Random Tips for Plague Star – the new Operation
Fancy a chance at getting the new Hunter series of set mods, that work on companions? Fancy a chance to get the Snipetron? How about the Ether Daggers which you probably sold after doing that New Strange quest then realised that you needed them for mastery rank? Fancy walking across the entirety of the Plains in order for the same rewards to be repeated over and over? If any of those appeal to you, then the new Operation: Plague Star is for you!
So a massive infested meteor has crashed in the Plains of Eidolon and now it’s spitting infested everywhere. Vay Hek, the douchebag shouting Grineer boss from down the road, who also has a stupid tiny face, has developed a toxin to help destroy the nasty boil, but he’s not going to use it until the infested have destroyed Cetus. So Konzu is sending us Tenno off to steal the toxin, mix it up, dump it in a drone then use the drone to dump the toxin on the massive boil. When you’re done, you’ll get some Operational Supply Standing, which can be spent in the shop that Nakak, the mask seller, has set up in Cetus.
Sounds simple enough. The only downside is that there is a TON of walking involved.
Firstly, before you do anything, if you have a clan dojo, research the Infested Catalyst, replicate the blueprint, then return to your ship and build a bunch of them. They come in packs of 5 and only cost basic materials. There is also an Eidolon Phylaxis blueprint, obtainable from Nakak, which increases the standing you get and makes enemies slightly harder, but you need to actually do the mission first to be able to unlock it. Finally, before you head to Cetus, GET SOME ARCHWING LAUNCHERS FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD GET SOME ARCHWING LAUNCHERS.
You WILL be traveling 500m or more between every part of the mission. At the very least, bring someone speedy, like Nova, Loki, Volt or, if you have energy to spare, Rhino. Rhino Charge is a surprisingly good way of getting across the plains, and is basically a spammable bullet jump in a straight line.
Okay, with the basics out of the way, you can now go to Cetus, speak to Konzu and activate the Plague Star bounty, available in the Bounties menu. Feel free to do this in a public mission. Or solo it. It’s an easy mission, but you’ll want some crowd control for the final part. But it’s best done in a full squad of four.
The bounty consists of four stages. The first part is literally just running into one of the new caves on the map and finding the toxin. Once you find it, you pull it out and carry it to a mixer, which is generally about 500m away. You’ll be reduced to secondary only (like when carrying a data mass or a power core) but luckily you can use your Archwing to get to the mixer faster.
Once you’re at the mixer, you need to insert the toxin, and the mission continues exactly like the Armoured Vault mission, just with new dialogue. This is the important bit though. If you want more standing for this mission, you need to add your Infested Catalysts in now. If you have them, insert the Eidolon Phylaxis too. You need to insert four of each to get the maximum amount of standing, but generally a team of four will put one in each – this is the main reason why farming as a squad is better.
After three minutes, your mixture will be ready. You need to remove the toxin and take it over to a fallen drone, which again will be about 500m away. You then need to accompany that drone another 500m or so to the massive boil, at which point it will fly up and deliver the toxin.
Once the toxin is delivered, a huge number of infested will spawn. Kill them. With fire. There’ll be a percentage bar on your screen, telling you how many more you need to kill.
If you used four Infested Catalyst, then at 25%, 50%, 75% and 99%, a Hemacyte will spawn.
Hemacytes are large bosses. Actually they’re literally just a retextured Lephantis with brighter colours and far less health. Shoot them when their obvious weak spots open and they die. Otherwise they’re invulnerable. Any good, somewhat accurate, high damage weapon will do. The Vectis is a good choice, and at the time of writing, it is being given away for free.
When each Hemacyte dies, it drops a Crystolith. PICK THESE UP if you are in a clan, as they’re required for the clan trophies. The Hemacytes will also drop the new Hunter series of mods, if you use them, you get a nice set bonus. Good for dog and cat owners.
And that’s it.
Now that you’ve won, you can return to Nakak to spend your standing. This works exactly like a normal Syndicate, with tiers and offerings.
Now, here are a few tips:
When you speak to Nakak, you can level up your ‘Operation rank’. In doing so you get a free item. Pick the Eidolon Phylaxis first. After that, pick what you want for the other ranks.
Nekros’s Desecrate works on the Hemacytes and nearby enemies, enabling extra drops.
Nova’s portals are incredibly good at getting from place to place as a team.
Spend the 750 standing on the Norg Brain and Cuthol thingies, if you don’t have the blueprints for their bait yet. You need one of each to hit the maximum Ostron rank, and this will save you 40k Ostron standing if you get them now. You can always buy the blueprints when you’ve got maximum standing.
The gems are totally worth it. So are the Wisps. GET THEM if you have spare standing.
If you’ve already leveled up the Snipetron or Ether Daggers, there is no real reason to get them again.
Get the Infested Zaw items. We don’t know when they will be coming back, and they’re the best Zaw parts around, both components and arcanes.
Sacrifice is only worth it if you have Primed Regen, which is available from Baro Ki’Teer.
Fulmination DOESN’T WORK ON THE SONICOR. Get it if you don’t have it, otherwise don’t bother.
The forma are already built. If you need forma, then do this event.
Anyway, that’s it for now.
Have fun grinding!