Deep within a Martian crater, a heavily fortified
Carnax installation houses a colossal superweapon. It must be destroyed before they use it to wipe out humanity.
Traversal
The
Daedalus facility is located hundreds of meters inside of a steep impact crater wall. Players must navigate this steep drop, walking along thin pathways and jumping to lower platforms. Once they reach the bottom, they will encounter the Outer Perimeter. These are high walls guarded by patrols of Carnax warriors. Massive blast doors with reinforced plating seal the entrance. There are several terminals with red symbols located at multiple points along the perimeter walls. Activating them turns the symbols green. Activating all terminals unlock the blast doors. Carnax will continue to spawn until the blast doors are disabled. By activating all eight switches, the doors will open and the team can enter.
The Labyrinth
Once inside the facility, players find themselves navigating a complex maze of corridors, each filled with numerous obstacles. The maze twists and turns and many of them look alike, so players must rely on their wits and observation skills to overcome various obstacles such as security lasers that summon security, pressure-sensitive floor traps, defensive turrets, troop patrols, and hidden passageways.
Security Breach
Once inside the control room, players must disable the facility's defenses and gain access to the restricted core, blocked by a pair of blast doors with four unpowered lights above them. The ring-shaped area is divided into four sections, each with their own terminal.
The area will be filled with waves of enemies, one of which is a powerful
Key Holder who carries a special key required to activate the terminals. Defeating the
Key Holder drops a key on the ground that when picked up, gives the
Access buff for 60 seconds. After obtaining the
Key buff, all terminals in the area become visible, displaying a randomly assigned symbol in red. However, only the player with the
Access buff can see the correct green symbol. The player with the
Access buff must quickly identify the correct terminal and activate it within a limited time frame. Once they successfully activate the correct terminal, their
Access buff disappears, all of the terminals become blank, and one of the four lights above the blast doors illuminates. Players must repeat the process of defeating the
Key Holder, obtaining the
Access buff, identifying the correct terminal, and activating it in sequence. Each time the process is repeated, a new set of symbols will appear on the terminals. Activating four correct terminals will complete the encounter and open the blast doors.
Once a player has their
Access buff removed by time expiring or by activating a terminal, they will gain a debuff called
Security Refresh which disallows picking up another
Access buff until it expires. If the player with the
Access buff activates an incorrect terminal or fails to activate the correct terminal within the time limit, an announcement will be made, indicating failure. The players will need to restart the process and defeat the
Key Holder again to obtain a new
Key buff.
Around the edge of the room on the ceiling, lights will slowly illuminate forming a ring that indicates the amount of allowed time before the room is purged and the players are killed. Activating a correct terminal resets the lights.
Icarus Climb
As players climb further and further, they encounter a treacherous jumping puzzle that is suspended high above the facility over a vast chasm. They must navigate a series of precarious catwalks with environmental hazards threatening to knock them off. Timing and precision will be crucial to successfully navigate this section, as players leap across platforms, dodge swinging pendulums, and avoid collapsing structures to enter the final arena.
Core Access
After overcoming the jumping puzzle, players reach the core chamber. The core chamber is heavily guarded by numerous enemies. There are five terminals scattered around the arena and the neutron core in the center. Players must use the skills they learned previously about terminal activation to input the correct sequence. However, now terminal activation requires two users to simultaneously input the code.
Two
Key Holders will spawn, each dropping a key on death that gives the
Access buff for 60 seconds. After obtaining the
Key buff, all terminals in the area become visible, displaying a randomly assigned symbol in red. Only the players with the
Access buff can see the correct green symbols. Both players with the
Access buff must quickly identify the correct terminals and activate them within a limited time frame. Because of the
Security Refresh debuff that disallows picking up another
Access buff until it expires, players will need to rotate who activated terminals.
Once they successfully activate the correct terminals, their
Access buff disappears, all of the terminals become blank. Additionally, the rotating rings on the cannon begin to glow in multiple spots, becoming vulnerable. Players will have a limited time to destroy all of the glowing spots on the rings.
Players must repeat the process of defeating the
Key Holders, obtaining the
Access buffs, identifying the correct terminals, and activating them in sequence. Each time the process is repeated, a new set of symbols will appear on the terminals. Destroying all of the vulnerable spots on the rings will complete the encounter.
Conduits running from the core and up to the weapon will slowly illuminate, indicating the amount of allowed time before the weapon fires and the players are killed. Activating a correct set of terminals resets the lights.
Asterion’s Challenge
Once the weapon has been disabled, all that remains to disable the facility is the neutron core. A terminal appears in front of it which players can interact with. Upon activation, the core comes alive and begins making a lot of noise. Several glowing shield generators for the central core will open around the arena near the terminals used for the previous encounter. Additionally, a huge enemy called
The Minotaur appears. It will chase players around the arena but is immune to damage.
Players will need to locate a
Key Holder, defeat them, pick up the key they drop, and use the
Access buff to view the terminal at the core which will display a green symbol. Another player will need to defeat a
Key Holder as well for their key and
Access buff, then locate the terminal that corresponds to the symbol at the core terminal. Both players with the
Access buff must activate both terminals within three seconds of each other. Correctly activating both terminals disables the shield generator at the outer terminal. Continue this process five times. Because of the
Security Refresh debuff that disallows picking up another
Access buff until it expires, players may need to rotate who activates terminals.
Once all the shield generators are disabled, the neutron core exponentially glows and becomes vulnerable for a short period. Dealing enough damage to the core will create a large pulse which stuns the
Minotaur and makes it vulnerable so players can damage it for a limited time. Eventually, the core will stabilize, the
Minotaur will become invincible, and the cycle starts over.
There can be three rounds of this sequence before the core becomes critical and kills all players. Defeating the
Minotaur completes the raid.
