Missions: Standard Vs. Open World

[SystemiK]

GF and I have been playing open world exclusively since the recent sale. We had decided that open world is our jam being more like most other survival games we've played.

However, as others have mentioned it can get a bit stale after awhile. We are planning to explore the missions side of things over our long holiday and are wondering, having never even done a mission would we be better off dipping our toes into Standard missions or the Open World missions?

We are far enough along to do either type of missions, just not sure the pro's and con's of each type.

Edit to add: I also have a bit more time to play than my GF does. With that in mind would me playing missions solo in open world deprive her of those particular missions (I am host) or does it even matter? If so would I be better off doing standard drop missions when she is unable to join?

[Tanyon]

Well for me the pros and cons are setup.

If you do open world missions you can grab food and supplies right from your base and get started on the mission.

If you do a standard mission you start with nothing other than the gear you bring down with you from the station and if the mission requires you to get to T3 or T4 equipment that could take a very long time.

Now with that being said some missions that unlock access points on maps (caves), armors, weapons and items can only be done through mission format. I'd probably focus on those since they actually unlock specific things that you may or may not want to use in the future.

[SystemiK]

Thanks. When you say "some can only be done through mission format", are you referring to the base game missions or open world?

[Tanyon]

Originally posted by SystemiK:

Thanks. When you say "some can only be done through mission format", are you referring to the base game missions or open world?

Base game missions.

[Rekal]

Originally posted by DarthTanyon:

Now with that being said some missions that unlock access points on maps (caves), armors, weapons and items can only be done through mission format.

This is something they moved all the missions on the mission track around for. All map shortcut/biome unlock missions are Operations available in Open World and were moved in the mission chain directly in front for the Exploration missions for the area they unlock. All other missions were moved to chain off of the Exploration missions. Plus except for the target dummy on the training mission all tech upgrade unlocks have either removed the unlock marker or converted into Operations as well. The the exotic tech unlock mission PAYDAY: Extraction is no longer required for the radar and extractor techs so the Unlock marker was removed.

So you can look at the mission track and see that all shortcut/biome and tech unlocks are available as Operations that can be performed in Open World.

Originally posted by SystemiK:

However, as others have mentioned it can get a bit stale after awhile. We are planning to explore the missions side of things over our long holiday and are wondering, having never even done a mission would we be better off dipping our toes into Standard missions or the Open World missions?

We are far enough along to do either type of missions, just not sure the pro's and con's of each type.

When comparing the two types of gameplay the Open World is sort of an extended stay type mission format. Before you have a set of basic Workshop Gear doing Operations in OW will be more straight forward and easy.

In Open World you can build up to a T4 base and continually use it plus the T4 gear to run each Operation. So with limited workshop gear this means you at least get to use a consistent bit of good kit. Biggest downside is the travel time - they don't change where the objectives are, you've just got to move to them. If you don't look ahead for the Operation details you may end up running back and forth multiple times.

For a Mission drop they'll place you in a spot near the objectives. You build up to whatever tech level you feel comfortable completing the objectives and off you go. The big draw here is that instead of the huge travel time requirement Operations impart on you, you're spending that time building up a rudimentary base which means much more character experience to level and player experience at building and remembering the steps for climbing the tech tiers. The drawback here is if you don't have a basic set of workshop gear the grind can be annoying each time.

Hunting down exotics should be something you look into learning on your Open World map to start with. You can sell 1 exotic for 5 ren in the workshop. Once you understand the mechanics of searching for and extracting the exotics the Missions become much more lucrative than the Open World Operations. Your Open World Exotics only respawn three hours after you extract them, but each Mission will have the deposits waiting to be found.

My suggested Ren only workshop gear before venturing into missions:

• Xigo "HARK" S5 Envirosuit - best general use suit. No exotics.
• Naneo Armor - immediate protection from Arctic and Desert biome drops.
• Survival Backpack - Speed boost plus a few other nice stat bonuses.
• Mass Dampener Module x2 - More speed boosts.
• Shengong "HULU" Canteen - immediate non-leaking water source - cools in Desert, take it off in the Arctic or you freeze.
• Shengong "LIWEI" O2 Tank - immediate O2 storage, scrambling for oxite a thing of the past.
• Shengong "QIE" Knife - best skinning yield in workshop, descent melee weapon.
• Shengong "JIJING" Bow - Great starter bow, only crafted compound bow is better.

The only workshop upgrades to some of these items I'd recommend right away that cost purple exotic are the CX-400 armor and the Larkwell Martinex Compound Bow. Everything else is easy to replace with steel gear from a rudimentary cave base.

Your first 350 exotics should definitely go to unlocking the Sinotai Dropship Recall Beacon. It cuts out so much travel time at the end of Missions by calling your Dropship to you. Plus it also allows you to use your Dropships as mobile storage in your Open World map - as long as you don't ride the Dropship to orbit everything you place in it will still be there when you move it.

[william_es]

Some bad news. I think the person who is the host for a mission, is the only one who gets credit for "completing" it. Get the node unlocked, etc.

I could be wrong on that, they've changed a ton of stuff since the game launched. When I do join someone else's game, I just do so temporarily to help them, then jump out. I don't stick around to completion/finish. I get them out of a jam, and then bounce back to my games.

If you're going to do missions, try to do them together at the same time. If you complete several missions, and then your wife joins you on a mission that's not even available to her (since she hasn't done the intervening missions yet), and I am very positive she won't get credit. So be prepared to back up and re-do missions you've already done.

As far as what type of mission? do both.

If you can mine exotics in your open world, try that. If you have a nest egg of exotics, that would let you buy some decent gear for trying an actual mission mission. They get much easier when you have some workshop gear available to you the second after you step out of the drop pod. Exotics convert to regular credits at a 1 to 5 ratio. You can get a ton of credits from even a small exotics deposit. And mining a deposit in your open world would be easier.

I still believe it's possible to get more exotics quicker and with less headache in actual missions (not open world). Depending on the mission you do, the exotics are sitting on the map ready to be mined the second you step out of the pod. They're in a small number of possible locations (at least on olympus and styx). With the right investment in gear, you can shoot straight to those possible locations and find the nodes. Then mine them out.

[КрендельФигов]

As far as I know:
1) Only those who were online at the time of his murder will receive a reward for killing the boss.
2) ‘Final task’, which will complete the mission, must also be completed together.

[SystemiK]

Thank you everyone, this info has been extremely helpful and no doubt we will be referring back to it as we progress.

[william_es]

Something to maybe add to the workshop wishlist:

The cx 700 series armor can be very very useful. It gives you a huge stealth buff, and works as fairly decent cold protection too. Not as good as fur armor, which has a specific arctic defense. You will see cold debuffs, but usually not bad enough to cause frostbite or anything more severe.

The armor also has decent physical protection too, equivalent to many of the medium tier armors you'd craft.

The 700 series armor does require exotics to purchase, and it's 5 parts, so it's not cheap. But in this game, stealth pays off tremendously. The 700 armor is something a player could use who hasn't put enough points into the hunter skilltree to unlock ghillie armor. The 700 armor's stealth bonus is actually better then ghillie in certain ways, and it beats ghillie with it's cold and physical protection.