The Pacifism Defect
So right now, the first ever Clan-based event is going on. Which is nowhere near as big a deal as it sounds. Events are somewhat common, you’ll see them from time to time, generally over weekends and the like, involving 3 missions that need to be completed to get a prize of some sort. Most of the time, it’s variations on a theme, like Darvo running away from debt collectors, or teasing new main-game content via events like Rathuum and the Index Preview.
The Pacifism Defect isn’t much different. It features a new game mode, Evacuation (not to be confused with Excavation or Exterminate). A ship full of Grinner defectors, the Kavor, are trapped on ships that have been attacked by the Infested, and everyone on them is slowly dying. The Lotus has arranged a teleport to get them to safety, but we’ve got to escort them from their hiding spots to said teleporter, while keeping infested from killing them. Oh and their health drains. They need our help because they want to be pacifists and live their lives in peace, but the infested and General Sargus Ruk seem to want these poor bastards dead.
It’s basically a long line of short escort missions. They spawn in small groups of 3-5 people, they will shoot enemies and they will run to the three checkpoints, and all the checkpoints can heal them. Their AI does mean they can get separated and, as the game gets harder the more people you rescue, they can lose health quickly and be unable to fight back, but kudos to the Kavor for pushing through. Let 10 Kavor die, and the Lotus decides it’s too dangerous. Kavor stop trying to escape and you must extract and come back later, once the Infested calm down a little. Unlucky Kavor who are killed sadly turn into pink Infested Chargers, and have to be put down by the Tenno who tried to save them.
Occasionally, Sargas Ruk will send a Manic, a teleporting, invisible, laughing lunatic Grineer, to come and kill them, but most of the time, they’re not a hassle. If you can time it right, you can get your current Kavor rescuees to safety before the Manic spawns, meaning he dies pointlessly. But Manics are tough enemies and have the ability to pin you down much like a L4D Hunter, so you have to be careful.
The ideal way of playing the event is to have two Trinities, and two people with vast amounts of crowd control. You just need to keep the Infested out of the way, killing them is secondary. The Trinities can constantly heal the Kavor, even when they’re not near the checkpoints, making them ideal bodyguards, and making Trinity even more required than usual. Crowd Control characters include Vauban, Nova and Equinox, and you can also use characters like Frost and Ember, using their stun-based augments to your advantage. With Trinities constantly using Energy Vampire, energy only becomes an issue later on when every fifth enemy seems to be a Parasitic Eximus infested and enemies can one-hit-kill you.
The rewards for helping these people? Actually some quite nice stuff. As always, there is a nice little icon for completing the first mission, getting 75 points. A Harkonar Wraith armour set (shoulder armour and leg armour) is the prize for getting 200 points in the second mission, and a similar Harkonar Wraith chest plate and syandana for getting… uh… 2000 points in the third mission. Luckily, 2000 points does not mean rescuing 2000 people. In the first and second missions, you get 2 points for every rescued person. In the third mission, you get 4 points, losing points for any dead Grineer you fail to save. It’s still a huge number of people, but it’s doable even in pubs. I managed to get 400 points with three random people.
But the REAL prize is the Ignis Wraith, a black and red variant of the normal Ignis. It’s got a handful of changes, and is basically a sidegrade to my beloved weapon. Whether I’ll put 5 forma in the Wraith or not, I don’t know yet. In order to get one, your clan has to get a specific number of points, based on clan size. The points are based on every clan member’s personal best. For participating and getting a certain amount of points, everyone in your clan who participates in the event gets an Ignis Wraith blueprint. Get more points and everyone in your clan who participates gets a ready-built Ignis Wraith complete with weapon slot and Orokin Catalyst.
The real REAL prize though is what makes this event unusual. The top 10% of each clan rank (from single player Ghost clans to Moon clans with thousands of players) will get an Ignis Wraith blueprint in their Clan Dojos. Which means the top clans will be able to make as many Ignis Wraiths as they want. As to how valuable this is, I’m not sure, as a lot of people are already in clans and will get the blueprint, but it’s an interesting prize to give away.
Turns out though, my clan is super competitive. I actually thought I’d joined a somewhat casual clan, but seriously, they’re fucking killing it. As of writing, we’re actually doing rather well. And I got to help a little, to the point that I got upgraded a rank in my clan. Which was nice. They’re super helpful, and I’ve been helping them as well, donating resources to get new items. I also learned what the best melee in the game is. Apparently it’s the Atterax, a Slash-based high crit weapon. It’s essentially a whip with circular saws on the end of it.
The only problem with this event is that it’s so long and tedious. The prizes are good, and are definitely doable, but doing hour-long missions is incredibly tiresome, even with deeply amusing clan mates.
