OP to Infinity - OmarFPG's Journey through Spec Ops 13

http://i.imgur.com/9WPOvW9.png

We got a patch yesterday, I was expecting it but I wasn't at home until just now, I'm glad to see finally Spec Ops 13 is here. It's been 3 weeks without new content and I've been bored as hell, haven't played the game more than leveling heroes and remote ops, and some PvP while it was active. I'm drifting away from this game as time goes by, but I'll give it another try to the blogging deal.

Today's Topic: Special Operations 13 - Infinity

As usual, here's the Patch note.

Introduction

A bit more than 3 weeks to do it, I should be done within a week, as usual the hold back will be the researchs, I don't like skipping tasks (not a gold buyer), and the wait will go along with the saving for isos, that may be a hold back as well, luckly they're dropping from allies and fights this time.

Overall, this one seems a fun Spec Ops, comes with a Lockbox Hero a cool set, and as far as I know it goes along with the current Marvel Storyline which I find awesome, if I were in deep into reading the comics I'm sure I'd enjoy this 10 times more.

Task List

Don't look further, our awesome wiki is always ready with the Task list, here you go, take a good look at it, know it and plan your path basing on it. Now, as for me, you can see my progress through them below.

There are three task chains this time:

• Back in Black: The usual 25 task / 3 researchs / 3 star everything / kill every boss and get the hero.
• A Matter of Life and Death: unlocked after the first research, 6 side tasks for lockboxes.
• Spec Op 13: Crafting Task: unlocked after the third research, 1 gathering task / 1 crafting task, for the 1/4 piece of the set.

Lockboxes

7th set of boxes, the usual question is what do they got? Which old LE come from them? @ScarlettOlivia can tell us that. Sad thing is nothing new, though if you haven't gotten them, that's another chance. I'll just worry for the covers.

There are 66 boxes just from the tasks, and there's a Group Boss which can yield more of them.

Group Boss

Introducing Thanos, the 4th Group Boss, as usual with the 5 classes, he isn't that hard imho, I've fought him on every class now and it wasn't that much of a pain, with the counter the counter class thing or anything in special.

Rewards are: 5% damage = a Shard, Kill him = 1/3/5 lock boxes + 1 for each Thanos from your friend and 10 from yours.

(Just remember the Group Boss Etiquette, don't kill them in one go, leave some for the others)

Deploys

Epic Boss is located in mission two, here are the required heros:

135	135	90

• Total Command Points required: 360
• If you're in need of Command Points you can always check PKB's guide on farming them.

Efficient Paths

• M1:
  • Medium -> Medium -> Mini Boss -> High -> High -> 2 Bird for task 5 (80 Isos)
  • Medium -> Medium -> Low -> High -> High -> Medium -> 3 Bird (80 Isos)
• M2:
  • Medium -> Medium -> High -> High -> High -> 3 Bird (70 Isos)
  • Epic run. (160 Isos)
• M3:
  • All the fights and 1 Mini Boss + 2 Bird (90 isos)
  • All the fights and 2 Deploys + 3 Bird (90 Isos)

LE Heroes

I always enjoy new content, specially getting to know new characters, and a Tactician and a Blaster are always welcome to increase my HP and Attack in PvP, yes indeed.

Black Bolt

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/7374/4y1d.png

In one hand, he looks really nice with great skills and all, plus a team deffensive passive which can grant up to 50% damage reduction, in the other hand, all of his skills have cooldowns except one, two of them start cooled down, while the second one grants you an extra turn next round and he's a tactician, so I'll see him spamming lots of L1 eventually due to the others being in Cooldown. Seeing it has Deadly Crits, it may be a good idea to buff up his Accuracy, I guess. (he starts with 4 bars, great)

L6 starts with two rounds CD and L9 with three, meaning you have to make it to rounds 3 and 4 for them, if you do, you most likely will crush your opponents souls, no doubt of that. But I like quick fights.

I'll work on a full review for him later.

Thane

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5966/4ya7.png

Ahh, welcome to our 7th Lockbox hero (I hope I can get this one quick). Interesting character, even more giving the fact that this is a brand new character for the Marvel universe, debuting here in our game, cool.

I loved his L1's Amber, despite the fact that I'm not a fan of the build up type of skills, this one is worth it with just 1 application, spamming it more would be just a good plus, and I come to think it'd be easier with Ares by his side, by looking at the rest of his move set, those two could make a great combo imho.

Has a neat shield pre loaded from his passive (which will be removed on 1st round by SoA or Rescue np), and can add it to others with his L2, his L6 is great but has 2 rounds CD and starts with it, and his L9 can totally turn upside down a fight.

I'll work on a full review for him later.

Inhuman Collection

This is how I got Thane.

Total Lockboxes needed: 160.

• 8 Covers

• 8 Dupes

Order of appearance (new covers in bold): 5 - 4 - 8 - 7 - 8 - 4 - 3 - 3 - 6 - 4 - 3 - 6 - 8 - 1 - 3 - 2.

Same as above but sorted by cover in order:

• 1
• 2
• 3333
• 444
• 5
• 66
• 7
• 888

Screenshot because can:

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5671/obqz.png

LE Weapons

Another thing I love about Spec Ops is the weapons, they usually come with lots of goodies for PvP. I myself was so eager to get myself a tanking weapon, this Spec Ops brings many.

Armory of Attilan Set

Back to 4 pieces sets, no duplicates, no extras, no Epic Drop being part of the set and also, for the first time, the 4th piece is in sale from the beginning. I like that we can see the whole set by just entering the SO, makes you ponder the use of it hence deciding wether to farm for it or not (or to buy the gold piece)... Aaand we got a strongly deffensive set. Me gusta.

Guardian of Attilan (Armory of Attilan Set - 1 of 4)

Reward for the Crafting task (unlocked after the third research). Do you want to become Rescue? Get pieces 1 and 2. Mix with Piece 3 to perform counters, mix with piece 3 and 4 to perform follow-ups.

Half tanking comes from this, this one takes care of single-target melee attacks, and has High crit resistance.

I hope Protector of Attilan is a shield buff (it'd make perfect sense actually), since this one has Shield Slam it'd help, if not np, the Guardian of Attilan gives you a shield when attacking. There's also Winded to annoy Scrappers and any kind of follow-ups.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7826/cu30.png

Watcher of Attilan (Armory of Attilan Set - 2 of 4)

Daily Roulette piece. Do you want to become Rescue? Get pieces 1 and 2. Mix with Piece 3 to perform counters, mix with piece 3 and 4 to perform follow-ups.

The other half tanking comes from this. This one takes care of single-target ranged, with resistance to Energy damage (blasters and such).

This is really one of the best weapons from the set, even by its own it's great. With the half tanking, and Curative Watch. Now, I don't know if this one clears Stuns or not, we'll have to get one and see. Finally, it also applies Distraction to all enemies, despite being a single target weapon.

http://i.imgur.com/PqaYA8p.png

Protector of Attilan (Armory of Attilan Set - 3 of 4)

Task 20 reward piece. A Quick Action. which grants inmunity to Cornered, Off-balance and Pinpoint effects for 1 round. Mix this with Pieces 1 and 2 to make them counter, throw in piece 4 and they (pieces 1 and 2) will also can perform follow-ups. AND it grants Rebuff to the agent, a must have, seriously, luckly it's a freebie.

2 rounds cooldown meaning you can use it once every two turns, which is ok, we don't like nerfs.

The only downside is the Damage reduction, but I guess it's ok for a shield / tank, and all the counters will end up doing more damage anyways.

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/570/bkes.png

Might of Attilan (Armory of Attilan Set - 4 of 4)

64 gold buy piece. If I get the daily roulette piece, I may consider buying this one, so I get my first 4/4 set ever, and this set seems like a good one to begin with, if only this piece were more integrated with the rest of the set.

This one on its own has lowest damage from the three attacking pieces, but it has Ignore Defense and places Targeted, plus it heals you. Not so bad. The rest of the set works descent with this; with Protector of Attilan (the buff from piece 3), and this weapon, you can perform follow ups when using pieces 1 or 2. Maybe they could've added inmunity to Winded on Protector of Attilan when using this, to complete the inmunity.

Sadly this weapon per se doesn't beneffit from the rest of the set in any ways, it just makes two pieces of the set beneffit from it by the use of another piece, so I felt it a bit off, almost not a part of the set. They lacked that little detail imho. I may just use SoA or Sinister Scepter instead.

http://i.imgur.com/OiiMT4m.png

Boss Drops

The looks/design for this weapons are awesome. As for the use, the Epic Drop one is really worth the farm.

1. Sunspike: Melt Armor is always good, now if the target is shielded and burning, it'll hurt with Exploits Shields and Combustible.
2. Cruel Glaive: Bleeding + Cruelty, a new bully buff.
3. Solar Storm: Magnetized based weapon. Permanent inmunity on agent, 2 rounds for allies and places Magnetized to all the enemies. It's also Subtle.
4. Twisted Gift: Dark Sigil 2.0 ♥ AoE Guaranteed Hit with Dark Fortitude + Twisted Gift is awesome and I'm farming for it.

Researchs

No researchs wasted with duplicated pieces of the set, good.

• Attilan Cudgel: ok, maybe 1 research wasted. Not impressive, seriously there's nothing to discuss here.
• Attilan Mace: now we're talking. If you don't want two pieces to tank, get this one. Same as piece one from the set it has Shield Slam and Winded except it can tank all single target attacks and it doesn't have Guardian of Attilan.
• Guardian of Attilan: listed in the set section.

Tips and Stuff like that

If you're not into the blog/journal kind of walkthroughs, this is the right section for you. I'll just highlight the goodies here.

Isos

• Get into Mission 1 to get your initial 440 Isos. (Don't collect any Daily Gifts or Allies Maps prior to this)
  • After that, check the freebies page.
• Finally, here's an useful guide to get more Isos by @TheRavenHeart.

Tasks

• Always check the Task List to plan your progress in an optimal way.
  • Here's the task list again, my progress through them is below.
• Most likely you won't be able to 3 Bird everything on the first run, since the tasks tend to require to fight Mini Bosses, either to pin them down, or for team up purposes. Don't worry about that, you'll do more runs anyways to 3 Star everything for Task 24.
• There are some tasks that are 'Freebies' (you may be able to complete them without the use of Isos)
  • Task 3 (Use 2 Distress Calls): this can be done anywhere. Just remember to always save some Distress Calls, they're always needed for one of the first tasks.
  • Task 4 (Complete a Deploy): can be done anywhere as well.
  • Task 9 (Get 2 Stars of Mastery in Mission 1): if done right, you can clear M1 with 2 stars in a single run after task 5.
  • Task 12 (Fight 5 PVP Battles): a no brainer, go practice PvP :)
  • Task 15 (Collect 20 Unstable Iso-8): this is a good one, you don't waste isos, you get isos.
  • Task 17 (Fight Thanos 3 Times): check your allies maps, free of energy and isos fights.
  • Task 18 (Get 2 Stars of Mastery in Mission 2): if done right, you can clear M2 with 2 stars in a single run after task 13.
  • Task 19 (Use Dr. Strange's Teresing Boost 2 Times): if you have Strange, you can do it anywhere, practice counts. If you don't have him, you can go to S1C7M5, he's a team up there.
  • Task 20 (Win 3 PVP Battles): yet again, another PvP one, practice again!
  • Task 22 (Collect 5 Inhuman Lockboxes): if you pair this one with Side Task 1, it'll be a freebie, by clearing Task 21 you also clear Side Task 1, which grants in reward 6 lockboxes, and you need 5 for this one. Voila!
  • Side Task 1 (Defeat any 4 Mini-Bosses in Spec Op 13): done by clearing M2 and M3 for tasks 10 to 21.
  • Side Task 2 (Use Thane's Sealing Touch 3 Times): if you have Thane already, though there's low chance on the early stages of Spec Ops.
  • Side Task 4 (Defeat Thanos with a Score over 70000): if you manage to pair this one with Task 23, and 3 Bird him for big numbers score, you're good to go.
    • Score Challenges aren't really that hard, just 3 Bird and get counter classes for the bosses
    • Nevertheless, here's a great guide from @PKB to ease you into that.
  • Side Task 5 (Fight Thanos 5 Times): go to your allies maps again.
  • Crafting Task (farm 50 Shards): done by clearing Group Bosses, up to 5% each.
• Don't skip tasks with gold, price is ridiculous, and they're usually easy to do, or cheaper to use the gold to complete them in other form, clear examples of this:
  • ​Task 15 (Collect 20 Unstable Iso-8): Skip with 20 gold, or you can just use 2 pieces of gold to buy them, you know? Playdom such a troll.
  • Task 22 (Collect 5 Inhuman Lockboxes): Again, skip with 20 gold or buy 5 lockboxes at 1g/piece.
• Well, there's only one exception to the rule, you can skip task 25 if you don't have the required heroes for deploys.

Group Boss

• Group Boss Appears after the first research.
  • Add daily/active allies to ensure more group bosses in your map.
  • If you're in need, you can find some here in the add me page.
• Remember to fight your Group Boss at least once when you spawn him, to be sure to be able to collect your 10 Lockboxes rewards.
• Be a good guy and don't collect your rewards right away, if you leave him there, your allies will be able to face him with low life and kill him easily.
• Take note that Group Boss has to be at least at 5% health so you (or your allies) get a Shard.
• Remember the Group Boss Etiquette, don't try to kill from 100 to 0 your friend's Group Boss, leave something for the others.
• Turn order always matter, say for instance you have some who can put Flanked, or any stat boosting, you'll want everyone to benefit from it right? So far I've seen turn order goes like this: Top -> Bottom -> Middle -> Boss.
• Don't pop your CDs on round 1, since Thanos will use Black Hole (SoA like skill), wait for this move then let everything proc.
• @Techparadox got some good strategies for every class right here.

Lockboxes

• Always open Lock boxes 10 by 10 when in need of new covers, it guarantees you'll get one.
• ​There are no proveed trick to get you a secure new unique cover, but Math tells us going 10 by 10 is safer.
• Are you being unlucky with duplicate comic covers? Here's something from @Titeuf24 to cheer you up.

Daily Progress

21/09/2013 - A slow start

I'm just getting home (since yesterday) and feeling really tired from the week, spec ops started yesterday so I'm 1 day behind already, but it's ok, I'll have time later. I'll just worry to reach and finish first research as soon as possible, to get my Group Boss up and running.

First off, as in any spec ops, go to mission 1 to get your 440 isos and "unlock" the SO, then check the freebies page (there are 5 right now, check back every monday. Oh, and don't forget to check on the CP and the gold link /wink) and collect Daily Gifts / Allys Maps.

Here's an useful guide to get more Isos by @TheRavenHeart.

http://i.imgur.com/j67jFq4.png

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2424/1zzj.png

Check, check, check aaand check; got extra 100 isos total to kick off this SO with 540, good.

Today's Progress:

1.  A.I.M.-less (Defeat 5 A.I.M. Soldiers): Piece of cake, 2 Medium fights and you get 8 of them.

• Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
• Resources: 20 Isos, 20 Energy.

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/3540/uay2.png

2.  Mean Green (Defeat a Mini-Boss in Mission 1): Defeat either Abomination or Green Goblin in Mission 1: Tribute or Gauntlet. Since only Abomination is up, he's going to be the one to put down.

• Reward: 1000
• Resources: 20 Isos, 10 Energy.

http://i.imgur.com/iDtVE5h.png (Let me tell you about a thing or two that are in dire need of patching...)

3.  Strength in Numbers (Use 2 Distress Calls): This one could be a freebie, but since I need to clear up some path to the boss, I'll work it on the SO anyways, Two Hard Fights, and good thing is Boss is open now.

• Reward: 200 XP for the Agent
• Resources: 20 Isos, 20 Energy.

http://i.imgur.com/4uGTsfg.png

4.  Keep the Peace (Complete a Deploy): Tip goes like "More help is needed on the ground to get the civilians clear of the area. Complete a Deploy in Mission 1: Tribute or Gauntlet". And I'm like LIES, you can do it anywhere, so 12.2 and just 10 Energy, no Isos.

• Reward: 1
• Resources: 10 Energy.

http://i.imgur.com/HaWgY9U.png

5.  Darkest Before Dawn (Defeat Proxima Midnight): The first confrontation with the Black Order is against their greatest warrior. Proxima Midnight is the Boss of Mission 1: Tribute or Gauntlet.

New boss, I really like the Artwork and even the sprite. Good thing is, since the tasks only required to kill 1 mini boss, I can two bird this one for a better score, and easier 4 staring. Bad thing is I had to iso for the first time use Black Panther (don't mind me, he's actually ok).

• Reward: 1000
• Resources: 20 Isos, 10 Energy.
• Note: don't mind overkilling her, she'll resist death and fly from the fight. Twice.

http://i.imgur.com/e2A93nb.png

6.  Always Watching (Research the Vigil of Attilan in the Lab): Research the Vigil of Attilan to complete this task.

First pit stop. 8 hours wait, and my bed is calling me. :)

• Reward: Vigil of Attilan
• Resources: 60 Isos, 100 silver.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1784/0i6r.png

(7 hours 55 minutes later...)

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5701/gmx.png

22/09/2013 - Second Wave

(Daily roulette win: http://prntscr.com/1srjp5)

Ahh the joy of having active allies, I just unlocked the Group Boss and have 13 of them to fight.

http://i.imgur.com/jMV8XkR.png

But I'll mind them later, first things first, daily progress until I reach the 2nd research.

Today's Progress: 7.  The Mad Titan (Complete a Battle with Thanos): Fight Thanos either on your own map or on your friends' maps for free. Thanos respawns every 72 hours.

I of course pick mine first to get the respawn timer running. I can see he drops the shards for the 1st piece of the set. You also unlock the the LB side quests after the fight.

• Reward: 1
• Resources: 10 Energy, 20 Isos.

http://i.imgur.com/oti0yfU.png

8.  Demonic Diversion (Defeat 6 Demons): Demons can be found in Mission 2: A Strange Twist.

Now I have to consider if I'll run for Epic on the first go, I think I'll go for it, since I only have to bring down one mini boss, so I can still 2 bird the boss, and I could use every score I can get to reach 4 stars quicker. This task took me 2 Mediums and a Low since I felt lazy to go for a High, and I'll clear the map anyways. Did 3 deploys as well to advance on the Epic.

• Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
• Resources: 30 Energy, 30 Isos + 30 Isos on deploys.

http://i.imgur.com/EgITpfz.png

9.  Mission Accomplished (Get 2 Stars of Mastery in Mission 1): Complete missions to add points to your cumulative score. Achieve a high enough score to earn a new Mastery Star!

Freebie if you did everything right. I 2 stared this on the first run.

• Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
• Resources: Freebie. Yey!

http://i.imgur.com/BvRu6y4.png

(Done after task 5)

10.  Bolt From The Blue (Use Black Bolt's Royal Flight 3 Times): Royal Flight is Black Bolt's second ability. Black Bolt is a Team-Up in Spec Op 13 Mission 2 and 3.

Great Playdom, making you use a 2 rounds cd skill 3 times. At least it got me enough time to stack some of his passive on all three members of the team and use his L9. Awesome.

PS: 1/4 for the first task of the side tasks.

• Reward: 1000
• Resources: 20 Isos, 10 Energy.
• Note: I catch the Team-up / Team page glitch again, beware.

http://i.imgur.com/2vRIOGD.gif

(Emma Trolling Tony like np xD)

11.  Hammer out Danger (Create the Attilan Cudgel in the Lab): The Attilan Cudgel can be researched after acquiring the Blueprint: Attilan Cudgel. Got it after last task, so...

• Reward: 1000
• Resources: 80 Isos, 100 Silver.

http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/7302/cm9v.png  Time to wait 1 day, and help out my friends with their Group Bosses / farm Lockboxes.

PS: I derped out and killed my own Thanos instead of allies, luckly I realized my mistake on the 2nd run (or third since first one was on the task) and killed him quickly, so just wasted 40 isos, and I got my first batch of 10 boxes / first cover, did some more allies bosses and got another 40 boxes, got already 4 covers, 1 dupe, and still plenty of Thanos to kill, plus farming shards.

This sounds good.

23/09/2013 - 23 hours and 55 minutes later...

http://i.imgur.com/avQXSa3.png

And I almost, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalmost derp out again, collected the 50 daily gifts, then I remembered I needed 20 isos for task 15, I still got allys map to clear up so I'm good to go, no need to waste 2 gold.

Today's Progress:

12.  Versus (Fight 5 PVP Battles): Compete in PVP to test your skills against other players. Hint: Practice matches count as battles.

Easy start for today, just 5 practices, no need to even win this, though I picked a "super player" (people with high ratings and low bonus) and wiped the floor with him 5 times. Srsly, how does that people have such high ratings?

• Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
• Resources: Freebie! :)

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/1671/e1mg.png

(A "super player", at least this one had some heroes and all L12)

13.  Curbing Corvus (Defeat Corvus Glaive): The second confrontation with the Black Order is with the cruel and cunning Corvus Glaive. He is the Boss of Mission 2: A Strange Twist.

I still had to do two deploys, so I sent Psylocke and Wasp on them, did a Hard fight and faced Corvus. He was along a mini boss, so that's 2/4 for the first task of the side tasks.

• Reward: 2000
• Resources: 50 Isos, 20 Energy.
• Note: Same as first boss, don't mind overkilling. I don't like this.

http://i.imgur.com/hLhT7cE.png

(If you insist...)

Now, I'll have to take a break here and don't go M3 and continue with Task 14 right away, but I'll continue in M2 and pay my first visit to the Epic Boss first. 2 Hard fights, 1 Low and Dormammu here we go. This is such an awesome Epic, totally reminds me of the Premium mission of Dr. Strange, and the reward weapon is pure epicness, I want it.

Resources: 50 Isos, 40 Energy.

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/3397/fypk.png

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2017/vlsf.png

(I can totally see myself farming this roulette until the end of time)

14.  Sibilant Strike (Use Black Bolt's Whisper 2 Times): Whisper is Black Bolt's third ability. Black Bolt is a Team-Up in Spec Op 13 Mission 2 and 3.

All right, back on track, M3 it is. Cleared two Hard fights and a Mini boss popped, but Thane as a team up, so I did another Hard fight, two Medium fights and map at 81%, finally it pops, it's ok since I have to reach the boss anyways for a later task (unless you're short on Isos, in that case I guess it's best to run M2). But with only the two mini bosses and 5 deploys left, it made me realize I'll have to pick deploys if I want to three bird next time.

I'm also 3/4 for side task 1.

• Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
• Resources: 70 Isos, 60 Energy.

http://i.imgur.com/xf1QzWh.png

http://i.imgur.com/Hle5k8n.png

(Srsly is this guy a masochist?)

PS: First time for Magneto (or any lockbox hero so far) deploy! I guess I'll send him in the next round and see if it's enough to three bird, but most likely I'll have to send at least two deploys.

http://i.imgur.com/iAIeP56.png

15.  Instability (Collect 20 Unstable Iso-8): Unstable Isotope-8 can be found in normal combat, as well as rewards from deploys and boss fights. You can also get some from your friends!

Lol time for daily roulette, reload aaand....

• Reward: 2000
• Resources: Freebie! or +20 Isos actually, lol! 

http://i.imgur.com/MbqkMnQ.png

(Just in time!)

16.  Hammer out a Warning (Upgrade the Attilan Cudgel to the Attilan Mace in the Lab): The Attilan Mace can be researched after acquiring the Attilan Cudgel.

Now the research and I'm done for today.

• Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
• Resources: 120 Isos, 100 Silver.

http://i.imgur.com/uyt3XgQ.png

(See you in two days, awesome tanking weapon... I've been so eager to get one and it is now 48h away)

There's still plenty to do, this will keep me entertained for a few days. :) Right now I'm mostly waiting for all the Thanos Group Bosses to respawn and start the killing spree all over again. I'm at 4 covers 2 dupes as I write this.

25/09/2013 - I need moar isos! 

And the goddam roulette keeps giving me Iso Crystal, not Unstable Isos :(

Anyways, just finished the last research task and unlocked the third task chain, luckly I was aware of it already. And I have 24/50 shards right now so I'm almost halfway there.

http://i.imgur.com/k9zEeLR.png

(click to find in store? lol I wish)

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1945/svb7.png

(easy peasy, if you have lots of active allies)

I have my way very well planned for today, I think I can make it up to task 23, then I'd need a third run of everything for tasks 24/25 and some of the side tasks as well.

Today's Progress: 17.  Eternal Struggle (Fight Thanos 3 Times): Fight Thanos either on your own map or on your friends' maps for free. Thanos respawns every 72 hours.

I did respawned mine, and fought him once, just to be sure he won't be done by the time I want to face him (it has happened to me once in the previous spec op xD)

• Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
• Resources: 20 Isos, 10 Energy (or freebie if you don't fight yours).

http://i.imgur.com/UY4vngI.png

18.  Binary System (Get 2 Stars of Mastery in Mission 2): Complete missions to add points to your cumulative score. Achieve a high enough score to earn a new Mastery Star!

Done in the first run.

• Reward: 200 XP for the Agent
• Resources: Freebie if you did everything right.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4388/y5y2.png

(Done after task 13)

19.  Righting the Wrongs (Use Dr. Strange's Teresing Boost 2 Times): Teresing Boost is Dr. Strange's second ability. Dr. Strange is a Team-Up for the Epic Boss of Mission 2: A Strange Twist.

You can do this one outside Spec Ops, if you have him take him to practice PvP, if you don't, go S1C7M5, I'll do a practice run, then another 3 for the next task.

• Reward: 1
• Resources: Freebie if you have him, or you do S1C7M5.

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/2031/ahod.png

20.  Victory (Win 3 PVP Battles): Compete in PVP to test your skills against other players. PVP requires completing Chapter 1 Mission 4 of Story Mode.

Time to use my brand new Attilan Mace! :)

• Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
• Resources: Another freebie. :)

http://i.imgur.com/HXRrrF0.png

(I just wish I had the inf Power armor, or that the new set of armors debuting next season are actually better than the Aegis one)

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I have to go to work, I'll continue this later, maybe I can do some progress in there as well.

...

Just woke up, after work I was reaaaally sleepy.... and woke up just in time for this on TV: 

http://i.imgur.com/523XWCN.jpg

woot! :D

*/

21.  Voxquake (Use Black Bolt's Power Word in Combat): Power Word is Black Bolt's fourth ability. Black Bolt is a Team-Up in Spec Op 13 Mission 2 and 3.

Finally, time to do the boss fight I left open after task 14, coincidentially it was also a Black Bolt task. Just cleared the mission, 2 stared it, and did 3 tasks on 1 go. Man I'm good.

• Reward: 100 XP for the Agent
• Resources: 20 Isos, 10 Energy

http://i.imgur.com/xEH5jMm.png

If everything works as I expect, I'll complete this one along with Side task 1/6 which rewards 6 lockboxes, and I need to collect 5 for task 22/25, see where I'm going? See next. :)) 1.  Who's The Boss (Defeat any 4 Mini-Bosses in Spec Op 13): Defeat any 4 Mini-Bosses in Spec Op 13.

Done by clearing the other tasks, just by ending M2 and M3.

• Reward: 6 Inhuman Lockbox
• Resources: Freebie by doing tasks 10 to 21 (yeah, seems long way, but it's ok)

http://i.imgur.com/ypbwQU7.png

22.  What's in the Box (Collect 5 Inhuman Lockboxes): Collect lockboxes to unlock Thane as a playable hero. They can be earned from fighting Thanos or lockbox sidequests. What's in the Box? I'm sure @ScarlettOlivia can tell us that.

• Reward: 3000
• Resources: Yet again, another freebie, done with task 21 and side task 1. Or you could also take care of some Group Bosses and that should be it.

http://i.imgur.com/7Rygyl9.png

Aaaand it's time for a redo for M3, this should work to clear Task 23, work on task 24, AND complete Side task 2 and 3. :)

2.  Seal the Deal (Use Thane's Sealing Touch 3 Times): Sealing Touch is Thane's first ability. Thane is a Team-Up in Mission 3: In Search of Thane.

You see, this one may be a bit troublesome, since you'll have to do this on a 2nd run (unless you decided to do two runs of M2 before going to M3, or you're very lucky with the Comic Book Covers), and you won't be able to 3-bird Thanos for the 4th side task, you still may be able to pull 70000 score with only two, but most likely you'll need a third run, but it's ok, since you'll need at least 4 or 5 runs to 3 / 4 star the mission, for the 24th task and 6th side task respectively.

I myself, had to do a 2nd run for this one. Now, the trick is NOT doing all the hard fights right away. See Side task 3, you have to take down 5 instigators and the Hard fights have 3 each, that means you have to save 2 of them for it, and since you have to do all the fights anyways to pop Thanos, there shouldn't be a problem by picking Medium fights at the start to pop Thane team up fight.

And so I did: Medium -> Hard (damn!) -> Proxima! woot! :D Though I let Thane die... I shouldn't, it'll affect my score :/

• Reward: 6 Inhuman Lockbox
• Resources: 40 Isos, 30 Energy.

http://i.imgur.com/iL4ikTi.png

3.  See You Later Instigator (Defeat 5 Instigators): Instigators can be found in Mission 3: In Search of Thane.

See? Told you. 2 Hard Fights, and also sent Maggs for his very first deploy ever. Then I remember I didn't had to since I picked a mini boss fight. Fail, but np just 10 isos, I maaay get something back. (it didn't)

• Reward: 12 Inhuman Lockbox
• Resources: 20 Isos, 20 Energy + 10 Isos on fail deploy (you won't need it if you do a mini boss)

http://i.imgur.com/NYVwMYG.png

(This is me, failing.)

http://i.imgur.com/fpMly3m.png

23.  Running the Gauntlet (Defeat Thanos): Thanos is the Boss in Mission 3: In Search of Thane.

All right, Thanos is up. I still have a Medium fight open, I'll check my score aftre killing Thanos and see if it fits to do it now, or later. I doubt I can pull 70k score with 2 bird for Side Task 4, we'll see.

I tried... but I couldn't overkill Corvus, twice, if not I think I'd have done it, or at least may have been closer (I needed 1600 overkill score, that's a lot to do). At least I got enough score to reach the 3rd star, I'm out.

• Reward: 1
• Resources: 20 Isos, 10 Energy.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6969/62a4.png

Now I just have to do a few more rounds of all the missions, and I'm in need of isos. Maybe I should just go kill Group Bosses for now.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3835/kbv3.png

PS: Awesome :) though 3 of them were single cps and one 3 cps, but still cool. The sad part is that I opened 5 batches of 10 boxes now, got this cover 3 out of 5 times :|

26/09/2013 - Is it over yet? No? Ok

Maintenance is over early than planned. Kudos, playdom, you're learning to give players more expected time than needed, not lower, good to see you're learning about clearance. I had to go to work anyways, but still good for those who can play it.

Daily roulette keeps giving me Iso Crystals instead of Unstable Isos, or gold or the awesome weapon. I'm at 260 right now. I I'll do a run of M1 and M2 to 3-Star everything for Task 24, M3 to fight Thanos for Side Task 4, fight all the Thanos I can find in my allies map for Side Task 5, and just leave task 25, and after that 4 star everything and on to farm.

http://i.imgur.com/JNNBtOs.png

Today's Progress: 24.  Mission Accomplished (Complete 3 Stars of Mastery in all Spec Op 12 Missions): Complete missions to add points to your cumulative score. Achieve a high enough score to earn a new Mastery Star!

I need one more run in M1 and M2, I think I'll do M2 short path to save Isos... though I want another shot at the roulette, I'll have plenty of time for that later.

• M1: Medium -> Medium -> Low -> High -> High -> Medium -> 3 Bird
• M2: Medium -> Medium -> High -> High -> High -> 3 Bird

(well this is going to the Efficient Path section xD)

• Reward: 5000
• Resources: 150 Isos, 130 Energy.

http://i.imgur.com/VbMsdA7.png

4.  Out of Order (Defeat Thanos with a Score over 70000): Thanos is the Boss of Mission 3: In Search of Thane. Achieving this score may require Thanos to be fought with Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive in the same combat.

Yet another run of M3, third one for me.

High -> High -> Magneto -> Medium -> Medium -> Pick Magneto, luckly because there was only a Mini Boss fight, now a High showed up, aaand now I'm at 68%, the mini boss, a High and 3 open deploys, so, Deploy -> High -> 87% and the other Mini Boss showed up -> Pick deploy 93% boss shows up -> 3 Bird -> Success.

• Reward: 6 Inhuman Lockbox
• Resources: 90 Isos, 60 Energy.

http://i.imgur.com/xrWfpgv.png

Now I'll have to face 5 Thanos, but there's only one in my allies maps, a refresh, other two showed up, I'm at 3/5.

Time to take a break.

27/09/2013 - No contest

Annoyance day, not much to say today (or maybe I'm just grumpy because just waking up lol). I'm low on isos, daily roulette gave me 20 but I'm still 40 below to do the epic run I need.

So I'll just add a new section to the blog today.

PS: I had forgotten about this detail:

http://i.imgur.com/tAIJnaa.png

(Now I just hope I get mine (I never get emails from them))

Today's Progress: 5.  A Date With Death (Fight Thanos 5 Times): Fight Thanos either on your own map or on your friends' maps for free. Thanos respawns every 72 hours.

Three allies map showed up with Thanos, all with very low time left (-10 hrs), which makes me wonder if playdom changed the system to avoid having 10+ Thanos fights available at a time. It's been like this since the maintenance.

• Reward: 12 Inhuman Lockbox
• Resources: Freebie

http://i.imgur.com/vUA6kRl.jpg

(Have a comic today, click here for larger image)

And with those 12 lockboxes I opened my 13th batch of 10, and got my 7th dupe, wo-hoo. Maybe playdom knows I have some gold saved up and wants me to spend it? lol.

Later on tonight other 7 Group Bosses showed up, I had fun with them, and got 6 shards because one of them was below 5% but it yielded 5 lockboxes, opened 14th batch and got my 7th unique cover, not bad.

28/09/2013 - "..."

Said Black Bolt.

	...
	Black Bolt is not impressed.

I got another 20 Isos on daily roulette as well, served me to face my own group boss which I respawned today, fought another 3 for free from my allies map. And after collecting the 50 daily gifts I have enough to do my Epic Run to get Black Bolt. :)

Today's Progress:

25.  Dark Dread (Defeat Dormammu): Dormammu is an Epic Boss in Mission 2: A Strange Twist. HINT: Participate in Deploys as soon as they appear.

Time to pay my 2nd visit to Dormammu.

Deploy (Angel) -> Medium -> Deploy (Ares) -> High -> Pick Angel and Ares and sent Wasp and Rulk Deploys -> High -> Pick Rulk (jackpot! got 20 Isos), sent Psylocke Deploy -> High -> Pick Psylocke Deploy -> Medium -> Pick Wasp Deploy -> Low -> Low -> 3 Bird -> Epic -> Success.

• Reward: 1 , Black Bolt.
• Resources: 160 Isos, 90 Energy.

http://i.imgur.com/nez2mBf.png

http://i.imgur.com/qyRujRc.png

http://i.imgur.com/5Rqiprc.png

(Aw :( 33.526 score away from 4th star)

Now I'm 1 run away from each mission to 4 star them, that means 240 Isos, 330 if I run Epic again. With an average income of 80 isos daily + 69 that I have right now, I'll be good to go on Monday, Tuesday if I want to go Epic.

PS: NO EMAIL WITH FREE COMIC FOR ME. I knew it.

PS2: I opened 2 batches of boxes and guess what?

http://i.imgur.com/uU3qnOR.png

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3534/r5oz.png

PS3: to finish the day...

1.  SPEC OP 13: Crafting Task (Gather Components for the Guardian of Attilan): Collect 50 Guardian Shards (Will Be Used) - SPEC OP 13 ONLY! The pieces of the Guardian of Attilan are awarded during combat with Thanos, or can be bought from the store.

I had 45 shards, got lucky and exactly 5 Group Bosses showed up tonight, all with enough heal to do my at least 5% share.

So I did.

• Reward: Design: Guardian of Attilan.
• Resources: Freebie by fighting Thanos Group Bosses.

http://i.imgur.com/E9cc0VN.png

2.  SPEC OP 13: Crafting Task (Assemble the Guardian of Attilan): Research the Guardian of Attilan in the Lab - SPEC OP 13 ONLY! Research for the Guardian of Attilan to complete its construction.

I also got one of those 30 XP tasks for it xD http://prntscr.com/1u4bar I was considering leaving the research open for the time I'm L300 lol, but I don't feel like waiting.

• Reward: Guardian of Attilan.
• Resources: Freebie, just research it, 5 mins which can be skipped and 50 shards which were farmed for free plus 100 silver which is nothing.

http://i.imgur.com/aEq03CT.png

http://i.imgur.com/tK3s7Ga.png

(Now is just luck to get the Daily Roulette one... I'm almost tempted to do some re-spins)

30/09/2013 - I stand corrected

I just checked my mail today and BAM, this just happened:

http://i.imgur.com/9BpwBpq.png

(Click here for a useless bigger image xd)

I even got two comics, as I posted in a comment below :) so cool man. The redeem process is a bit annoying, but still, nicely done to promote the game / the comics. The online reader is really awesome and the comics quality is so neat, HD and all. So, my advice to you... Wait for it. And I really really hope I start getting all their emails now.

As for the game progress, I got enough Isos to do an efficient run of all three missions to 4 star them, but as I said, I want to run the Epic on M2, so I'll just wait until tomorrow, I'm pretty tired today anyways, just checked in to make the announcement about the comics arriving. :)

PS: Mother of luck, I forgot it's monday! That means new Freebie Iso link! :) and today it was exactly 50 Isos, the correct amount I needed!! :D I'll just finish this tonight.

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/4949/l471.png

Today's Progress:

6.  Completionist (Complete 4 Stars of Mastery in all Spec Ops 13 Missions): Complete missions to add points to your cumulative score. Achieve a high enough score to earn a new Mastery Star!

1 Short run of M1 and M3, one Epic of M2.

• Reward: 24 Inhuman Lockbox.
• Resources: 330 Isos.

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/4854/9n1j.png

There are only few Group Bosses left to kill, but there's no motivation for me to do so, so I'll just skip them and leave those for another allies who need them most.  I think this will be the last daily update for this blog post unless something big comes up. As for the things I want to get, I changed the next section from "What's Next?" to "Wishlist", I'll keep track of what I want there and edit if I got anything else. :)

12/10/2013 - It was about time

So I get a call from work because I'm in duty guard, they woke me up around 4 a.m., I was done a bit after 5 a.m., the daily roulette resets at 5:30 a.m. (all this venezuelan time) so I decided to wait for it.

It was worth it:

http://i.imgur.com/QMnk6z8.png

Man I'm really glad I won't have to spend gold to get this one. :D and I have some isos saved up to do over 5 runs of M2, I'll farm for the Epic after I get some sleep, or just in sunday.

13&14/10/2013 - The Last Run(s)

All right, less than 24 hours remains, I got enough Isos to do 6 epic runs and I know I won't have the time to do this tomorrow so I'll go ahead now. Since I'm on M2, I'll invariably farm for the Cruel Glaive as well, and If I manage to get the Twisted Gift prior to running out of Isos, I'd go farm M3, the Solar Storm isn't that bad, subtle AoE Magnetized (can't crit or dodge) sounds good.

http://i.imgur.com/uCzOLug.png

1. First Run
   • Normal: 1x Reactive Forceful Iso-8
   • Epic: 5x Inhuman Lockbox (and I got 5 cps and 20 uisos from them)
2. Second Run
   • Normal: 1 Command Point
   • Epic: 3 Command Points
3. Third Run
   • Normal: 1x Reactive Proficient Iso-8
   • Epic: 10 Command Points (not bad, but I'm getting tired, it's been over an hour and I'm just halfway there of my planned runs... this is also because I'm using Black Bolt for the exp,,,)
4. Fourth Run
   • Normal: 20x Unstable Iso-8 (and at least BB is full exp now)
   • Epic: 1x Reactive Nimble Iso-8 (meh)
5. Fifth Run
   • Normal: 3 Command Points
   • Epic: 1x Reactive Fortified Iso-8 (this is why I hate farming)

Giving the last two roulettes pissed me off with Isos (plus 2 and a half hours and no epic drop), I'll just switch to M3 to have a change of scenary, and to five star it, I got some extra Isos from daily gifts and ally maps, so I have enough to do three runs, which is exactly what I need.

1. First Run: 1x Reactive Active Iso-8 (well they're everywhere)
2. Second Run: 3 Command Points
3. Third run: 3 command Points and I screwed up and died on the boss fight, so not enough score to 5 star, looks like I was meant to fail in whatever I had planned for tonight.

Off to sleep.

Check/Wish List

• [✔] Black Bolt 
• [✔] Thane 
• [✔] 4-Star Everything
• [✔] Complete Every Possible Task
• [✔] Get the Free Comic
• [✔] Guardian of Attilan
• [✔] Watcher of Attilan
• [✔] Protector of Attilan
• [   ] Twisted Gift
• The 3 regular drops aren't really a wish, but I wouldn't get mad if I got any, they're not so bad, and I'm kind of a completitionist, so:
  • [   ] Sunspike
  • [   ] Cruel Glaive
  • [   ] Solar Storm

So I didn't get any weapon drop, <sarcasm>wo-hoo</sarcasm>.

Poll for next Posts

I'm always open for critics to improve, so let's have one little poll for something I had in mind, and I got two different opinions already.

Comments are welcome.

And thanks for contributing. :)