ending arkfalls withing the first 10mins

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Originally Posted by Burntpowder

No, you are coddling. When I started the game, I listened to the little blue ***** in the corner. She tells you all you need to know. If you choose not to listen to her, don't be surprised if people get irate.

Just like ANY rpg style game, the quickest way to level both weapons and guns is to do the missions. Arkfalls seem more of a flub for those of us who are farther in the game. A means to keep us coming back.

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I understand and respect that point of view, but if someone chooses to add variety by doing Arkfalls as well, so they don't end up getting to the end as quickly and complaining about lack of end game content, I have no issue with that style of play either.

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Originally Posted by Burntpowder

It's not intentional. But after the patch, when I buy a lock box, I get nothing. No weapons or gear. Also, my salvage matrix credits no ark salvage during breakdown.

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Yup, just saw your post in the other thread, I posted a suggestion there, hope it works out for you.

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Originally Posted by Maitreakow

I understand and respect that point of view, but if someone chooses to add variety by doing Arkfalls as well, so they don't end up getting to the end as quickly and complaining about lack of end game content, I have no issue with that style of play either.

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More power to them, but if they buck the tried and trued way at major arkfalls then I have no sympathy for them. When you first get your drivers license do you drive down the wrong side of the freeway because it's quicker for you to get home or do you follow what everyone else does and drive on the correct side?

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Originally Posted by nightclub19

hi, im ted
anyway... the other day i was the first to get to a "destroy the arkfall" arkfall and was havin some nice fun. i was living the high life, getting xp, shooting things, getting the loot and the little cylindars that give you keys, oh man it was great. then a few others showed up, probably a little more than 5...... they started WAILING on the arkfall, didnt shoot any bad guys, just the big kinky rock. i asked what the point was..... ya know..... ending the arkfall in the first few minutes, far less loot/weapon xp/xp/money/etc. they dropped a few f-bombs, MFs, a-holes, etc. i couldnt believe it!! i was astounded! i shrugged it off, i assumed they were all part of a group......... craziest thing (put your seat belts on) this happened again..... and again....... and again! i asked each time why they were so determined to end the arkfall right as it began, each time i was flamed so hard itd make richard pryor blush.

is the new thing in video games to just not advance your toon? please give me some insight as to why ending arkfalls, before you have a chance to get anything fun/good done, is such a common practice.

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Ok here goes and this may be long so bear with me.

Red Crystal arkfalls have skitterlings that bite the crystal revealing weak spots for higher damage. In the past the skitterling bites were the only way to get that higher damage (since patched so even if the skitterlings die there will always be weak spots). In the past you got 0 weapon xp/skill rankup for killing the bugs or foes at arkfalls (this has since changed too). In the past, people would still target the bugs including skitterlings in order to finish out pursuits (getting kills at arkfalls and kills in the game) which caused some disagreement (ok, shouting, cursing, anger, and so on).

There are two main "factions" at arkfalls. There are those that want to maximize their drops-loot, scrip, salvage-and their kills. There are those that want to farm for keycodes and arkfall rewards and maybe top the scoreboard. They want to get the arkfall over with quickly. They also sometimes in the past when only skitterling bites weakened the crystals, worried that the arkfall would time out and fail. That doesn't happen but they also want to get one crystal done fast so they can get to as many crystals as possible before the boss arrives.

The reason for this is kills do not count towards a player's standing on the scoreboard. Only damage does. That means crystal damage and boss damage is all that matters to some. They will kill bugs when they have to-either because there are a lot of them attacking or because they do get some ammo from them. And focusing on damaging the crystals and the boss gets the arkfall over with quickly so they can move onto the next one. If everyone runs around killing bugs then it takes too long to get keys.

Play it for what you are trying to advance. Now, I may work mostly on damage but I do attack bugs for ammo and for loot and for self-defense. Sometimes, depending upon the gun, and since weapon xp is possible, I will use a gun and focus on bugs to level up as well as the crystal and the boss.


The same goes for a lot of things in the game. There is a place where the Hulker will repeatedly spawn if you die and don't kill him. If you do kill him, you will get usually a blue weapon. But you have to start the instance again. If you don't kill him you can keep coming right back in and rank up weapons.

In Explosions 101, you don't have to fight the tankers at all and there's a pursuit to plant the charges quickly. So that means you have to try and just run past foes, kill those you have to, plant the charges and run on. But you get far fewer drops and less xp for that. So after you finish the charge pursuit, you might do that coop again for all the other stuff. Same with the Cerberus in Explosions 101. A lot of people will keep driving it around to rank it up.

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Originally Posted by Burntpowder

It's not intentional. But after the patch, when I buy a lock box, I get nothing. No weapons or gear. Also, my salvage matrix credits no ark salvage during breakdown.

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It happened to me yesterday and i sent a ticket to Trion...should i fear the worst?

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Originally Posted by drackiller

It happened to me yesterday and i sent a ticket to Trion...should i fear the worst?

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*shrug* I'm just drinking my coffee...

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Originally Posted by Indra Echo

Ok here goes and this may be long so bear with me.

Red Crystal arkfalls have skitterlings that bite the crystal revealing weak spots for higher damage. In the past the skitterling bites were the only way to get that higher damage (since patched so even if the skitterlings die there will always be weak spots). In the past you got 0 weapon xp/skill rankup for killing the bugs or foes at arkfalls (this has since changed too). In the past, people would still target the bugs including skitterlings in order to finish out pursuits (getting kills at arkfalls and kills in the game) which caused some disagreement (ok, shouting, cursing, anger, and so on).

There are two main "factions" at arkfalls. There are those that want to maximize their drops-loot, scrip, salvage-and their kills. There are those that want to farm for keycodes and arkfall rewards and maybe top the scoreboard. They want to get the arkfall over with quickly. They also sometimes in the past when only skitterling bites weakened the crystals, worried that the arkfall would time out and fail. That doesn't happen but they also want to get one crystal done fast so they can get to as many crystals as possible before the boss arrives.

The reason for this is kills do not count towards a player's standing on the scoreboard. Only damage does. That means crystal damage and boss damage is all that matters to some. They will kill bugs when they have to-either because there are a lot of them attacking or because they do get some ammo from them. And focusing on damaging the crystals and the boss gets the arkfall over with quickly so they can move onto the next one. If everyone runs around killing bugs then it takes too long to get keys.

Play it for what you are trying to advance. Now, I may work mostly on damage but I do attack bugs for ammo and for loot and for self-defense. Sometimes, depending upon the gun, and since weapon xp is possible, I will use a gun and focus on bugs to level up as well as the crystal and the boss.


The same goes for a lot of things in the game. There is a place where the Hulker will repeatedly spawn if you die and don't kill him. If you do kill him, you will get usually a blue weapon. But you have to start the instance again. If you don't kill him you can keep coming right back in and rank up weapons.

In Explosions 101, you don't have to fight the tankers at all and there's a pursuit to plant the charges quickly. So that means you have to try and just run past foes, kill those you have to, plant the charges and run on. But you get far fewer drops and less xp for that. So after you finish the charge pursuit, you might do that coop again for all the other stuff. Same with the Cerberus in Explosions 101. A lot of people will keep driving it around to rank it up.

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I love the way you take the time to explain these things ;)

And now it`s time to play a little.

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Originally Posted by Burntpowder

Ted, how much XP do you get off of a skitterling? 3. 3XP. How much do you get off of finishing off a major? 7500. 7500XP. Why are we still talking about this. It's math.

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Fun fact: Post patch all red crystals will have weak points even if everyone kills every skitterling. Trion stated that people can now stop yelling at new people.

The reality of all of this is that no one ever needed to yell at anyone anyway. If someone wanted to kill the little guys then so what? I say this as someone who can pretty much own any arkfall I get to and by a large margin, except when I face my clan members who are often better than I am. And I have yet to see any non-glitched arkfall fail to complete in this game. So what if it takes me 10 minutes to get my keycodes or 5? If that's all I have to complain about then my life is blessed.

People play the game as they wish and as long as they are not using exploits or glitches in order to ruin the fun of others, then what they are doing is legitimate and can be done until it's changed, if it is changed.

Skitterlings will die but there are always enough of them to go around.

And funny thing is there are red crystal arkfalls where there are no skitterlings. They do usually have some advanced weapon drop, but here's the thing. Even without the weak spots in the crystal and without using the advanced weapon, I can still top the scoreboard. Why? Because I challenged myself to get better. In fact, I ran around yesterday just going after all arkfalls and there were only 2 out of about 20 where I was not the top scorer. The lowest I came in was 4th and was because I got to an arkfall that was almost done.

I'm not bragging because anyone can do this. I'm merely saying this to point out that skitterling deaths don't affect dramatically what will happen at an arkfall. It's the stupidest argument that has ever taken place in this game. Play your game and challenge yourself. If someone wants to kill skitterlings, so what.

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Originally Posted by Burntpowder

Ted, how much XP do you get off of a skitterling? 3. 3XP. How much do you get off of finishing off a major? 7500. 7500XP. Why are we still talking about this. It's math.

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You get weapon xp now from killing things. You get more drops from killing more things-more loot, scrip, salvage, ammo. If you run out of ammo and can't find an ammo box, you can set your perks to get ammo drops by killing things. At arkfalls where I have killed foes, I have often gotten drops of 135 salvage (one drop), and add that to the 750 you might get at the end and it adds up. I also can get quite often 4-5 loot drops per crystal, even though I'm focusing on the crystal. If I use a BMG and kill and heal a lot, I can get literally hundreds of drops per arkfall of various things.

Oh and I don't want everyone focusing on the crystal. I like being number one. I want people to do legitimate things at arkfalls and have fun.

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Originally Posted by Indra Echo

Fun fact: Post patch all red crystals will have weak points even if everyone kills every skitterling. Trion stated that people can now stop yelling at new people.

The reality of all of this is that no one ever needed to yell at anyone anyway. If someone wanted to kill the little guys then so what? I say this as someone who can pretty much own any arkfall I get to and by a large margin, except when I face my clan members who are often better than I am. And I have yet to see any non-glitched arkfall fail to complete in this game. So what if it takes me 10 minutes to get my keycodes or 5? If that's all I have to complain about then my life is blessed.

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I've never yelled at people, I just simply leave the arkfall and go to another. But I won't defend them either because in the past, majority of people doing this were trying to get the pursuit completed and not because of ignorance.

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Originally Posted by Indra Echo

You get weapon xp now from killing things.

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Yes NOW you do. This has only changed in the past 24 hours though. I agree with much of what you said. I tag every non-skitter enemy as it provides for a constant ammo source. But ammo and ark salvage drops don't discount my original reply. You get MUCH more XP from completing a major and moving onto the next versus squatting on a minor instance. You'd need to kill 2500 skitters for every major.... How is that using your time efficiently?

And money drops? Dunno about you, but I get 1 maybe 2 scrip at each pile, hardly worth my time when I can hammer a major and sell a purple gun for 1k.

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Originally Posted by Indra Echo

The same goes for a lot of things in the game. There is a place where the Hulker will repeatedly spawn if you die and don't kill him. If you do kill him, you will get usually a blue weapon. But you have to start the instance again. If you don't kill him you can keep coming right back in and rank up weapons.

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Great post, thanks for taking the time to help out new players. Just one thing, they fixed this particular glitch when they added the health bar to the Hulker I believe.

Syphon, bmg, res some one. To get max keys at ark falls hit stuff, then proc syphon, res some one, or heal yourself with a bmg and that all there is to max keys at ark falls

"Don't want to give away what weapon I have."
"Don't want to give away farming spots."


I can never understand why people get like this over videogames.

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Originally Posted by Burntpowder

Yes NOW you do. This has only changed in the past 24 hours though. I agree with much of what you said. I tag every non-skitter enemy as it provides for a constant ammo source. But ammo and ark salvage drops don't discount my original reply. You get MUCH more XP from completing a major and moving onto the next versus squatting on a minor instance. You'd need to kill 2500 skitters for every major.... How is that using your time efficiently?

And money drops? Dunno about you, but I get 1 maybe 2 scrip at each pile, hardly worth my time when I can hammer a major and sell a purple gun for 1k.

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Yes people always have killed skitterlings to get pursuits done. Yes this only just now changed so you get weapon xp. And yes, I agree you get a lot of personal xp from doing arkfalls especially if you do them quickly and move on. But there are a lot of things people do get from killing just as many things as they can at all arkfalls. I'm not going to tell anyone that what they want to do is interfering with what I'm trying to do, especially if I know there's no way an arkfall is going to fail. My goal is different from theirs so I just don't worry about all that.

And I said you get a lot of drops of EVERYTHING and not just scrip by killing bugs, so some people are after that. I didn't say you get a lot of scrip-if I did that was in error and I was talking about salvage. At arkfalls where I have used the BMG to heal/damage, I end up with literally what seems like hundreds of piles of stuff, scrip, salvage, and even loot and ammo. And yes, scrapping weapons or selling them gets more loot than that, but people like to multi-task and why not?

I have a favorite farming spot that I've used for xp, weapon xp, and loot as well as keycodes. If someone does that at an arkfall and they also get kills toward pursuits at the same time then they may consider it an efficient use of time.

I too do tag big guys for ammo but then I have my pursuits related to arkfalls all done. So I focus on the crystal. But it's up to others how they play it and I'm fine with it. It does not interfere with my game at all.

That's my only point here. In fact, I don't want everyone shooting the crystal. I don't even mind if it's all mine. But now that they have changed the weak spot thing, I am going to use my rocket launcher again and see what happens. If crystal destruction takes too long, I'll switch off weapons.

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Originally Posted by Maitreakow

Great post, thanks for taking the time to help out new players. Just one thing, they fixed this particular glitch when they added the health bar to the Hulker I believe.

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Thank you for being kind.

I don't know since I don't use it-never have really. I tried it once and well didn't care to do it, but every time I've faced off against one they still don't have the health bar. The one I was referring to I'm sure you know is at San Quentin. I would farm it and kill it to get the weapon since it was so easy to get back to anyway, and I got stuff along the way for killing raiders.

But I really like farming horseshoe bay. I get loot, scrip, salvage, xp and weapon xp as well as keys. And if there's a contract for raiders on docks then it helps there too. Some people like to go to Sutro Tower in San Francisco but this one is much faster and you get keycodes too if you do it alone or with just one other person.

I have almost all pursuits done except for reputation (Echelon, erghh), and sniper stuff. I just need to get all weapon classes to 20 as well, but I've been grabbing salvage from arkfalls.

Indra,

I was ripping majors every chance I got just to get the XP, so I could level up and unlock perk slots. Now there's no reason. So when he was griping because he wanted to slaughter skitterlings for minimal benefit I wanted to point out how seemingly simple minded that was.

Weapon XP is based on damage done with that weapon. I've yet to score a crit on a skitter... Just sayin...

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Originally Posted by Burntpowder

I've yet to score a crit on a skitter... Just sayin...

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Use a wolfhound :)

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Originally Posted by Burntpowder

Indra,

I was ripping majors every chance I got just to get the XP, so I could level up and unlock perk slots. Now there's no reason. So when he was griping because he wanted to slaughter skitterlings for minimal benefit I wanted to point out how seemingly simple minded that was.

Weapon XP is based on damage done with that weapon. I've yet to score a crit on a skitter... Just sayin...

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I understand and I mean no insult to you at all-hard to convey intent in written content. I'm just saying that far too much (complaining) emphasis is on other people's playstyles at arkfalls. I just mean that I've never much cared about it, except when it was all cars all the time and you couldn't even see the crystal.

Yes, I agree weapon xp is based on damage with the weapon, but it's just that I think Trion created the change to try and stop all the acrimony over skitterling murders. People constantly said EGO was telling you what to do by saying shoot the bitten part, but the game also tells you other things-it has a pursuit that says kill lots of foes at arkfalls. That is very difficult to do if you avoid the little guys.

I actually have done my fair share of farming the little bugs at headfirst crater and at the hole in the wall at Big Stone Reach or whatever it's called. Shoot enough of them and crit damage doesn't even matter.

My only point in all those words was play the way that fits what you need to do but don't ignore the other stuff around you. That is legitimately. So if you're focused on the crystal, at times you do need to kill bugs. And if you're killing bugs make sure the crystal is getting taken out too. I just can't stand all the yelling at arkfalls about this stuff and it still hasn't gone away.

And I understand your point-if he's looking for personal xp then finishing the arkfall fast is better for that.

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Originally Posted by Indra Echo

I just can't stand all the yelling at arkfalls about this stuff and it still hasn't gone away.

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The beauty of xbox live party chat... I don't hear a thing!

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Originally Posted by gwit

Use a wolfhound :)

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Skitts don't have crit spots...use whatever gun you like lol.

One word for getting 5 keys at an arkfall

BMG

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Originally Posted by Hope499

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Skitts don't have crit spots...use whatever gun you like lol.

One word for getting 5 keys at an arkfall

BMG

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But it is an acronym, not a word. Plus it stands for three words... Either way he is right.

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Originally Posted by Hope499

?

Skitts don't have crit spots...use whatever gun you like lol.

One word for getting 5 keys at an arkfall

BMG

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It's a joke (maybe not a good one...) But "use a wolfhound" seems to be the answer to to everything... :)

I am obviously not a professional comedian.

read up to page 3 and i just wanted to point out... i'll drive over a single skitterling inside an arkfall on my way to a quest/friend/whatever... and 10-15 minutes later i get exp, cash, and keys.... so really, wtf is the OP doing wrong?

I suspect the OP is norwegian and lives under a bridge.....

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Originally Posted by gwit

It's a joke (maybe not a good one...) But "use a wolfhound" seems to be the answer to to everything... :)

I am obviously not a professional comedian.

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Wolfhound is a good weapon for some things like crit spots, other times you may need to use a SAW. Either way, there is a handful of weapons that you should be using, in a game that has something like hundreds? Makes all the other guns useless.

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Originally Posted by Strontium Dog

I suspect the OP is norwegian and lives under a bridge.....

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