Xenowars | Defense, Dungeon, And Dung
Chronicon | Act V Going To Hell
If I didn’t like the last act of the heat. I surely was not going to like Act V as I was going to Hell and deeper. I was at least excited to finish off this last act before taking a look at what I’ll be doing for the end game.
I’m not sure if back in the day when I played Act V was out yet. It might be one I was waiting around to release. I do know I was waiting to return to this game for something. It however ended up being a few more years of me not checking into this game before I realize it was time to return.
It seemed only fitting I now had a giant Sandworm as a companion. It ended up coming as a reward for an item I got for finishing off the last act. While at some point I think I’ll end up going without a companion of any time. It was at least fun for now to have one.
Thankfully the companion acts all on its own and I don’t have any control over it. A major benefit is it will more than likely have aggression on something as I move forward helping me keep my kill streak timer going. The downside all the creatures in the area won’t always be nice and bundle into a small spot for my area of effect damage spells. Including the ones that pull in anything close as the companion more than like got aggression on it out of those spell ranges to do so.
The Gates Of Hell felt like a massive zone. For the time being the gates you need to unlock to move forward were locked. I ended to go around first and secure three areas of the zone for the group of NPCs that were working on defending this area.
I decided since it looked like I’d need to clear most of this zone anyways to get to the three different objectives I might as well just do that. So I set out to discover the entire area and try to rack up some nice kill streak bonuses along the way.
In three of the directions, I would find beacons that I had to activate. This ended up taking a lot longer than I was expecting as I overlooked one of the areas I needed to go to and ended up doing almost a full loop of the zone twice.
Sometimes it’s far more helpful to just read the quest objectives than just go out and assume you will find it by wandering around without a thought in the world. We were not on the surface of the world after all but at the Gates Of Hell.
Eventfully I get my act together this however would not be the last time I’d get lost down here. As some of these places are quite wide and open and it’s hard to tell and see icons on the map when you pull it up.
The Gates Of Hell however were still not open. The NPCs decided next they wanted me to fetch lots of explosives. It was time to blow the sucker wide open! I then had to travel through several floors of Fort Hellfire.
After downing a boss there was a room it was guarding that was loaded with explosives. While I’m all for a giant explosion. This seems a bit excessive. I sure hope these guys know what they are doing.
After the gate was blasted wide open and we marched down into Hell itself. The NPCs relocated to another camp in a zone called Hellscape. I was tasked with finding Major Aulfere. I also picked up a side quest to kill 100 Gluttons.
Hellscape itself was another large open area. I kept running into an issue down here. I’d find stairways and other ways to get to another zone. However, I was not far along enough in the storyline to be permitted to take those routes. At least I had an idea of where I needed to go once the time came so I took a mental note of where on the map I could find different zones at.
I then found what I was looking for the Cavern Of Pain. It was quite a tight cavern filled with some rather nasty-looking things. This eventually lead to me needing to down another boss and free Major Aulfere
It was at this point my hopes of this being a rather quick act faded. As I then needed to go out and kill an Aberration boss. This would require traversing several floors of the Hall of Flesh. The zone names down here sure leave to thoughts of suffering and places you would not want to go to for vacation.
At least along the way, I was able to finish off the side quest I had picked up. I was starting to wonder when that would be the case. It turns out the Gluttons I needed to remove were only on the first floor of Hall Of Flesh. After I got to the second floor and realized I could not find any more of them I backtracked slightly just to finish off the quest before moving forward.
The boss arena for Aberration has to be the most disturbed place I’ve yet to see in the game so far. Thankfully my companion marched up there like a champ and we don’t have to fully look at all the horrors in that room.
All I can say for certain is my fire magic burned hotter than the hells of this place. While I did struggle with running out of mana on this boss fight. I did not need to do a lot of healing with health potions saving them for another day.
I even ended up getting a new chest armor piece that gave me an increase of 530 health and 100 damage. The amount of health I know have is becoming quite shocking and I’ll need every single bit of it soon enough.
Final Thoughts
The final act so far has been quite the grueling one. In an adventure, I was hoping I was nearing completion. It turns out I was just getting started. At least I’ve been able to survive hell this long so far. Things are about to take a bit of a turn which just makes them all more fun in a game like this. The game however was going to make me wait for it.
Other Content
- Chronicon | Bosses And Seeing A Lady
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Chronicon.