Speed Camping 101

[locolagarto 15]

This project has been brewing for a couple months now. it started with Furian67 and I getting into the swing of running campaigns as fast as possible. We were getting it down close to 2 1/2 hours. One thing that was plaguing us was lots of crashes. Through the process we came upon the realization that a couple of the toons that we speed camped hadn't been present for the entire camp yet still advanced in the camp. How?

 

So we started experimenting with different scenarios. Schot gave us the idea that it was similar to the quest ownership trick that we use all the time to share and transfer ownership of the side quests. Well that wasn't really the exact solution, but it got us in the right direction. quest ownership transfer. well we could transfer camp status just fine but as soon we restarted the server the status reset to Chapter I in sloeford. Then along came Woody with the solution. The quest saved only when your camp status was more advanced than the toon that started the server. Well a little more testing and we got to a solution that expanded into our speed camp runs.

 

The first step was to create camp templates that were strategically staged at the end of the campaign. Furian67 and I created 3 templates. 1 silver, 1 gold, and 1 platinum. We ran them the long way through the camp to the Monolith in the great machine.

 

Here are the steps to getting to Niob at level 1 on PC HC Closed Net

 

For Silver Camp

 

1. Log in a Silver Template into a silver campaign.

 

2. Log in new Campee level 1 toon from a seperate account. ( Hopefully your friend with a new bargainer at level 1 that want to be a niob shopper)

 

3. Log out the Silver template and transfer campaign status to the Campee.

 

4. Log in your Camp Runner. We use a level 70 -85 Astral Shadow Warrior with permanent Shadow Veil.

 

5. Run the Camp Runner to Monolith and advance the campaign by at least 1 step. This will temporarily give the Campee a more advanced campaign than the template

 

6. Save and Exit with both the Campaign Runner and the Campee.

 

7. Start a new Server with the Template again.

 

8. Log in the Campee, this time when logging in you should see a GAME SAVED message when teleporting into Start Island. This is the key to successfully transfering the camp to your campee.

 

9. Log off the Template and save for the next run.

 

10. Login the Camp Runner and finish the Camp. BAM! thats it

 

This will Repeat with Gold and Platinum. Its is very simple and can be done in about and hour. It takes longer to log in and out than the actual camp running.

 

 

Edit: After many, many successful runs I thought it time to update this little guide with a few notes of things we learned along the way and changes we made to the process

 

1. In making the templates, there is really no short cuts. you have to Party Camp them the long way through the main quest to get them saved.

 

2. We learned early on it was dog gone dangerous trying to run Silver, gold, Plat, camps with a level 70-75 Camp Runner. So we advanced our Templates to the switch after the last Guardian.

Now we simply end the camp for the first template server and then finish it again for the second camp server. the process is much quicker and we can now go from Silver to niob in about 20 minutes if Furian and I are both dancin' to the save beat.

[locolagarto 15]

Split this off of Experiment Thread. thought it was time to share with the world. Got questions? ask away.

[Schot 415]

At long last. Aspiring Niob shoppers rejoice!

 

At what point is the camp saved on the template? Also, can a single character be a template for all 3 camps? Silver, Gold and Platinum? That would certainly make this camp strategy convenient.

 

Nice work guys!

[Woody 24]

At long last. Aspiring Niob shoppers rejoice!

 

At what point is the camp saved on the template? Also, can a single character be a template for all 3 camps? Silver, Gold and Platinum? That would certainly make this camp strategy convenient.

 

Nice work guys!

 

Unfortunately not, we need one template for each camp.

[locolagarto 15]

At long last. Aspiring Niob shoppers rejoice!

 

At what point is the camp saved on the template? Also, can a single character be a template for all 3 camps? Silver, Gold and Platinum? That would certainly make this camp strategy convenient.

 

Nice work guys!

 

originally the templates stopped just before talking to Liosolath (sp). yesterday I advanced them to the door before the guardians, so I don't have to fight the Grand Inquisitor for every camp run, I just have to hit the last 2 switches and kill the guardians. saved at least 30 mins in the whole process.

 

Hmmm...... 1 template for all. I think it might be possible to go back in a completed campaign and save over it. but I am pretty sure it will either restart the camp at Act I or ...... I won't try with Furian's templates but would be interesting if you could.

[Born to kill 0]

Does this work for the xbox 360?

[Schot 415]

I couldn't say for xbox Born to kill but loco used to be an avid console player. Hopefully he'll be able to tell you.

 

 

I'll give it a try loco. I know that in SP that if you change difficulties the camp progress is reset to accomodate the newly changed difficulty but in MP I don't recall ever seeing that sort of message and I'm pretty sure I recall some of my own HC characters having different progress stats for a few difficulties. I know because of my quest transferring technique is set differently for a couple of difficulties on the same character.

 

P.s.

Ok, I just checked quickly and my 140 HE is at:

• Gold - Chapter 1 Part 3 a
  
• Platinum - Chapter X Part 1 I (completed)
  
• Niobium - Chapter 1 Part 1 a
  

 

I'll do a more thorough check later but it does appear as though it's possible on one character.

 

P.p.s

EDIT: (The below is a bad idea as it could break the campaign progress as pointed out by tha fellows below. ^^)

Something else that occured to me... Ideally the Camp runner would never gain experience in order to be able to enter the Silver camp. If the Camp runner eventually goes over level 100 it will no longer be able to access Silver. Didn't I read about a trick involving a stategy where the player uses a Throwing Star to destroy the Heart of the Machine and thus bypass having to fight the Guardians? If that's true it could be a great step to add to the Guide.

[Woody 24]

Something else that occured to me... Ideally the Camp runner would never gain experience in order to be able to enter the Silver camp. If the Camp runner eventually goes over level 100 it will no longer be able to access Silver. Didn't I read about a trick involving a stategy where the player uses a Throwing Star to destroy the Heart of the Machine and thus bypass having to fight the Guardians? If that's true it could be a great step to add to the Guide.

 

No, as I said, you cannot kill the egg in campain mod. Only in FREE mod.

And, btw, if you kill the egg in camp, it'll corrupt your camp ....

Edited February 11, 2010 by Woody

[Spunky 16]

That's right as I was pummeling the egg with my Shadow Warrior for ages without anything happening, I think that's due to when the egg is destroyed the campaign would be impossible to complete as the guardians won't come out of their "immortal" status.

 

EDIT: too funny as the moment I replied about breaking the campaign you edited your post Woody

Edited February 11, 2010 by Spunky

[Schot 415]

Oops! Ok, I better edit that in my previous post. Don't want to mislead readers. Thanx!

[locolagarto 15]

Does this work for the xbox 360?

 

In theory in online play of XBOX live there is a ten level cap + or - the host. but people say in teh Power level on consoles thread. that if you have 2 players with live accounts on the same console that there is no level cap. so in theory yes you could if you want to dedicate 3 chars out of the max 10 your allowed to be Templates on 1 account plus the Camp runner. you could do camp runs on Console. the question is "has anyone tryed it yet?" that I am not sure. I know bigfoot69 does powerleveling with 2 accounts on same console, I assume he is doing camps as well.

[essjayehm 58]

Something else that occured to me... Ideally the Camp runner would never gain experience in order to be able to enter the Silver camp. If the Camp runner eventually goes over level 100 it will no longer be able to access Silver. Didn't I read about a trick involving a stategy where the player uses a Throwing Star to destroy the Heart of the Machine and thus bypass having to fight the Guardians? If that's true it could be a great step to add to the Guide.

 

No, as I said, you cannot kill the egg in campain mod. Only in FREE mod.

And, btw, if you kill the egg in camp, it'll corrupt your camp ....

 

I've got an interesting one from this weekends' frenzy. My buddy went in to fight guardians in his Plat. campaign. He was low-ish level and thus being very careful. He shot the first guard. for 3-4 mins or so, but the health bar never appeared... turns out that the egg was GONE! It Looked destroyed because the ground below was all charred, etc... and the guardians would not "wake up".

 

I still don't have my head wrapped around how it happened, but it did (are we "on top" of the guardian room when we fight the Inquisitor?). Quitting the game & re-loading seemed to fix this glitch, but I was truly worried that his whole character was "kaput" because he wasn't going to be able to finish Plat. and move into Niob. He is happily touring thru Niob now. All's well that ends well, I suppose.

[Rotluchs 83]

now, I already had 2-3 light camp running veiled Shadow Warrior's @ around level 60-80..

 

I lost all of them, but never on the guardians.. that's for woody, I simply let them rip on dot or Area of Effect of normal foes

 

nah serious:

 

@ all that used to fight the guardians in platin with very low toons:

 

before I reroll my own camp runner Shadow Warrior, I'd like to know..

 

1) what's the minlvl of the guardians in plat for a toon ~60-80 ? wasn't it minlvl around 90 or so iirc?

 

2) for the veiled Shadow Warrior: do you guys primarily make use of sceletal fortification and/or spectral hand? (or other Combat Art's..)

 

3) what dmg should be SH/SF at least at, to kill off the guardians @ in 'adequate' time ?

 

 

edit:

I found loco's Shadow Warrior killing-rate for the plat guardians was already nice and fast (enough) for my taste wondering what dmg u did.. (as I wouldn't need more, just not less ) ?

in fact I could only 'watch' from distance sitting on isle meanwhile

 

how long does it take your camp running Shadow Warrior's in seconds/minutes per guardian? (~clvl 65-80 vs plat guardians)

 

 

edit2:

At what point is the camp saved on the template? Also, can a single character be a template for all 3 camps? Silver, Gold and Platinum? That would certainly make this camp strategy convenient.

 

wouldn't that work for a char with clvl exactly 100 ? (beeing able to enter silver,gold,plat ? ) ..would take more time, lvling up to 100 first, but you'd save 2 charslots..

Edited February 16, 2010 by Rotluchs

[locolagarto 15]

before I reroll my own camp runner Shadow Warrior, I'd like to know..

 

1) what's the minlvl of the guardians in plat for a toon ~60-80 ? wasn't it minlvl around 90 or so iirc?

 

they will spawn at level 96 with a level 1 template. with level 100 template as your noted below, they will probably be 129 or so

 

 

2) for the veiled Shadow Warrior: do you guys primarily make use of sceletal fortification and/or spectral hand? (or other Combat Art's..)

Exactly I used Viel of course, with guidon/tower combo to loosen up the generators and do small damage to guardians, and spectral hand with a LL% weapon in hand

 

3) what dmg should be SH/SF at least at, to kill off the guardians @ in 'adequate' time ?

I was getting about 7000 damage from spectral hand with 2.2% LL from a 2-hand sword. took maybe 20-30 max seconds for the level 96 guardians on Platinum with level 70 Shadow Warrior. silver level 26 was 1 hit, gold level 73 was quick maybe 4-5 hits

 

edit:

I found loco's Shadow Warrior killing-rate for the plat guardians was already nice and fast (enough) for my taste wondering what dmg u did.. (as I wouldn't need more, just not less ) ?

in fact I could only 'watch' from distance sitting on isle meanwhile

 

how long does it take your camp running Shadow Warrior's in seconds/minutes per guardian? (~clvl 65-80 vs plat guardians)

 

ooops! I guess I just answered that one up top. I had only smith arts socketed into a full set of Astral aspect gear. about 500-600% worth a smith damage. Astral lore was at level.

 

edit2:

At what point is the camp saved on the template? Also, can a single character be a template for all 3 camps? Silver, Gold and Platinum? That would certainly make this camp strategy convenient.

 

wouldn't that work for a char with clvl exactly 100 ? (beeing able to enter silver,gold,plat ? ) ..would take more time, lvling up to 100 first, but you'd save 2 charslots..

 

As I said a level 100 camp runner would give you level 120ish guardians making the kill time a little longer and more dangerous

[gogoblender 3,315]

First class work! I just caught his now Loco...I still can't believe how much work you two have put into this with the templates and guides for everyone here to be helped by. I can just imagine the late night knocks on the door from peeps asking for you to help with the niob runs!

 

I can't stop thinking how far all of us are distilling this game down to play elements noone would have imagined a year back.

 

Great job you two!

 

Stickied!

 

 

gogo

[Rotluchs 83]

btw, can you transfer the 'template's' campaign status to another fresh toon the same way like for completing it/unlocking next difficulty?

 

 

..that is, I just got another acc key recently, so would have enough room to spare for each silver/gold/plat template..

 

could do some runs for others then too, to help out a bit.. maybe you wanna take a break someday, u would need peeps to jump in then

 

 

(but if I have to, I will bite into the sour apple and do the whole thing 3 times, altough platin miasmas gives me creeps only thinking about it.. time-consuming and Area of Effect/dot..)

Edited February 17, 2010 by Rotluchs

[Woody 24]

The safest way to use a veil Shadow Warrior is to use a LL% Shuriken.

You cannot be detected by right & left click (100% invisibility) if you use a ranged wep.

 

@Rot : RIP on guardians, only for Woody.

[locolagarto 15]

btw, can you transfer the 'template's' campaign status to another fresh toon the same way like for completing it/unlocking next difficulty?

 

 

..that is, I just got another acc key recently, so would have enough room to spare for each silver/gold/plat template..

 

could do some runs for others then too, to help out a bit.. maybe you wanna take a break someday, u would need peeps to jump in then

 

 

(but if I have to, I will bite into the sour apple and do the whole thing 3 times, altough platin miasmas gives me creeps only thinking about it.. time-consuming and Area of Effect/dot..)

 

Yes, it would work the exact same way as the camp run. except on the second server where your toon gets the GAME SAVED message. we don't finish the camp. that toon should then be able to be a template. we can test when I get back from my trip. I am in Indianapolis IN atm for a job interview. be back tomorrow night.

[gogoblender 3,315]

I am in Indianapolis IN atm for a job interview. be back tomorrow night.

 

 

Good luck!

 

 

gogo

[Rotluchs 83]

originally the templates stopped just before talking to Liosolath (sp). yesterday I advanced them to the door before the guardians, so I don't have to fight the Grand Inquisitor for every camp run, I just have to hit the last 2 switches and kill the guardians. saved at least 30 mins in the whole process.

 

Hmmm...... 1 template for all. I think it might be possible to go back in a completed campaign and save over it. but I am pretty sure it will either restart the camp at Act I or ...... I won't try with Furian's templates but would be interesting if you could.

ok, well I did the silver campaign yesterday night, end the last chapter of it, today..

 

 

I have tested something, thought why stopping with the templates at the monolith,

and not even save more time killing Nimonuil the Grand Inqui AND all guardians?

 

well, it works !

 

so the is no pondering anymore how to kill off platin level 90ish guardians with a toon ~60 fast or save enough ,

at least NOT for just a toon to unlock the difficulties.. (any char that can make it from the monolith to the machine room will do now)

 

so the steps are:

 

1.) login with a template for the according difficulty (chapter X, all guardians killed, but switch not activated)

2.) login with any chars that want the next difficulty unlocked + the char that will activate the switch

3.) leave with template

4.) activate switch

 

do step 1-4 again, on a new server, then the quest progress will be updated from first run, and difficulty unlocks

 

 

edit:

 

I will still wait with the other templates and NOT kill the guardians or nimonuil

as this will give me the chance to pass on their saves to a char that made it to level 100 in free mode, without any campaign solved..

 

to this char, one could then pass on savegames from the monolith before nimonuil > then killing the machines in each difficulties...

 

that way you could make a level 100 template that unlocks all difficulties, from silver to niob..

Edited February 18, 2010 by Rotluchs

[Barristan 14]

Heya,

 

was happy to be the subject of one of Rot's tests

 

Worked like a charm!

 

Greetz

[Dragon Brother 620]

Nice work you've done their Rot!

[warriorc 0]

I have experimented in es server (I have 2 accounts) and if is possible play with one runner with Campaign finished is very fast.

1,2 and 3 ok. 4 Run runner and oppen all 2 doors and kill all, 5 transport the campee, 6 leave runner (if no leave campaign is a runner), 7 campaign finished with campee^^.

 

Greetings

Edited February 21, 2010 by warriorc

[Rotluchs 83]

completed the last and final temp,

had to do platin the long way from scratch,

 

 

transferring the temp save to a new temp didnt work

transferring the saves in the middle of the campaign from one char to another worked normally again later, I did so in Chapter 3 @ orclands..

 

 

thought I add the templates here now for a better overview

Rotluchs

Runner: Lynx (DA) Platybelodon VIII

Silver Temp: Lynx (DA) SG

Gold Temp: Lynx (DA) Lacerta Agilis III

Platin Temp: Lynx (DA) Platybelodon IX

Edited February 28, 2010 by Rotluchs

[locolagarto 15]

I think we can cut our 3 templates down to one!

 

1. Start a new char level 1.

2. use the existing templates to speed camp her to Niob.

3. Have the new Char then start a silver camp and have a camp runner run her to the switch and stop. Don't finish the camp!

4. then repeat with Gold and Plat.

5 you should now have a single level 1 Char that can template for all three camps