Smugglers are known for their underworld connections, and their unique mission in Game Update 15 sees them providing extra materials to allied traders to help in the building of combat resources.
Phase I: Construction[]
To take part in this, or any mission in the Invasion, players must be at least Combatant.
Slicing[]
Using the Radial menu gives the "Slice" option.
The third ingredient, "Manufacturing Boosters".
"Slice the supply terminal to provide improved components for your faction."
This is the smallest of the missions added to the Invasion systems, but possibly one of the most useful. Conversing with the construction terminals in the city or in the camps surrounding the city and clicking on the third option "Slice Terminal" starts the process off.
Scanning for Faults[]
The player then enters into a minigame in which they have to slip through 10 layers of security to slice the terminals. In each stage, they are told that they have to scan one of three parts of the terminal to find security flaws. The three components are:
- Data Pipeline
- Instructions Handler
- Operations Core
Once one of these proves to be the correct option, the player moves through to the second level and repeats the process. Guessing the correct component moves the player to the next level, whereas selecting incorrectly returns the player to level one. The path through the components remains the same (so if a player is returned to level one they can follow the same guesses as before to get back to where they guessed incorrectly) until the systems is reset.
Exploiting the Faults[]
At any time during the process, the Smuggler can choose the fourth option, "Disconnect and start slicing the terminal." This option will open up a new window with the same three choices in it. The player now starts slicing through the levels that they have previously identified. Each slice takes five seconds and the process continues until the player makes a mistake, which resets the terminal. Slicing through all 10 levels of security completes this mission, but only slicing through some of the levels does still help your faction.
Making a mistake during this process gives the Smuggler "a debilitating shock", which manifests itself in the form of 5 Fatigue debuffs. This Fatigue slows down the slicing process further, but can be cured by a friendly Entertainer.
In doing this, a Smuggler gives Traders a third ingredient which causes the stack size of crafted Tools to increase. These Manufacturing Boosters or Material Enhancers are of "questionable legality" and occupy the third crafting slot in the creation of Tools. This increased stack size allows the trader to craft more tools in each attempt which can then be traded with other players and vastly speeds up the construction of defensive or offensive units.
Construction terminals can be sliced more than once, allowing the effect of slicing to happen up to a maximum of 10 times. The Defensive side has only one terminal to slice and the Offensive side has three. The slicing effect will decay over time, but continuing to slice the terminal will continue to have a positive effect on the tools that traders can build for your faction.
Easy Steps[]
The slicing process is devided into two phases, Flaw Finding and Slicing. The first phase allows you to go through each step to search for flaws, you will generally have 2 minutes to do this. Slicing wil generally take 1 minute. The total available time is 3 minutes. With practice you will know how much time you can use on each phase.
- 1. Open your notepad (/note) and prepare to type in the notepad.
- 2. Talk to the terminal and click away the quest pop-up immediately, every second counts.
- 2. Find the first level exploitable flaw.
- 3. Note which number the flaw had in your notepad (1, 2 or 3 is the fastest way)
- 4. Find the second exploitable flaw.
- 3. Register the number in your notepad.
- 4. Continue like this till you have at least 6 flaws registered in your notepad, then continue to find additional flaws up til the timer has about 65 seconds left.
- 5. When you have ~60 seconds left, disconnect and start slicing.
- 4. Each slice takes 5 seconds and you'll need a further 1–3 seconds for the popup window to appear (depending on lag). With 6 sliced steps thats about 35–40 seconds of slicing - provided you don't make mistakes during the slicing process and there is no lag. 7 flaws is ~49 seconds and 10 flaws take anything from 55 (shortest possible time, optimal conditions) to 90 seconds (worst case scenario with no errors).
Making a mistake during slicing will provide you with a debilitating chock, a reset of the sliced steps to 0 and with the increase in fatigue - also an increase in the time it takes to slice. In short - don't make mistakes if you plan on getting tokens for this!
Successfully slicing the first 5 steps will provide you with 1 token, every step beyond that will give you an additional token, up to a maximum of 5 tokens. Post-GU17, the chance to hit all 10 flaws is very low, getting 5-8 is the norm (8 bordering on lucky). So thats 1-3 tokens per slice, or a tokengain of ~1 per minute.
This is an exercise that will jog your memory, so if thats an area you usually have problems with you will likely find this frustrating and/or boring. There is the alternative of constructing turrets, patrol points or barricades instead.
- Original Credits: ChartheRedComet
Phase II: The Invasion[]
Smugglers can also take part in the General Combat Missions during the combat Phase.