ToFS Merc Quests

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Runcible, Jun 24, 2020.

  1. OlavSkullcrusher Augur

    For me, at least, this requires some elaboration. This also from Crystalla, please:
    I paused even playing my 115 team because I was stuck working my way up on the keys to the 5th floor for the earring quest. If there is a trick to getting key mobs to spawn that I don't know, that would help a lot.
  2. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    For example /targ a_ghostly_student00

    All NPCs in the zone with 00 at the end should spawn the key dropper or the start of a chain.

    There can only be one 00 up of a set of NPCs at any given time. Should work for all key droppers on all floors.
  3. Nniki Augur

    The # symbol is used by the developers to make NPCs unique. Key droppers are set to be unique and can be targeted using it.

    Just for fun, here's a discussion between former developers where they mention it:
    twitch.tv/videos/658278298?t=01h40m00s
    Fenthen likes this.
  4. Lianeb Augur

    There can actually be a_ghostly_student00 and #a_ghostly_student00
    So /tar # is what you really want
    svann likes this.
  5. svann Augur

    To be clear - you are saying /tar poundsign?
  6. Nniki Augur

    Yes, type "/target #". Although visibly hidden to players, the # symbol is prepended to the name of the NPC.

    Sometimes, you'll catch it left unhidden in various text. The text from Soaring Moon comes to recent memory. I think that instance was fixed during beta though.
    Fenthen and svann like this.
  7. Runcible Journeyman

    Quick question to anyone still reading this thread. Im on the third floor and I noticed when I hailed the yearning armoured shadow to get the broom to give to the butler, IVU didnt drop. While running around handing these items to the various yearning XX to get the key to the 4th floor, will invisi ever drop? I get that there are things on the floor that either see IVU or vice versa, but aside from that just wondering if invisi will drop at any point while exchanging items with these npcs. As a side to that, do i have to hail the rest of these guys or will just handing them the next item work. Thanks for anyones advice whos done this before.
  8. Conq Augur

    Your invises will drop at every hand-in. The armors should be the only mobs on this floor who are "live" and therefore aren't affected by IVU but cannot see through regular invis. Note, dieing or zoning during the cycle of hand-ins will force you to restart the cycle. Some EZ-mode suggestions - be a feign-dead'ing class, a fading class, a mezzing class or have a Call of Hero handy, to name a few. But if you still need xp for that Rallos Earring, then just kill everything in every room - including that sneaky wandering armor!
    Conq
  9. Laronk Augur

    They used a poor naming structure, it should be shared tasks and tasks not group and solo.
  10. Lianeb Augur

    The NPCs you hand in to will not aggro you it's the other mobs in the close area.
    Every single turn in mob has an item near them that you can hide behind or under to block LoS agro from the other mobs in the rooms, with the exception being the one standing at the dinner table (forget his name), but you can get up under the table with a chair between you and other mobs to prevent agro it's just very tricky compared to the rest.
    Yinla likes this.
  11. Runcible Journeyman

    Thanks so much for the additional info and I never even thought about being able to hide behind stuff to do the turn ins. That makes me wonder that maybe those shrink potions I had when messing around steamworks might come in handy. Ill give it a go this evening and see how it turns out. Thanks again everyone for all the help, its been great.
  12. Natal Augur


    Your understanding is wrong. The tasks are "solo" in the sense that you get it personally but that does not mean it is intended that everyone be able to actually solo it. You might be able to in some cases, in others you may require a group.
  13. Natal Augur



    The armor suits are live, so they see through IVU. If you want to pass the agro ones you need regular invis. That is part of what complicates moving through that floor because there are two suits that regularly get in the way and they are live mobs, not undead like the rest.
    Yinla likes this.
  14. Vumad Cape Wearer

    Also know there is a master key. Anyone who has a master key can go to a hidden mirror room that has a bunch of mirrors. You can then go directly to the floor of your choice. Ie. 1 -> mirror room -> 6.

    The master key is a bit of a misnomer as it is only to the mirror room. You do not get to bypass the other keys by just getting the master key. So say you have a master key but you don't have floor 5 key, you can go to the mirror room to skip around floors but it will not let you go to floor 5, only the floors you have keys for.
  15. Runcible Journeyman

    Thanks for the additional info. I’m on the 4th floor and it’s my understanding there are two ways to get the 5th floor key which is my ultimate goal so I can complete the ToV merc quests. One way was to kill frost mummies (might be mistaken on the mob name) until some named mummy spawns then kill that to get the key. What i read said the named was lvl 119 so that doesn’t sound doable molo. The other way said to kill restless mummies until you see a death msg which would then spawn something else in another area to go kill which would inturn spawn something else and then something else that finally drops the key. Hopefully that info is correct as that’s the route I’m taking. Killed about 50 restless so far but no death msg. Will keep at it.
  16. OlavSkullcrusher Augur

    I didn't have any luck with this. "/target #" wasn't pulling anything up. "a_returned_shadow_beast00" did, but it didn't spawn a key mob.
  17. Lubianx Augur

    The named is Amontehepna the Second. Don't be scared of it's level, it isn't too difficult, but as you said you are moloing it so who knows. If you can kill it before it drains your mana, you should be OK.

    With the other method, did you check if an ascendant adventurer was up in the middle of the maze or a rusty armor was up in the pit? It's possible that other people who already had the key spawned these mobs or you may have just missed the trigger.

    Also, when you get to 5th floor and kill, keep an eye out of the key mobs there too for level 6 as you will need it eventually for earring quest later in the chain.
  18. Runcible Journeyman

    Wanted to come back to this thread one last time to put a bow on it as I finally completed the ToFS (and with it the ToV) merc quests today. I couldnt have done it without the input from so many on this thread so thanks again to all of you who contributed. I also thought it might help others who havent done it yet if I just recapped my experience.

    As a 115 mage, I completed the tasks molo. Definitely would have been easier in a group (aside from maybe the 4th floor key), but for those who rarely group, just know its doable. This is how it worked for me. Playing an average of 2.5 to 3 hours a day, it took me a week.

    First floor - Definitely the hardest because of the bordem factor. I could only find one mob on the entire floor that was a single pull. This took 2 deaths and a number of port outs to figure out. The spawn time was 9 to 10 min each time and for some reason occassionaly it would be a 20 min reset on the mob. The mob I used was on the last room to the left. He would spawn and walk back and forth down the hall. You cant attack him at either end of the hall or you will get some adds, but the middle of the hall is safe. Killed this 100+ times over 2.5 days before the keyholder spawned in its place. Just know that as soon as the place holder is killed, the key holder spawns instantly so its basically one long battle between the two.

    Second floor - Easiest for me. When you walk in there are single pull mobs (one on the left and one on the right). These drop the notes required for one of the ToFS quests. I killed the mobs 5 or 6 times total, got all the notes required and during that time it spawned the keyholder to the second floor (this is the same as floor one where it spawns instantly after killing the placeholder).

    Third floor - This one you dont need to kill anything, but its pretty nerveracking because if you get killed (or port out) in the middle of doing hand ins, then you have to start over. You start by hailing this guy to get a broom to hand to the butler. Invisi wont drop when you hail him, but will drop on all the turn ins (ie giving the broom to the butler and so on). In each turn in spot there is a way to hide from other mobs. I personally used a shrink potion for these turn ins but im assuming you can do them by ducking as well. For the first turn in you just stand behind the large column to the left of the butler. For the second turn in you hide under a table and wait for the roamer to go to the other side of the room. For the third turn in you also hide under a table and wait for a roamer to move to the other side of the room. I died during this one as I apparently wasnt hidden well enough and the entire room agroed on me (so I had the fun of starting over). The fourth turn in (if Im remembering correctly) was the easiest as only the turn in mob was in the room). The fifth turn in was the most nerveracking one. I hid inbetween the bed and the mob i was turning in to. The sixth turn in is back to the guy you got the original broom from. You can find a spot to the left of the entrance to the zone where you can give it to him without anyone seeing. One note is that armors see through IVU but everything else on the floor doesnt. There is an armor guarding the hall to the mirror which goes to the 4th floor.

    Fourth floor - I went the route of killing restless mummies. There are two mummies on the hallway when you zone in. I think these are supposed to spawn spaced out, but sometimes they kinda glitch and spawn next to each other. The way I found to do this floor for me was to follow the hallway where you zone in from until you get to the first intersection. Diagonally to the right across the intersection is a short hallway that has a mummy that roams a short distance in it. I would kill this one first, then move from that hallway straight across the intersection and around some one way corners until there is a branch off to the right. There is a mummy that spawns in that branch off. The entire time I killed that mummy I never had a roamer come by (but after getting the key, I did see another mummy spawned next to it in that location...i think that was another glitch). Once I killed that one I would continue down the mail hallway and just a stones throw away was another mummy next to some fireplaces. That would be the third kill and I would then rinse and repeat. There was very little down time with three mobs in the rotation. Once I got the message that the next part of the key holder had spawned (its a weird death msg when you kill one of the mummies) then you can go to where the mummy is by the fireplaces and continue down that hallway. Throw on some regular invisi (not IVU) as there will be a goo and 4 shadows on that hall). After you pass the shadows and reach the end of the hall, then there is another restless mummy that runs back and forth between the exit mirror and the room where the next part of the keyholder spawns. He will come all the way out into the hall, so just wait for him there and kill him, then move into the room with the two coffins and kill the adventurer who spans on the right coffin. Once you do this, it spawns a rusty armor which you access by dropping through a trap in the floor. To get to the trap, go back to the dead end hallway where I was killing the first mummy in my three mummy rotation, hang a left out of there, take the next left until you come to a shadow. Kill the shadow. Throw on IVU, and across from the next mummy you see (the mummy is in a cubby on the left) is the trap (in a cubby on the right). Drop down (and since you spawned the rusty armor all the mobs that are usually there waiting to kill you will be gone). Run down the hall, kill the armor which turns into a goo. Kill the goo and loot the key. Note that when you loot the key, all the mobs on the floor will respawn. They didnt agro on me but it did cause me to gate out.

    Fifth floor - Finally the floor where you can collect the vampire blood and whatever drops off the golems to complete the ToFS quests. Golems need regular invisi to walk past but the vampires need the IVU. Throw on a regular invisi, walk past the 6 golems and veer to the left. There are undead in the rooms so stay clear of the rooms and find the staircase. I setup camp in the staircase. There is a vampire at the top of the stairs that is a single pull and a golem walks past the bottom of the stairs. Both are on 9.5 to 10 min timers. Go up the stairs and kill the vampire since you need to kill 7 of those and only 6 golems. Hang out for an hour or so killing and your done with the ToFS quests.

    I hope this detail helps others and again, a big thanks to everyone who helped me.
    Zynt, Zamiam and Claan like this.
  19. svann Augur

    Third floor (keying to 4th) easier to do solo because if you have 6 people you just increase the odds that someone blows it and has to start over.
  20. Runcible Journeyman

    Wanted to provide an update to my post above about how I went about getting keys up to the 5th floor. Shortly after that post, things have changed on the 4th floor. Not sure why they changed, but its definitely much more difficult now. Now, after you come through the mirror and enter the 4th floor, you run down a long hallway, past two mummies, until you get to an intersection. Occasionally an oozing flesh will be in that intersection which sees through IVU. Other times a roaming mummy will be in that intersection which sees through INV. Just keep IVU up, wait for the flesh to move and then take the first hallway on your right. This leads to the mummy next to the fireplace i mentioned in my previous post. This is where the changes have come in. Now there is a roaming mummy on that hallway. In addition, a Shadow (sees through IVU) is put on one of the corners. So it makes just running through the floor to get to the mirror to floor 5 that much more difficult. Beyond that, just shy of the fireplace mummy is now an Armor (also sees through IVU). The issue here is that there are some roaming mobs that seem to get stuck just on the other side of the Armor, meaning that its almost impossible to run past that corner where the Armor is and get to the 5th floor mirror without either having a large fight or using some sort of crowd control toon. Even with an enchanter, as an example, its difficult to see the other mobs that are in front of the Armor and therefore if those arent calmed, then theres going to be a fight when trying to run past them.

    Beyond that, if you do fight, the pathing is terrible so more than likely you are going to end up pulling half the floor. When that happens to me, Ive just had to gate out and start over. Maybe im doing something wrong, but it seems like something is now broken on the 4th floor. Just my 2c.