed my power key. It always auto fires

[knowledge3754]

Great guide, the part about instancing and finding your friends is very useful, especially since the in-game help says almost nothing about teaming. And no one I team with ever sets the primary mission! Aggghhhhh!

Since, as a Silver player, I can only have one bag, I've been banking all my components and selling everything else that I don't need right then.

I agree that crafting should be a theme choice. Do you even really need to get to the specialty trainers before you're at a high-enough-level to survive the journey? My ninja chose arms with fighting styles. None of the other choices made sense for her character. And once they get to a certain level (11?) heals can be bought from the guy in RenCen next to the tailors

[tkolter]

BIGGY if you Teleport and a partner or partners don't DO NOT rush ahead . I was playing my Soldier with a Blade that could Teleport and I could not cover my partner or she back me up when they did this.

Its a nice power but for me one must go in smart doing team play.

[mysticrose]

Thanks all for the feedback! Some more notes:

kiljaedenas : I wouldn't say to always select Arms, or even the Alien specialty within it. The specialization that someone chooses should be based off of what type of archetype they are.

-- I didn't mean to imply that this is THE BEST specialty to pick. My apologies if this confused folks. I have edited the post to say for convenience, it's useful to have the Alien specialty close to Ren Center.

knowledge3754 : And once they get to a certain level (11?) heals can be bought from the guy in RenCen next to the tailors

-- Thanks for the tip about the vendor. He is indeed next to the Tailor with the label 'Westside Store'.
Since a toon below level 11 can't buy the heals, an alternative is crafting them. If the toon had saved enough items from running multiple Ironclad from the the tutorial, the toon can bring up the research skill up to 45 and purchase a heal blueprint. Then the toon can craft their own heals.

UPDATE: Westside Store has been replaced with Karneeki the Great.

[mysticrose]

Teams
The team may have different levels, but in order for everyone to get XP at the end of the mission, the mission holder must share the mission.
If the mission is lower level than your toon, you must sidekick to the mission level. Otherwise, the mob spawns to your level.

Mob XP
You get no XP for mobs 4 or 5 levels below yours. However, these mobs can still do some damage. If you stand there, they will kill you in a few minutes. (Bye bye stars...)
I tried to do some Desert Missions which are level 14-16 on a level 20 toon, and got no XP from the mobs. I did get mission XP upon completing the mission. However, the time it took to do the lvl 16 mission is just slightly less than the time it takes to do a lvl 20 mission. From a XP/minute stand point, it is better to do missions +/- 2 levels from your current level. If the contact gives you a mission 4 or 5 levels below your current level, I suggest you drop it.

[mysticrose]

Speed Quests

Speeding quests is completing quest for the xp reward in the shortest amount of time.
In order to accomplish this, the following is recommended:
- Teleport
- Mars Stims, healing and shield, 5 each
- Crafting skill of 45+ to craft heals, shields, pets and other buffs

Teleport is highly recommended, but it is possible to avoid mobs with other travel powers.

Why speed quests?
1) My friend is 10 levels higher than me! I need to catch up.
2) I want to farm epic gear, so I need to get to 40 ASAP.
3) My play time is limited, so I want to get as much XP as possible with my time.

If you agree with any of the above, then read on!

Why does speeding quests help with leveling?
Assuming that the xp reward for a henchman kill is 50-100 xp, for a quest that gives 10000 xp upon completion, the equivalent amount of kills is 100-200 henchmen. Assuming that it takes 20 secs to kill 1 henchman, it will take 33-67 mins to get 10000 xp worth of kills.

There are a lot of quests in the game, and by selecting ones that are easier to complete, a player can level faster.

The following quest types are listed in order of ease of completion: (In my humble opinion, but your mileage may vary...)
1) Click items on open map
2) Defeat boss on open map
3) Defeat 1-20 enemy on open map
4) Click items on indoor map
5) Defeat boss on indoor map
6) Escort on open map
7) Find drops on open map

Quests to avoid
1) Kill 100+ of enemy X - only take if the other quests involve them or contact won't unlock other missions unless it is completed
2) Escort on indoor map - requires clearing the way to the exit

Quests on open maps are easier to do since you can scout the area and find the objectives. I was able to complete a click 8 items mission in 5 mins and collected 12000 xp just by scouting and avoiding mobs.

Sometimes a contact will give you quests that are near each other on the map. Get as many as you can handle. Instead of running back and forth from the contact after completing one quest, complete all of them to save travel time.

Indoor maps are more difficult because there are limited escape routes and hiding places.

General strategies for Indoor maps
1) Mark the entrance
- Click on the map where you entered and a red X will appear. Some maps don't include an exit door in the last room with the boss. In that case, you must run back to the beginning.

2) Use the Map, Look
- Use teleport to travel from corner to corner.
- before walking into another room or corridor, look at the map for red arrows, >. Those indicate enemies. Some enemies are on patrol, so wait for them to walk away from you.

3) Creep
- For click item objectives, it is sometimes possible to click the item without alerting the mob nearby. Approach the item from behind the mob and try to do behind a crate or other object that is large enough to hide you. Creep forward slowly until the blue button appears and click.

4) Mob control
- The game appears to be balanced around 3 villains = 1 hero. If a room has a lot of enemies packed together, pull some of them through a door or corner.
- To do this, secure the room or corridor that you are currently so you have room to escape. Next, pull some of the mob from the other room from the door. Try to hit the ones that are farthest from the center of the mob.
- For example, in the mob cluster of 9, hit the one at the edge of the cluster, marked (M), from the door indicated by [ ].
M M M
M M M
M M (M)

----[ ]----
.....Hero

- Let the mob run to you and use the door to break line of sight. The door only has room for 1 or 2 bodies to pass, and if the enemy stands in the doorway, he will block his buddies. The hero should not stand in the doorway, but on the side of the doorway.
- For example,
M1 M2 M3
M4 M5 M6
M7 M8 M9
----[ M0 ]----
..............Hero

- In the above example, only enemies M0, M8 and M4 can see the hero. Since M0 is blocking the door, the rest can't get by and effectively, can't attack the hero. At this point, the hero can now use an AoE to damage the mob and hopefully kill most of the mob.

- If there are just too many, activate defense buffs like the Mars Shield or any that you've crafted before. If you crafted a pet summons, use it. Other powers that will stun or entangle will be useful.

- When things look grim and you're at 1/4 hp, hit tp and flee like a beach. Wait for the mob to reset to their original positions and try again.


Speed Teams
This only works if everyone on the team is a good speedster. Otherwise, the clueless one will either:
- kill whatever he runs into thus not focusing on the objective
- attack/run into the 1st mob in an indoor map and exposing everyone else

If you are doing speed teams, I suggest the following:
1) If anyone is higher level than the mission holder, sidekick to the mission holder before entering an indoor map. Otherwise, the mob may spawn at the level of the highest member on the team.
2) Level range of the members must be no more than +/- 3 from the quest level. If a team member is way too low, like -5 from the quest level, s/he will get crappy quest xp.