Confused by Welkin's Reach

[emitfudd]

The Abeyance and Sylvan's Cradle were pretty straight forward. I have run all over the map in Welkin's Reach and I don't see the observatory on the map. It says explore the observatory.

Edit: I still don't know where the observatory is. I jumped down into the area where you instantly die and respawned inside of it. Killed a few bad guys. Now I am stuck again. No idea what I am supposed to do here. So far I have been loving the game. Now, not so much.

Update: After countless hours and more ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ than I have ever put up with in a game, I have finally finished Welkin's Reach. I will never ever go back to this hell hole.

[Serath]

This part of the game was not well thought out if you end up spawning inside the pit whatever it's called. I kinda had this issue, but backwards.

The observatory is somewhere in the middle of the map. (I think the story realms are not randomly generated.) It's a tall dome building like a, uh, observatory. Finishing that area will give you a buff that will protect you from the environment that instantly kills you. Of course....it doesn't actually tell you this unless you actually take a look at your buff icons, and that it only lasts a few minutes. Unless you were told, by the time you realize what it is it may be too late, so you need to hurry, but you can always come back to get another buff. (Which is what my issue was; I was able to go through it once safely, went back up and touched it when it wore off, died not knowing how, didn't know how to get past it again until I asked around.)

What you might of triggered was the lodestar at the bottom the instant death field place. You shouldn't actually be stuck because the lodestar acts just like any lodestar you craft yourself, and you should be able to teleport back to the beginning of the map where you walked through the portal, and vice versa.

Though i personally wouldn't just continue on from there, as you've essentially broke a quest sequence here. i would actually try and finish the observatory first to get the log back in sync,

[catch22atplay]

As soon as you warp to Welkin's Reach exit the building and it's straight ahead. How can you miss that? Take that blue jump thing to the Zepplin to the right as that's a quest hub and enter the observatory left of it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3360023982

And i've no idea what instant death field he's talking about. Oh wait maybe he's talking about Empyrean Well. Ya you will die a lot there. The most frustrating area in the game by a long shot. I managed to finish the well but i hated it.

[emitfudd]

Originally posted by catch22atplay:

As soon as you warp to Welkin's Reach exit the building and it's straight ahead. How can you miss that? Take that blue jump thing to the Zepplin to the right as that's a quest hub and enter the observatory left of it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3360023982

And i've no idea what instant death field he's talking about. Oh wait maybe he's talking about Empyrean Well. Ya you will die a lot there. The most frustrating area in the game by a long shot. I managed to finish the well but i hated it.

I missed that because it doesn't say observatory on the map. The first thing I did when I went to Welkin's Reach was glide down into the area you are describing. I died instantly.

[emitfudd]

Originally posted by Serath:

This part of the game was not well thought out if you end up spawning inside the pit whatever it's called. I kinda had this issue, but backwards.

The observatory is somewhere in the middle of the map. (I think the story realms are not randomly generated.) It's a tall dome building like a, uh, observatory. Finishing that area will give you a buff that will protect you from the environment that instantly kills you. Of course....it doesn't actually tell you this unless you actually take a look at your buff icons, and that it only lasts a few minutes. Unless you were told, by the time you realize what it is it may be too late, so you need to hurry, but you can always come back to get another buff. (Which is what my issue was; I was able to go through it once safely, went back up and touched it when it wore off, died not knowing how, didn't know how to get past it again until I asked around.)

What you might of triggered was the lodestar at the bottom the instant death field place. You shouldn't actually be stuck because the lodestar acts just like any lodestar you craft yourself, and you should be able to teleport back to the beginning of the map where you walked through the portal, and vice versa.

Though i personally wouldn't just continue on from there, as you've essentially broke a quest sequence here. i would actually try and finish the observatory first to get the log back in sync,

Thanks, but I'm even more confused now. I know most people hate games that hold your hand but right now I am missing compass markers that tell me where to go and what to do. LOL

[emitfudd]

There's also some mention of a crash survivor that has some info on how to disable the death field? Can't find her. I did find one of her journals.

[Sabertom]

There should be seven flags on the map. These are quest markers. Two for the crash sites where you find journals. The other five flags are bastille of agility you have to finish. When the questbook guides you to enter the observatory you have done it already, I think.

When you finished the five sites the doors of the observatory are now open. Port back to the entrance point of Welkins Reach and go out of the building. You can see the observatory on top of a pleateau directly in front of you (to the southeast). Glide to it with the umbrella. Enter this observatory, clear it and on the very top of it, there is a small room with some stairs leading to the "Empyrean Favor" - Use it and you get a buff that lasts 10 minutes. As long as this buff is active you can go through the barrier of the Well . Inside you dont need the buff. Only to get through the barrier.

[Zathabar]

Originally posted by catch22atplay:

Oh wait maybe he's talking about Empyrean Well. Ya you will die a lot there. The most frustrating area in the game by a long shot. I managed to finish the well but i hated it.

HATE-ED-IT as well. Will absolutely never attempt it again not even if you paid me.

Devs (assuming there are any left) Jump challenges are NOT well liked. And your vertigo inducing antics in Welkins are the single worst example of them I seen for an age.

[Zathabar]

Originally posted by emitfudd:

There's also some mention of a crash survivor that has some info on how to disable the death field? Can't find her. I did find one of her journals.

Jump/glide to the Air ship you can see from the spawn point structure the chap their will explain much.

[catch22atplay]

And sadly the observatory never shows as a map marker. And we all died jumping to the crater thing. Sabertom explained it rather well. I initially didn't do it like he did. I instead ignored the locked doors to the observatory and instead entered from above. I did later finish it the correct way. I may have just added to the confusion. Welkin's Reach is just stupidly badly designed. You may quit the game doing the crater/well. Probably yell at the screen like a lot of us do. I'm betting a lot of people quit because of this map. However the game does get much better after that map. So don't get too discouraged by Welkin's.

Make sure you upgrade Climbing picks and Umbrella for this map. Not mandatory but it sure helps.

[emitfudd]

This ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ realm has just about got me to the point of quitting the game. I finished the observatory although I don't remember getting any kind of reward. I have gone into the well and know where the 3 blue things are but can't get to the 3rd one in time. Why the ♥♥♥♥ won't my climbing picks grab onto the floating stones every time. And why the ♥♥♥♥ did they think it was a good idea to disable the umbrella when you have the climbing picks in hand? Once I start falling I am not fast enough to switch weapons so the umbrella is active again. Real ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun! FU developers.

[emitfudd]

Originally posted by Sabertom:

There should be seven flags on the map. These are quest markers. Two for the crash sites where you find journals. The other five flags are bastille of agility you have to finish. When the questbook guides you to enter the observatory you have done it already, I think.

When you finished the five sites the doors of the observatory are now open. Port back to the entrance point of Welkins Reach and go out of the building. You can see the observatory on top of a pleateau directly in front of you (to the southeast). Glide to it with the umbrella. Enter this observatory, clear it and on the very top of it, there is a small room with some stairs leading to the "Empyrean Favor" - Use it and you get a buff that lasts 10 minutes. As long as this buff is active you can go through the barrier of the Well . Inside you dont need the buff. Only to get through the barrier.

As far as I can see, the same thing happens if you die going through the barrier. It just spawns you inside.

[catch22atplay]

Yup it's fracking horrible. Take a break til tomorrow then go back to it. I think at your point i went and made better grappling hooks. The jumping is the stupidest since Tomb Raider. I remember quitting that game for over a year to finally make the needed jumps in like 2 or 3 attempts. And I NEVER EVER wanted to go thru something that horrible again until this game came out.

After the 3 jumps then you gotta do 2 more or maybe it's another 3 but just need to use your head to figure it out. And remember you can shoot them. Bring a rifle preferably. Not sure you can make them yet. Pistol can work and you can stand on 1 spot to hit the 3. For the next 2 or 3 whatever it was the range is far. So doubt pistol will work. Well pistol in 1 hand and umbrella in the other should be fine. I didn't use ranged weapon for any. And i had to destroy every box and urn i saw. So lots and lots of deaths.

[emitfudd]

Originally posted by catch22atplay:

Yup it's fracking horrible. Take a break til tomorrow then go back to it. I think at your point i went and made better grappling hooks. The jumping is the stupidest since Tomb Raider. I remember quitting that game for over a year to finally make the needed jumps in like 2 or 3 attempts. And I NEVER EVER wanted to go thru something that horrible again until this game came out.

After the 3 jumps then you gotta do 2 more or maybe it's another 3 but just need to use your head to figure it out. And remember you can shoot them. Bring a rifle preferably. Not sure you can make them yet. Pistol can work and you can stand on 1 spot to hit the 3. For the next 2 or 3 whatever it was the range is far. So doubt pistol will work. Well pistol in 1 hand and umbrella in the other should be fine. I didn't use ranged weapon for any. And i had to destroy every box and urn i saw. So lots and lots of deaths.

I have the best gear I can craft at T2. I had no problems with Tomb Raider. I do have problems with games that have a distinct lack of direction. This game was poorly made in general. They could have done much better.

[Mahzrael]

Charm of the wanderer and the gliding charm will help. Food that gives high bonus to stamina and lasts a while helps too. The climbing picks I think work better the higher their gear level (I could be wrong) . Not only make the picks out of T2 stuff, but then , throw an infusion onto them (stam regeneration T2) and a charm onto them, then put a spell on them even if you wont want to use the spell, all of that will push the gear level up. I was able to make climbing picks that let me mostly skip the jumping. When the picks can reach really far, and with the wanderer charm cutting down on the stamina that burns while using the picks, its manageable.

[Chris]

Originally posted by emitfudd:

The Abeyance and Sylvan's Cradle were pretty straight forward. I have run all over the map in Welkin's Reach and I don't see the observatory on the map. It says explore the observatory.

Edit: I still don't know where the observatory is. I jumped down into the area where you instantly die and respawned inside of it. Killed a few bad guys. Now I am stuck again. No idea what I am supposed to do here. So far I have been loving the game. Now, not so much.

Others have provided good guidance in their posts, but just to add my own version of a quest log:

0) This map is intended to teach you umbrella glide mechanics. Because of this, the gravity is altered & there are numerous blue "jump pads" scattered around the map that will launch you in to the air. Umbrella-gliding uses up stamina, so try to either craft an umbrella with +Stamina materials or cook/eat some max-stamina boosting foods to give you a greater glide time.

1) Exit the spawn point & launch yourself toward the crashed airship visible directly in front. Listen to the sad tale of the crashed crew & receive a side-quest mission to go check on survivors of the other crashed airships. You will see these crashes as icons on your map, and can locate glowing journals at those locations to advance the quest.

2a) Make your way to the "Observatory" which is the dome-topped building visible from the spawn point & near the crashed airship. You will discover that the doors are locked, but can be unlocked by completing 3 "Bastille of Agility" challenges.

2b) Make your way to the (marked on map) Bastille of Agility challenges, and solve them by reaching the glowing pyramid. After completing 3, the ground-floor doors of the Observatory will be unlocked.

2c) Make your way BACK to the Observatory, and complete the Fae Intellect challenges inside. Doing so will unlock a small door at the very top (near the pair of throne-like chairs). Inside is a (TEMPORARY!) buff that will make you immune to the death-field effects of the Well.

3) Using this buff, glide down through the Well. Inside is a particularly difficult "light the beacons in the correct order" challenge, because two are hidden behind glyph-triggered walls. Having a good set of climbing picks makes this easier to accomplish, as this is a very vertical-movement-involved challenge.

4) Completing the challenge will unlock the door to the final missing crew member whose journals you have found. She's been possessed by the otherworldy-being trapped in the Well (a sad tale, if you've read the journals) but you should now be able to pass the gate-barrier to the boss.

5) The boss room is another new challenge. The boss will charge up & launch a projectile attack. An ore-node will spawn wherever the 3 projectiles land. You need to harvest these nodes, then use the raw ore material to rebuild the columns (there are 2 to start with). Then bait the boss into performing a charge-rush attack that will cause them to crash into a pillar. This destroys the pillar, but flips the boss onto its back, exposing the vulnerable belly for your critical hits.
It is possible to defeat the boss using only the 2 existing pillars, if your weapon can output enough damage.