With Destination Arcterra, a new story instance, achievable solo or in a group of up to 5 players, has been added: the Archon's Room. This allows us to discover the rest of the story that had already ended there at a time with l'OMNIPlex-1.
Be careful, if you don't want to spoil the story, I invite you to quit this guide immediately!
Still there ? Good ! As usual, I suggest you discover the route of the instance in video:
Unblock your access
To be able to access the Archon's Chamber, it won't be very complicated. Once in Arcterra, you will have a quest line of a little over an hour that will start with the Guardian and then continue with a personality from your faction, namely Dorian Walker for the Exiles, and Artemis Zin for the Dominion.
Quest history
The context of Arcterra is that the Guardian searched for information on the Archon's Chamber and found it in this area, but does not know more. You will need to find out this information and it will be done in several steps.
You will first seek to gather information on the DarkSkull Tower. We learn that it can be activated, in particular thanks to 3 altars connected to the Kel Havik Pillar which serves as an energy source for the tower and which must be repaired by recovering components from the creatures around each one.
Once the altars are connected, kill primary echoes on the pillar to make a sacrifice with the frost-soul produced by their death. After killing everything, the DarkSkull Tower is finally re-energized and a new infocube is now available there that allows us to learn more about where we can find information on the location of the chamber, to know the grave of a Frostblood Witch.
Once at the tomb, you will have several puzzles to solve, then gain access to the Witch's tomb. The latter has a map leading to the Archon's Chamber tattooed on its back ... so you'll get it back.
There you go, you know the location of the Chamber, all you have to do is prepare for the DarkSkull Tower and off you go by ship!
The Archon's Room
That's it, you can now participate in the instance! This one is relatively linear, you will not have much choice to make during the instance which will allow you to change your path, as it was possible in OMNIPlex-1.
You get quite difficult by ship near the entrance to the fortress. The first step is going to be to reach it, but it's not going to be that simple: it's very cold and you can't stay away from a heat source for long. Luckily, there are trees scattered between your starting area and the fortress, and they generate heat once nearby enemies are killed.
Consultancy : There are few monsters and it is possible to avoid them, so try to do your best to reach the trees as quickly as possible.
You will finally arrive at the entrance of the fortress osun (besides I learned that it was pronounced "osoune", and not "osun", it is I who am not gifted or you have just learned it too ?). No luck, it is guarded by Varegor the Abominable, a first boss who shouldn't be a problem for many people, he kills himself quickly and doesn't have too annoying attacks. Once killed, clear the bridge of ice blocking its entrance with explosives and off you go to get inside!
You will come to a room with a big osun that doesn't look very convenient in the middle, on a throne. Luckily, it is under ice and therefore harmless. In this room, you have 3 frozen heart relic guards carrying ... relics, kill them to get them back, you will have to place them to unlock the next room.
Let’s move on. You are going to enter a rather disturbing area where "the Hundreds" are located, which represents the number of osuns that are cryonics ... they better not come out of their freezing system, right? ?
In short, no confrontation here, you cross the room and arrive at the entrance to the Archon's Chamber! During a cutscene, your partner will figure out how to enter it.
Turns out it's a big Eldan coin with an Enome Infocube in the middle. While searching in a console, your partner has activated defenses, you will have to attack some of the Eldan machines to be able to make higher jumps (each destroyed pack gives you a levitation bonus that accumulates, after 2 or 3 packs you will be able to make sufficiently high jumps), and then you will only have to jump in the power links located at the top of the laser beams.
You now have access to the infocube which will deliver its secrets to you in cinematics. Here are the revelations:
History revelations
We learn that the protoplasmic resonator, necessary to merge the 6 primary elements to create a god, is the work of Oméchron, a Primordial created by the Eldans during the 3rd phase of their project.
In exchange for the resonator, Oméchron only asked for one thing: the Focus of Logic, which the Elder narrator agreed to secretly to avoid worry.
Now that we have more information, we can go home! No luck, it looks like our whole mess in the room has activated the osuns release process! Despite the rather frightening cinematic, you are not going to have to hit a horde of terrifying osuns but simply kill one after the other the 4 osuns currently standing between you and the exit.
Once out, you are back in the room with the big frozen osun. You guessed ? Yep, it too will thaw! This is Harizog Cold Blood, the big boss of the instance, which will have several phases:
- Phase 1
- Phase 2
- Phase 3
- Phase 4
He starts by typing us all alone and at times will send out a few telegrams to be avoided but which are not too bad. He will quickly summon a war dog that will kill himself easily. A little later, we move on to the second phase.
For this second phase, Harizog slips away and gives way to the Dark Witch Uhrga who will summon tornadoes that will remain until the end of the fight, they will send you into the air and inflict some damage on you if you come into contact with them. . Otherwise, she has a few telegrams to avoid, but still nothing too bad.
Harizog returns quickly, nothing special to say about his fight because he will leave again quickly to make way for a stronghold that will make you face 4 waves each with a Havik Honor Guard to kill. They are simply big bags of points of life whose telegrams should be avoided as best as possible. Your companion will also show you health regeneration bonuses during this phase.
Once past the stronghold, Harizog returns with the same skills as before, you can simply finish it!
Once defeated, last straight line to the ship! Your partners are behind you holding back the osuns who are seriously starting to wake up from their sleep. Once at the ship, small end cutscene, everyone returns safe and sound!
And There you go ! You have completed this new instance! All you have to do is return his quest.
Successes
Like all new content, Archon's Chamber has several achievements to achieve. The instance has many optional and somewhat hidden areas, we're putting together a guide to Achievements and these hidden areas for you soon!
My opinion on this instance:
Although she is still nice, I am still a little disappointed after what I had to do with the OMNIPlex-1. The latter offered an interesting instance with its share of information, challenges and choices to be made throughout the instance.
Here in the Archon's Chamber we are still making progress in the story, but compared to the time it took us to wait to get it and finally progress in the Nexus Saga, I find that what we learn is rather light: in short, the end of the incomplete infocube of OMNIPlex, which almost only includes the identity of the creator of the protoplasmic resonator. In addition to that, the clashes are less difficult and there is simply no choice in the instance allowing us to vary our course.
In any case, the story is progressing, I can not wait to know more, but it is true that I would have hoped for a little more from this instance so much vaunted by Carbine.
