Guild Wars 2

Verdant Brink Adventures

Bugs in the Branches

• Silver Difficulty: 2/10 (20 bugs in 2:05)
• Gold Difficulty: 3/10 (30 bugs in 2:05) (farmable)
• Required Masteries: Updraft (Gliding 2)
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Bouncing Mushrooms (Itzel 1) for the fast route, Lean Techniques (Gliding 3) for more midair precision and a faster route.
• Availability: Verdant Brink Daytime.
• Location {video}: Northeast. I usually go there after doing the Flax farm, or by walking east from the Jaka itzel Waypoint, or by walking north from the ShipWreck Peak Waypoint (the initial starting area).
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: flying accuracy, laggy area, some tightrope running accuracy
• Getting Gold: Start by walking forward (collecting 1 bug) and using the bouncing mushroom. Walk forward to the next bouncing mushroom (collecting 4 more bugs) and jump onto it. Hold Spacebar to interrupt the bounce and deploy your wings and make a sharp right turn towards the top of the tree. You can collect 10 more bugs up there all within a short time period. From there, jump back down and collect more bugs until you get 30 (five in the lower branches, and 10 scattered throughout).
• More Tips: There are more than 30 bugs available, which makes this Gold more forgiving, but you will have to memorize their locations.
  – Super Advanced Tip: Dodge-jumping onto a Bouncing Mushroom lets you cancel out of it quicker, to shave another second off your time
• My Video GUIDE: Bugs in the Branches – GUIDE for Gold
• My Video: Bugs in the Branches – 1:06
  – Bugs in the Branches – 1:00
• My Best Gold: 30 bugs in 0:57 {video}

Flying Circus

• Silver Difficulty: 4/10 (Finish in 2:30)
• Gold Difficulty: 4/10 (Finish in 2:00) (farmable)
• Required Masteries: Updraft (Gliding 2)
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Advanced Gliding (Gliding 5) to not fall to your death and to take the faster route.
• Availability: Verdant Brink Daytime.
• Location {video}: Northwest, very high. You can fly there with updrafts from the Lost Precipice guild hall, or try the often contested Mellaggan’s Valor Waypoint and take the bouncing mushroom up there.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: heavy flying accuracy, laggy area, occasional glider deployment/movement issues
• Getting Gold: Walk forward and fall through the 1st checkpoint, then fly through the 2nd and 3rd. Land on the ledge and jump through the 4th, hitting the updraft. Be sure to dodge in mid-air to activiate stealth so the Sniper doesn’t kill you. After the 5th checkpoint there is a huge updraft. Instead of continuing forward, go right towards the land and there is an entrance in the cliff with an alternative 6th checkpoint. If you learn how to navigate this cave and pop out the other side, it should be an easy breeze to gold.
• More Tips: The yellow cubes shoot you in the direction that you were facing when gliding into them (they don’t trigger if you fall into them), so position and aim yourself before reaching them. But it’s not a big deal to hit these if you take the shortcut. The purple teleport ability (that gives you a ground-targetted 1 skill) is only really useful on that first ledge to shave a few seconds of running, and at the very end to hit the last checkpoint (land after hitting the 2nd to last checkpoint, then teleport forward onto the log where it touches the bottom of the checkpoint ring). Walk back and forth until the goal line registers.
• Representative Video: see below
• My Best Gold: Finish in 1:24 {video}

Tendril Torchers

• Silver Difficulty: 3/10 (75 tendrils in 2:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 4/10 (110 tendrils in 2:00) (annoying, but farmable for some)
• Required Masteries: None
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Bouncing Mushrooms (Itzel 1) to get to the plateau with tons of tendrils.
• Availability: Verdant Brink Daytime.
• Location {video}: East, just south of ShipWreck Peak waypoint.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: laggy area, Action Camera
• Getting Gold: There are more than 110 tendrils, but you don’t have to memorize the location of all 110, just get a general idea of where to torch. Mostly you just use the 1 skill (rather, spam left mouse button while in Action Camera) while swinging the mouse around and jumping. Detonate the unexploded shots strategically (you should memorize where these are and what their explosion radius is). Clean the starting area for about 15-20 tendrils (be sure to jump on the cog and aim up to clear the ones hanging on the above branch). Continue into the ship including going up the stairs and hitting the 8-pack on the wall and several easy tendrils hanging above. Exit out the back while clearing the unexploded shots, getting you to about 50 tendrils. Jump on the bouncing mushroom onto the plateau and clear it out, going in a big clockwise circle. This gets you to about 95. Jump back down and torch while running down the hill until 110.
• More Tips: You can shoot through walls. You can hit tendrils that are still underground if you know their location. You can dodge to evade the unexploded shots if you are too close, but the reaction time given is slim. There are definitely people out there who love to speedrun this Adventure, especially with how cutthroat the 2:00 time limit is, but it’s not on the top of my list. I’ve grown to appreciate it more though, since making my guide.
• My video GUIDE: Tendril Torchers – GUIDE for Gold
• My video: Tendril Torchers – 1:28
• My Best Gold: 110 tendrils in 1:22

Salvage Pit

• Silver Difficulty: 0/10 (15 salvage in 2:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 1/10 (30 salvage in 2:00) (super farmable)
• Gold Difficulty with other people: 5/10 (HARD MODE)
• Required Masteries: None
• Actual Masteries for Gold: None, but Speed Mushrooms (Itzel 3) helps improve your time.
• Availability: Verdant Brink Daytime.
• Location {video}: Southeast. If the Shrouded Ruins Waypoint is not contested there’s a good chance this Adventure is open too. Walk east. Or fly west of Tendril Torchers across the series of updrafts then walk west and glide down to the starting flag.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: OTHER PEOPLE. See below.
• Getting Gold: There are exactly 30 pieces of Salvage in random locations. Just hold down W and run around in a fairly decent pattern through the small circular room while spamming F. You can dodge roll if needed, but you are given plenty of warning before getting hit by an acid attack or the AOE knockback. But for real: if you can’t get Gold on this Adventure then you do not have the computer/Internet connection/skill required to do Adventures, and I recommend not frustrating yourself trying to do them.
  – Unless…. you are doing this Adventure while other people are doing it. And everyone is dying. Then all bets are off. If it’s just 1 or 2 it’s about the same but if it’s more… just check out the BONUS video.
• More Tips: Start the Adventure, grab the furthest Speed Mushroom (there should be two or three that spawn in random locations), reset, then Play again. You’ll start with the Speed buff and can get a pretty fast time if the spawn locations are good. Use dodge roll offensively to move faster and cancel the Pick Up animation to shave time off the clock as well.
• Representative Video: Really?
• My Best Gold: 30 salvage in 0:31 {video}
• BONUS Video: 30 salvage in 0:43 {video, HARD MODE}

Shooting Gallery - (Nerfed on 4/19/2016!)

• Silver Difficulty: 9/10 (30 dummies in 2:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 10/10 (40 dummies in 2:00) (garbage RNG)
• Getting Gold: Don’t bother. Even getting Bronze is a worthy enough achievement. In the beginning you can memorize the spawn locations, then you just need to execute, but even then the action camera and ping all have to cooperate. Then to get Gold the last dummies appear in random locations.
• More Tips: Only the most hardcore will love this, but otherwise spare yourself the misery and move on. This adventure obviously needs to be adjusted.

• Silver Difficulty: 8/10 (30 dummies in 2:30)
• Gold Difficulty: 9/10 (40 dummies in 2:30)
• Required Masteries: None
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Patience Level 7, 360noscopeMLG Level 420
• Availability: Verdant Brink Daytime, locked during some events due to needing to use that space.
• Location {video}: South. Fly southeast of Faren’s Flyer Waypoint.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: Action camera, minimap awareness, lag/ping
• Getting Gold: The first 20 spawn locations are still fixed and need to be memorized. The extra 30 second nerf was a good start towards making this Adventure more friendly. The biggest change on 4/19/2016, however, was that the dummies after the 30th start spawning super fast without waiting for the prior to get hit, so going from Silver to Gold you are no longer aiming at just one dummy that spawns in an RNG location, but rather a whole bunch of dummies which you can see on the minimap and are free to pick and choose the easiest shots.
• More Tips: On the downside, here’s everything I had to do to earn Gold in this Adventure: Use Action Camera in 1st person mode, custom adjust the near Vertical camera height, switch to a different profile on my mouse, and adjust to a lower DPI setting. It’s kinda ridiculous, and dampens my drive to improve my score.
• Representative Video: (there is no easy route)
• My Best Gold: 40 dummies in 2:20 {video}

Auric Basin Adventures

Note: As of 4/19/2016, it looks like all Auric Basin Adventures are open all the time. This is probably a bug, but enjoy it while it lasts

The Floor is Lava? - (Nerfed on 4/19/2016!)

• Silver Difficulty: 7/10 (15 spores in 2:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 9/10 (25 spores in 2:00) (easier with planned route)

• Silver Difficulty: 6/10 (15 spores in 2:15)
• Gold Difficulty: 8/10 (25 spores in 2:15)
• Required Masteries: None
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Speed Mushrooms (Itzel 3) for the bouncing mushroom pathing and to shave seconds
• Location {video}: Northwest, goto Wanderer’s Waypoint (starting area) and jump south all the way to the ground level. There is a cave to the west that leads to the starting flag.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: pure memorization and execution
• Getting Gold: Don’t get me wrong, this Adventure is still hard even after the nerf. But it’s slightly more fair. It’s a lot of holding down W while spamming F, but with a strategic route in mind. Watching YouTube videos of runs is now only somewhat meaningless without memorizing all 25 fruit locations and all 25 of their spore cluster locations.
• More Tips: Just lookup the map on the wiki if you’re interested. This is not my cup of tea, but I can see how this one could be fun for those that are interested, and even easier for others than the rating would imply. As of 4/19/2016, The 15 extra seconds allowed me to get my first Gold medal. I used the 1:47 video as a guide.
• Representative Video: (standard route)
  – or: (another standard route)
  – or: (the 1:47 video)
• My Video: The Floor is Lava – 2:02
• My Best Gold: 25 spores in 2:01

Sanctum Scramble

• Silver Difficulty: 8/10 (Finish in 3:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 6/10 (Finish in 2:35) (yes, Gold is easier. Read below to find out how)
• Required Masteries: Heart of Thorns Act 2 Chapter 8 (the egg bearer chapter)
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Lean Techniques or Advanced Gliding (Gliding 3 or 5)
• Location {video}: Center, under Tarir. If you have the Gilded Hallow guild hall you can just walk out and walk to it for free.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: tightrope running accuracy, flying accuracy, heavy skill usage
• Getting Gold: The key is to not only use your 1, 2, and 3 skills as much as possible, but to combine them with each other along with jumping and gliding. Once you get comfortable doing this, the path upwards is fairly straightforward with decent room for error. As time goes on you will get more comfortable with the tightrope walking and gliding. The trick to pushing past silver and into gold is to re-think the entire Adventure: this is NOT a timed jumping puzzle, it’s a gliding puzzle. Here’s a list of all the techniques I use:
  – Use the 3 skill to shoot forward by aiming on the ground
  – Use the 3 skill to shoot high up by aiming on a wall or ledge
  – Hold Spacebar after using 1 or 3 to Deploy Glider
  – While gliding, press 2 to Surge forwards without falling
  – After pressing 2, press 2 again to cancel the skill, on the ground or midair. This shortens the cooldown from 10 seconds to 4 seconds. For maximum use, wait for your wings to finish the flapping animation the second time before pressing 2 to cancel. Note: This also puts a 1 second global cooldown on your other abilities.
  – Press 2, then 1 to do a super jump while still Surging forward, then 2 to cancel the Surge
  – Use the 3 skill while in mid-air, e.g. while gliding, press Spacebar to fall then quickly aim and cast 3 to shoot upwards. Usually only used to save yourself from falling.
  – Dodge-roll forwards before pressing 1 to jump higher. Useful for margin of error and optimizing your path. Is also useful if you do it really quickly and make your character look cool by front flipping while deploying wings.
  – Press 1, then aim and cast 3 while in mid-air, then hold Spacebar until you start gliding, then press 2. Not really useful except to be super pro.
• More Tips: If you haven’t already, turn on Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range in your game Options panel to help you use the 3 skill. This should probably be turned on by default and is useful pretty much everywhere in GW2, but I digress. There are some key shortcuts, but it’s better to just watch videos of this one to learn tricks in certain segments. There are also some semi-blind jumps due to tree leaves and the waterfall blocking your camera. And yes, this is one of my favorite Adventures to run.
• My Video GUIDE: Sanctum Scramble – GUIDE for Gold
• Other Representative Video: (standard route)
• My Best Gold: Finish in 1:49 {video}

On Wings of Gold

• Silver Difficulty: 2/10 (20 anomalies in 3:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 2/10 (30 anomalies in 3:00) (farmable)
• Required Masteries: Updraft (Gliding 2)
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Advanced Gliding (Gliding 5). Lean Techniques (Gliding 3) may be fine too, now that there’s another updraft to help you get over to that area.
• Location {video}: Center, way above Tarir. Starting from the Northgate glide southeast to where all the updrafts are.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: laggy area, heavy flying accuracy
• Getting Gold: Mostly memorization. Pickup all the orbs before going back to the drop-off point. Start by flying forwards and collecting 8 orbs (close glider then use the updraft). Turn around and fly towards a series of 4 more updrafts (with 3 more orbs) that all lead upwards and above the starting flag, towards a column of 5 orbs that you can fall on to start with 16 total orbs really quickly, then you just find 14 more in midair (all have fixed spawn locations).
• More Tips: There is more than enough time to get the gold, and there are more than 30 orbs, just find a comfortable route and know where the updrafts are. You can always see how many orbs you have via the number on the buff you get per orb.
• Representative Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcqAKRCk2fk
• Lifetime Rank 1 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyOAuIHkxl0
• My video: On Wings of Gold – 0:51
• My Best Gold: 30 anomalies in 0:50

Fallen Masks - (“Nerfed” on 4/19/2016)

• Silver Difficulty: 6/10 (15 masks in 3:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 10/10 (25 masks in 3:00) (garbage RNG)

• Silver Difficulty: 5/10 (15 masks in 3:15)
• Gold Difficulty: 10/10 (25 masks in 3:15) (STILL garbage RNG)
• Required Masteries: Bouncing Mushrooms (Itzel 1), Exalted Acceptance (Exalted 2)
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Speed Mushrooms (Itzel 3), Superluck Level 777
• Location {video}: Center, just NW of Tarir, talk to the Exalted to get into the room. But who cares.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: laggy area, heavy tightrope running accuracy, RNG, minimap awareness
• Getting Gold: Even getting Silver (15 masks) is quite the task given only 3 very quick minutes. Even if your computer can handle all the mushroom textures, even if your connection gives you a nice ping, even if you are the speedrun master, it still comes down to RNG on the mask spawn locations. The game can simply and does often give you an unwinnable combination.
• More Tips: Grab the Silver and just skip this until it is fixed. This is one of the Adventures that gives Adventures a bad rap. As of 4/19/2016, it is still miserable.
• Representative Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjDgjmBJCEQ
  – or: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ggcWdVzUU

A Fungus Among Us

• Silver Difficulty: 9/10 (Finish in 1:40)
• Gold Difficulty: 9/10 (Finish in 1:25) (for the hardcore)
• Required Masteries: None
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Speed Mushrooms (Itzel 3) help out a ton.
• Location {video}: Southwest, west of the Southgate. You have to jump up annoying mushrooms on an annoying tree root to get to the starting flag.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: heavy tightrope running accuracy, heavy skill usage, some laggy area
• Getting Gold: There is no easy way, this is a pure speedrun with a razor-thin margin of error. Even the 2:00 Bronze is an accomplishment, but after practice with the skills that Gold feels all the better. Start by spamming the 1 skill and picking up the 1st checkpoint and Speed Mushroom. When you pass the 2nd checkpoint, use the 2 skill to launch over to the right (Press 2 with some room in front of you, wait until you land and the icon changes, then press 2 to ground target and then cast it. Once again, the Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range option really helps here). When you have Speed Mushrooms your 1 and 2 skills go farther. Additionally, you won’t get slowed by water. There is a somewhat hidden 2nd Speed Mushroom behind the waterfall to the left.
• More Tips: There are a few key shortcuts, notably the section near the end where you can’t just jump through it and have to use the 1 and/or 2 skills somewhere, but I recommend just watching YouTube videos on it.
  – The most important shortcut is going from the 2nd to last checkpoint to the finish line, which an be done by using the 2 skill as you pass the checkpoint and jumping the gap to hit the finish line directly.
  – Also, the “get a speed mushroom then start the Adventure” trick does work to shave a few seconds. If you get the same mushroom, wait until there are 3 seconds left on the buff then hit Play. This will let the buff run out right when you can pick it up again.
  – I’ve practiced and optimized this Adventure a ton and my best is only 8 seconds better than Gold. Honestly even 2:00 may be too hard for Gold, and it probably needs to be changed.
• My Video GUIDE: A Fungus Among Us – GUIDE for Gold v2
• My Best Gold: Finish in 1:07 {video}

Tangled Depths Adventures

Beetle Feast

• Silver Difficulty: 3/10 (20 mushrooms in 3:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 4/10 (30 mushrooms in 3:00) (a bit of everything, but is farmable)
• Required Masteries: None
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Speed Mushrooms (Itzel 3) help out a ton.
• Availability: Pre-Chak Gerent
• Location {video}: North, just above and North of the Teku Nuhoch Waypoint. Glide there or use the bouncing mushrooms.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: laggy area, skill usage, some tightrope running accuracy
• Getting Gold: Start by killing the enemy mushrooms in the starting area before starting the Adventure. The spawn locations of the collectible mushrooms are fixed but their type is randomized between blue powerup, yellow points, and green poison. You will need to know most of the spawn locations, at least know where to glance with the camera, because sometimes only 30 yellow mushrooms spawn and if you miss one before moving to the next section you can’t really go back. Most of this Gold medal is just learning the skill abilities, then disregarding them all. You do need to save up and use the 2 skill in two places to get past the gate. You can press 2 several seconds before to begin evading, then move underground for quite a while. Dodgeroll liberally to avoid damage that slows you down. Also the 3 skill (stealth) and 4 skill (teleport) can be used to optimize personal bests.
• More Tips: Another tricky section is when you have to jump across branches over a deep pit, often while your character model is stealthed. Following the branch on the right side is the safest bet.
  – The teleport 4 skill can also be used 4 times as long as you don’t move or get hit.
• My Video: Beetle Feast – 1:57
• My Best Gold: 30 mushrooms in 1:48

The Ley-Line Run

• Silver Difficulty: 4/10 (Finish in 1:30)
• Gold Difficulty: 4/10 (Finish in 0:45) (actually farmable)
• Required Masteries: None
• Actual Masteries for Gold: None
• Availability: Pre-Chak Gerent
• Location {video}: West, west of Ogre Camp Waypoint. Follow the river to the vista, jump off, then head south to the Chak area with Red lighting, and jump off onto the ledge with the starting flag. You can also take the Nuroch Wallow down to Ogre Lane then the bouncing mushroom up which lands you right next to the flag.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: heavy skill usage, tightrope running accuracy
• Getting Gold: Start each race by spamming the 1 skill. You only need the 1 and 3 skills. Get familiar with how far the 1 skill surges you forward. If you hit a yellow spark during that surge, it will boost you up and across in a predetermined direction. Get comfortable with the 3 skill and it’s range too. You only get to use each ability once, until you pass a checkpoint or press F when passing the golden marking on the ground. If you figure out how to hit the five sparks with the 1 skill that pretty much gives you the gold.
• More Tips: If you spam F onto a golden marking, there is a “bug” which lets you keep the skills but instead they go on cooldown. This helps shave several seconds off the time, but isn’t necessary. Also you can use your 3 teleport and have a brief second to move afterwards, i.e. use the 3 skill just before crossing the very first checkpoint, then walk through the checkpoint as the teleport animation is happening to refresh your skills, then be teleported to the new location, all within a second. Also have I mentioned Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range yet?
• My Video GUIDE: The Ley-Line Run – GUIDE for Gold
• Representative Video: (easier route)
  – or: (hard route)
  – or: (wtf 16 second route)
• My Best Gold: Finish in 0:25 {video}

Drone Race

• Silver Difficulty: 1/10 (Finish in 2:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 2/10 (Finish in 1:20) (super farmable)
• Required Masteries: None
• Actual Masteries for Gold: None. Poison Mastery (Itzel 4) helps make it even easier.
• Availability: Pre-Chak Gerent, after the SCAR Bivouac event chain completes. Usually open during the latter half of the Pre-Chak Gerent time.
• Location {video}: Southeast, just waypoint into the SCAR Camp and walk there.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: skill usage, some tightrope running accuracy
• Getting Gold: Just aim the 3 skill on long straightaways. You don’t have to go up the ramp on the right, just stay on the bottom path to the left and hit the checkpoints. If you have Poison mastery you don’t even have to worry about the bushes, they shrivel as you approach them.
  – If you don’t have Poison mastery, it changes a few things, notably which straightaways are safe for the 3 skill. There is one tricky checkpoint near the end (before the two launch ramps) that is on top of a rock, but you can safely jump in between two bushes on the ground to the right to just keep moving forward. At the very end, don’t use the 3 skill on the last ramp, but instead jump onto the rock to the left and then shoot into the goal line.
• More Tips: Since you catch on fire after using the 3 skill, you can improve your time by hitting 1 and/or 2 right as it ends to get back to non-combat speed. You can also use Dodge-roll for a minor speed boost. Hitting the end of a ramp while using the 3 skill will give you a launch boost, so try to time it so you hit the end of the ramp near the end of the skill 3 timer. Honestly this Adventure is very easy compared to the other ones. People just get caught up trying to be cute with the ramps up on the right, but all you need to do is just take the lower path on the left.
  – Random Bonus: After you’re done, walk west and glide down onto the platform below you, there’s a free satchel thing with loot inside.
• Representative Video: (super easy route)
  – or: (normal route)
• My Best Gold: Finish in 0:43 {video}

Scrap Rifle Field Test - (updated!)

• Silver Difficulty: 6/10 (80 chak in 4:00)
• Gold Difficulty: 10/10 (150 chak in 4:00)
• Required Masteries: None
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Speed Mushrooms (Itzel 3), Lean Techniques (Glider 3)
• Availability: Pre-Chak Gerent
• Location {video}: Southeast. Waypoint into the SCAR Camp and walk northeast towards the waterfall/Vista/big hole to the underground river. There is a box there that will let you into the instance after clicking through a few reading prompts.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: Action camera, heavy skill usage, some flying accuracy
• Getting Gold: This is a hard Gold, but I think if more people played it then more techniques would be shared and it would be easier. Take some time to practice in the field and get used to the skills and Action Camera and gliding before starting the adventure.
  – Okay, first things first: the Chak Egg. Shooting one of these will make it explode and summon more chak to the field. However, if you are standing close to it when you shoot it you will gain health, reduce the overheating of your rifle, and refill your endurance bar. The 1 skill has a huge range and cone, but is also very touchy and prone to shooting multiple times even with the slightest left-click hold, so if you are going to take advantage of the free health/endurance you will need to practice great trigger discipline.
  – The main skill rotation is to gather the chak, use the 5 skill fire field, jump in with the 3 skill, then hold down the 2 flamethrower until you’ve killed the chak. Tap the 1 skill or left-click to do spot damage.
  – Since it takes some time for the chak to respawn on the ground level, the strategy should be to rotate between killing on the ground and bouncing up top fairly often. This also helps the rifle cooldown between large groups of chak.
• More Tips: If you have the Adrenal Mushrooms (Itzel 6) and Nuhoch Alchemy (Nuhoch 6) Masteries this Adventure may be easier, but it’s not required.
• My Video GUIDE: coming soon?
• Representative video: Lifetime Rank 1 video
• My Best Gold: 150 chak in 3:57 {video}

Haywire Punch-o-Matic Battle - Nerfed on 1/26/2016!

• Silver Difficulty: 5/10 (150 chak in 2:00)
• Gold Difficulty: infinity/10 (230 chak in 2:00) (rofl)
• Actual Masteries for Gold: Hacking Level 9001
• My Best Silver: 175 chak in 2:00

• Silver Difficulty: 3/10 (150 chak in 2:35)
• Gold Difficulty: 5/10 (200 chak in 2:35) (dare I say, this is farmable for some now?)
• Required Masteries: Exalted Assistance (Exalted 3)
• Actual Masteries for Gold: None
• Availability: Pre-Chak Gerent
• Location {video}: East, in south Rata Novus Lane. Take the Nuhoch Wallows either from Teku Nuhoch Waypoint or Rata Novus Waypoint, or walk north from the Ley-Line Confluence Waypoint. There’s a little cut-out section to the side of the lane with an Empty Rata Novus Golem Suit; Interact with it to enter the instance.
• Techniques and Other Difficulties: heavy skill usage, optional Action camera
• Getting Gold: Start by using the 3 skill to rush forward, then use the 5 skill in the middle of the first group, and double punch them with the 2 skill. Get comfortable spamming the 2 skill a lot, which is the majority of the work for both Silver and Gold. A double hit from the 2 skill usually kills any chak. Use the 3 and 4 skills to move to next groups quicker, e.g. sometimes chak are only hit by the 2nd hit of your 2 skill, and you can just use 4 to rush through them and kill them while moving onto the next group.
• More Tips: It helps to have Allow Skill Retargeting enabled in your game Options panel, so you can aim the 2nd hit of the 2 skill spam in a different direction. You may have better results by turning off Autotargeting and just aiming with your camera or Action camera. I find it easier to use the action camera so I can spam right-click with my 2 skill spam.
• My Video: Haywire Punch-o-matic Battle – 2:17
• Other Representative Video: (example without Action Camera)
• My Best Gold: 200 chak in 2:11

For all of those people complaining how hard adventures are. Use this^

Good idea and i commend you for putting in the effort to write all this up.

However a lot of the difficulty ratings i disagree with massively like fallen masks 8/10 for silver? gold is insane but unless you are really unlucky i never found it particularly challenging to get silver , meanwhile sanctum scramble silver 5/10! the hours that i have put into that adventure yet cannot get better than bronze says otherwise.

Really rating them on difficulty is incredibly subjective and your doing it from the perspective of someone who likes adventures and is seemingly quite competent at them.

foxcat.4096:

Good idea and i commend you for putting in the effort to write all this up.

However a lot of the difficulty ratings i disagree with massively like fallen masks 8/10 for silver? gold is insane but unless you are really unlucky i never found it particularly challenging to get silver , meanwhile sanctum scramble silver 5/10! the hours that i have put into that adventure yet cannot get better than bronze says otherwise.

Really rating them on difficulty is incredibly subjective and your doing it from the perspective of someone who likes adventures and is seemingly quite competent at them.

All ratings are open for debate. I spent a lot of time trying to remove myself from the equation when making those initial ratings, while also making them relevant to each other. This was done by seeing how my guildies were doing (none of them really any good at Adventures) mixed with world rank and time extrapolation.

So for example, I personally rate Sanctum Scramble Gold as a 1/10, but I can’t put that in the guide. It’s really that easy once you learn what I’ve learned, and most of the “difficulty” is people grinding their heads against a rock trying to brute force it instead of learn it. Which is why I wrote the guide and listed every technique I use.

Meanwhile I prefer for people to avoid Fallen Masks because it is garbage, so I don’t mind if it is overrated. I’m also biased because it’s incredibly laggy in that room for myself and many others.

However on second glance I see that more people than I remember have achieved Silver on it, so I’m fine with bringing it down.

Also if you only disagree massively with 2 of 30 ratings I say that’s a pretty good job by me :P

Also, I just got a 1:48 Beetle Feast, Rank 18 Lifetime :O

Thanks for this post. I think a lot of people need to realise that adventures themselves were a great edition to the game. The issue is that collections and masteries are gated behind them. The adventures should be purely for fun and I don’t think they ever needed to have mastery points behind them to make people do them.

Some need tweaking like you said, and I’d like to see the gated stuff removed but I doubt they can do that now.

For us old-timers some of these adventures are impossible. Instead of just gating the masteries behind getting N number below times, ANET should have had an alternative of if you try the adventures N times you get the mastery also. That would make it fair for those who lack the fast response times required by these games.

Thank you so much for this guide. The next time I go on an adventures binge, I will have it open for reference.

curtegg.5216:

For us old-timers some of these adventures are impossible. Instead of just gating the masteries behind getting N number below times, ANET should have had an alternative of if you try the adventures N times you get the mastery also. That would make it fair for those who lack the fast response times required by these games.

Which would just promote people to purposely fail as quickly as they can to get the mastery point.

Ayrilana.1396:

curtegg.5216:

For us old-timers some of these adventures are impossible. Instead of just gating the masteries behind getting N number below times, ANET should have had an alternative of if you try the adventures N times you get the mastery also. That would make it fair for those who lack the fast response times required by these games.

Which would just promote people to purposely fail as quickly as they can to get the mastery point.

Instead of simply N number of tries it could be like N number of objectives lifetime, so e.g. Fallen Masks you could get the point if you got Gold or collected like 400 masks lifetime, or A Fungus Among Us Gold if you hit like 200 checkpoints lifetime.

But this is a pretty complex solution, when more tuning needs to be put into the base system. I mean literally no one in the world can achieve the Haywire Punch-o-matic Gold and it’s mastery point. Considering the other Golds like Fallen Masks and Shooting Gallery and etc. that only a few hundred of people have obtained, it starts to throw off the math behind the whole “play the game the way you want to” concept with respect to getting Mastery points.

HiggsBoson.1976:

Instead of simply N number of tries it could be like N number of objectives lifetime, so e.g. Fallen Masks you could get the point if you got Gold or collected like 400 masks lifetime, or A Fungus Among Us Gold if you hit like 200 checkpoints lifetime.

Which still promotes people to fail as quickly as they can if they don’t want to make the effort to learn how to successfully earn gold.

HiggsBoson.1976:

But this is a pretty complex solution, when more tuning needs to be put into the base system. I mean literally no one in the world can achieve the Haywire Punch-o-matic Gold and it’s mastery point. Considering the other Golds like Fallen Masks and Shooting Gallery and etc. that only a few hundred of people have obtained, it starts to throw off the math behind the whole “play the game the way you want to” concept with respect to getting Mastery points.

You can play how you want in regards to mastery points. You don’t need to do those handful of gold ones that you are unable to do.

Anyway, this discussion doesn’t really belong in this thread.

Ayrilana.1396:

HiggsBoson.1976:

Instead of simply N number of tries it could be like N number of objectives lifetime, so e.g. Fallen Masks you could get the point if you got Gold or collected like 400 masks lifetime, or A Fungus Among Us Gold if you hit like 200 checkpoints lifetime.

Which still promotes people to fail as quickly as they can if they don’t want to make the effort to learn how to successfully earn gold.

HiggsBoson.1976:

But this is a pretty complex solution, when more tuning needs to be put into the base system. I mean literally no one in the world can achieve the Haywire Punch-o-matic Gold and it’s mastery point. Considering the other Golds like Fallen Masks and Shooting Gallery and etc. that only a few hundred of people have obtained, it starts to throw off the math behind the whole “play the game the way you want to” concept with respect to getting Mastery points.

You can play how you want in regards to mastery points. You don’t need to do those handful of gold ones that you are unable to do.

Anyway, this discussion doesn’t really belong in this thread.

Those handful of Golds weren’t pointed out because I can’t do them. They were pointed out because literally 99.99% of the population can’t do them, sometimes 100%.

If there are 114 points needed to complete Maguuma mastery, and 129 available, then that’s a wiggle room of 15 you can choose not to do. I would classify at least 7 of the Adventure Golds as unfeasible to expect people to get, and of course people with lag and ping and whatever else would up that number by quite a bit. When you’re cutting 50% or even more of your effective wiggle room, then yea that would be giving players way less option to play the way they want than originally designed.

And yes, as long as this stuff is gated behind Adventures, it will always be relevant for this thread. It is by far the major complaint about Adventures and a main reason people hate them and bash them. In a perfect world people that enjoy Adventures would be left alone to enjoy them, and people that have other goals can go do that without being gated behind these. I’m not going to sit around and complain to ANet about how to adjust things to make them harder or easier, so instead I offer this writeup as a resource to find what you need and the information to get it done, and offer my sincerest sympathies to those stuck doing stuff they don’t want to do.

HiggsBoson.1976:

Those handful of Golds weren’t pointed out because I can’t do them. They were pointed out because literally 99.99% of the population can’t do them, sometimes 100%.

Can’t or won’t?

HiggsBoson.1976:

If there are 114 points needed to complete Maguuma mastery, and 129 available, then that’s a wiggle room of 15 you can choose not to do. I would classify at least 7 of the Adventure Golds as unfeasible to expect people to get, and of course people with lag and ping and whatever else would up that number by quite a bit. When you’re cutting 50% or even more of your effective wiggle room, then yea that would be giving players way less option to play the way they want than originally designed.

The majority are definitely feasible for players if they’re willing to put in the effort. Except it seems people are expecting to get gold after 2-3 tries. Some you can and other you cannot unless you catch on quickly. And as you said, there are 15 extra mastery points. There’s also conveniently 15 adventures. If you don’t want to get gold in any of them then you are free to do so. You know, “play how you want”.

HiggsBoson.1976:

And yes, as long as this stuff is gated behind Adventures, it will always be relevant for this thread. It is by far the major complaint about Adventures and a main reason people hate them and bash them. In a perfect world people that enjoy Adventures would be left alone to enjoy them, and people that have other goals can go do that without being gated behind these. I’m not going to sit around and complain to ANet about how to adjust things to make them harder or easier, so instead I offer this writeup as a resource to find what you need and the information to get it done, and offer my sincerest sympathies to those stuck doing stuff they don’t want to do.

I said it wasn’t relevant for this thread because this is a guide to about how to do the adventures. But since you created it, you can change its direction if you wish.

I’m finally at the point where i think Punch-o-Matic Battle is possible. Still dont know how but with 9 chaks away i think with a perfect run and not get kittened by rng (chaks randomly despawn/spawn somewhere else/running randomly around) gold could be reachable
http://imgur.com/0w9OYqH

Thank you for the great write up and the links. Nicely done.

sazberryftw.3809:

Thanks for this post. I think a lot of people need to realise that adventures themselves were a great edition to the game. The issue is that collections and masteries are gated behind them. The adventures should be purely for fun and I don’t think they ever needed to have mastery points behind them to make people do them.

Some need tweaking like you said, and I’d like to see the gated stuff removed but I doubt they can do that now.

What they need to do is move the collection rewards down to bronze level and the mastery points to bronze and silver. Then gold level can be purely for a free daily rare and people who enjoy the adventure competing for the best time, as it should be.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Thank you for the great write up and the links. Nicely done.

Hope it helped, thanks

Bradley.8520:

I’m finally at the point where i think Punch-o-Matic Battle is possible. Still dont know how but with 9 chaks away i think with a perfect run and not get kittened by rng (chaks randomly despawn/spawn somewhere else/running randomly around) gold could be reachable
http://imgur.com/0w9OYqH

Very nice, any tips on this one?

Here’s one with 213. You can see what he did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Oe7JZz8xOk

Actually, from reading the single comment, I think it is actually his video.

I stopped reading when you said Sanctum Scramble was 5/10 difficulty for silver and 6/10 for gold.

This reads more like ‘here is the adventures and I find them easy’ rather than offering any practical help to those of us that don’t like playing SM8 during our leisure time, don’t have the time or inclination to time our gaming to suit some timer so we can complete an event so we can access an adventure that we actively dislike and wouldn’t go anywhere near given any choice whatsoever.

‘Adventures’ are nothing of the sort. They are blocks to progress that a lot of us can’t stand and don’t want to be forced in to content that has nothing to do with the rest of game using mechanics we don’t enjoy or can’t achieve.

Baldrick.8967:

I stopped reading when you said Sanctum Scramble was 5/10 difficulty for silver and 6/10 for gold.

This reads more like ‘here is the adventures and I find them easy’ rather than offering any practical help to those of us that don’t like playing SM8 during our leisure time, don’t have the time or inclination to time our gaming to suit some timer so we can complete an event so we can access an adventure that we actively dislike and wouldn’t go anywhere near given any choice whatsoever.

‘Adventures’ are nothing of the sort. They are blocks to progress that a lot of us can’t stand and don’t want to be forced in to content that has nothing to do with the rest of game using mechanics we don’t enjoy or can’t achieve.

It’s hard when you not know how those skill work . Easy when you know them(it’s easier than before because glider fix) .. So I think rating is accurate enough.

He actually wrote how to play it . Have videos for ref. Tips and tricks.. That pretty much the most people can help with adventure.

I’m happy to see adventure guide…and I think you shouldn’t mix adventure rant into it.

Baldrick.8967:

I stopped reading when you said Sanctum Scramble was 5/10 difficulty for silver and 6/10 for gold.

This reads more like ‘here is the adventures and I find them easy’ rather than offering any practical help to those of us that don’t like playing SM8 during our leisure time, don’t have the time or inclination to time our gaming to suit some timer so we can complete an event so we can access an adventure that we actively dislike and wouldn’t go anywhere near given any choice whatsoever.

‘Adventures’ are nothing of the sort. They are blocks to progress that a lot of us can’t stand and don’t want to be forced in to content that has nothing to do with the rest of game using mechanics we don’t enjoy or can’t achieve.

Like I said before, I rate Sanctum Scramble Gold as 1/10. If I just put that alone in the post, I could see how that sounds like “im good you suck”. But instead maybe you could set your bias an inch to the side and continue reading, because I’m actually saying “I got good after tens of hours of practice and learning and discovery, here is everything I know to help you out so you don’t have to spend that much time doing this”.

But you do bring up a good point, which is the Silver rating is actually too low. In fact, I think it’s harder to initially get Silver than Gold. So I will do something eccentric and rate Silver 8/10 and keep the Gold at 6/10.

Sanctum Scramble is tough, but fair. It actually has a fairly generous time limit for getting Gold, and it’s a lot easier now that ANet tweaked the way gliders work so they’re less dependent on lag. If you watch some of the Gold run videos, you’ll spot several “shortcuts” where gliding + the Egg Bearer skills can shoot you across large distances.

But yeah, some of the adventures really do need a balance pass. They are either too tightly tuned with regards to time (Floor is Lava, Fungus Among Us) or rely on really annoying RNG (Shooting Gallery, Fallen Masks), or just outright impossible to achieve (Haywire Punch-o-matic).

But as mentioned, I bet a lot of the complaints would disappear if the collections got bumped down to Bronze, and the Mastery points shifted down from Silver/Gold to Bronze/Silver. The people who really want to master a particular adventure for bragging rights can do so via the Leaderboard; maybe even give them a free daily Rare or some gold every day they retain the 1st spot.

Thank you for taking the time to do this! I’ve been waiting for some proper motivation to tackle these.

Updated the Scrap Rifle Field Test with Day Trooper’s video, since it’s complete and shows clean tactics.

Haywire Punch-o-matic was nerfed! Time increased to 2:30 (from 2:00), Gold reduced to 200 (from 230)!

I’d personally rate Haywire gold as a medium difficulty. I base this on that you can practically get gold now by spamming skill #2. Silver is pretty much guaranteed by doing this.

That’s an easy gold then. Spam 2 but I mix in 4 every now and then for fun

Did they up the number of chak in the corridor? My main problem with getting anywhere near Gold last time was getting the chak to bunch up properly so I could nuke them all with the missiles or the one-two punch. Will have to give this adventure another try.

Just wanted to say thanks

I agree 100% with most of your ratings, particularly with shooting gallery. I personally gave up on that one a while back and haven’t looked back.

Other than personal glory, some of these adventures are required for the ascended weapons as well as an extra mastery point and that was my goal. So, it really comes down to what’s in it for you? If you get what you need from these challenges or close enough to the next level to go forward go for it, but if it’s beyond irritating and you can put your pride and stubborness aside, then move on, because some of them are not worth the headache.

Zaxares.5419:

Did they up the number of chak in the corridor? My main problem with getting anywhere near Gold last time was getting the chak to bunch up properly so I could nuke them all with the missiles or the one-two punch. Will have to give this adventure another try.

Seems about the same. The extra 30 seconds is enough to let you get to 200. I got it with 3 seconds to spare on my first attempt. I suggest everyone give it a shot spamming the #2 skill while using the #5 to pull them together.

I finally got around to trying the new Haywire and it feels a lot better. I’ve re-written the section on this Adventure.

Definitely give it a shot, it’s a fun one with a reasonable learning curve to Gold and I think if more people knew about it they’d farm it and have fun with it. Also the leaderboard is wiiiide open; my 2:24 is rank 55 lifetime which is not representative of my effort put into this Adventure.

Holy cow, if you haven’t seen this ridiculous 19 second Ley-Line Run, check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNDYoLA8FSw

Turns out the 2 skill actually does something (probably unintended)!

A Fungus Among Us: Fixed an issue that could cause the Cap Launch skill to abort if a movement key was being pressed simultaneously.

Looks like they fixed that issue.

Ayrilana.1396:

A Fungus Among Us: Fixed an issue that could cause the Cap Launch skill to abort if a movement key was being pressed simultaneously.

Looks like they fixed that issue.

I tried it today and it felt the same, with respect to the 2 skill not firing :/

Also, I’ve improved my score from 2:24 to 2:19 to 2:11 (Rank 11 Lifetime) on Haywire Punch-o-Matic over the past few days by just trying to see if I should classify it as “farmable” or not. Sometimes I barely get 180 in 2:00, then the next attempt I set a new Personal Best. There seems like there is a way to do this so that the movement and spawns align to group them up.

So I just got a new computer and on my first run through of most of the Adventures I hit a handful of new personal bests:

Bugs in the Branches: 1:09 -> 1:05
Tendril Torchers: 1:42 -> 1:30!
Shooting Gallery: 27 -> 30 Silver
A Fungus Among Us: 1:12 -> 1:09
On Wings of Gold: 1:13 -> 1:08

No additional practice, no different strats, just better lag/FPS.

Day 2, starting to practice new strats that were previously impossible.

Sanctum Scramble (before the patch bugged this out): 1:55 -> 1:51
On Wings of Gold: 1:05 -> 1:01 -> 0:54

The 2016 Spring Patch, regarding Adventures. This is a lot to digest, so first just the raw post:

HEART OF MAGUUMA—ADVENTURES
Adventures are now unlocked more often. They have more forgiving time limits and allow players to more easily reach bronze, silver, and gold completion. They also give more experience for reaching those completion tiers.

Unlocking and Accessing Adventures

• The Tendril Torchers and Salvage Pit adventures in Verdant Brink have both been altered to stay unlocked during the entire daytime period.
• The Shooting Gallery adventure in Verdant Brink has been altered to be unlocked during most of the day, except when the following events move through the space:
  * The “Defend the Pact encampment against hylek attacks” event
  * The “Salvage scrap from the crashed Pact airship for Bongo to reinforce the outpost” event
  * The “Help Faren train to be a swordsmaster” event
• All adventures in Auric Basin will now remain unlocked except during the “Battle in Tarir” meta-event.
• The Beetle Feast and Scrap Rifle Field Test adventures in Tangled Depths will now remain available when the chak gerent isn’t present.

Time Limits

• Bugs in the Branches: Added 5 seconds to the time limit.
• Shooting Gallery: Added 30 seconds to the time limit.
• Fallen Masks: Added 15 seconds to the time limit.
• On Wings of Gold: Added an updraft near Northgate to make it easier to reach the adventure.
• A Fungus Among Us: Changed the time required to achieve a gold ranking to 1 minute and 25 seconds.
• The Floor Is Lava?: Added 15 seconds to the time limit.
• Haywire Punch-o-Matic Battle: Added 5 seconds to the time limit. Also added a world-map marker in Tangled Depths.
• Sanctum Scramble: Changed the time required to achieve a gold ranking to 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
• Scrap Rifle Field Test: Added a world-map marker in Tangled Depths.

Rewards

• Adventures now give increased experience in their daily bronze, silver, and gold rewards.

………………

edit:

• Fixed a bug in which adventure leaderboards had inconsistent daily and lifetime records. This fix also addressed an issue in which lifetime records cleared after the daily reset.

I… I can’t believe it. They actually fixed the bug. Will report back once I’ve tested it.

Anet – this post deserves sticky? no?

foogison.5067:

Anet – this post deserves sticky? no?

Not ‘no’ — yes.

A few quick hits:

• I’m still busy churning out DPS numbers in the new raid area, but once I’m done I’ll dedicate to confirming every documented and possibly undocumented change and updating all my rankings since the patch.
• I figure most of the 5 second nerfs won’t change my rating, but it’s cool to see ANet throw out the fishing net to see if any of them do actually help people finish their achievements on a global scale.
• I will slowly update all videos with my own.
• The leaderboard bug is fixed as far as I can tell. I’m almost in tears of joy, this is so wonderful for the Adventures.
• Related, seeing the Adventure Daily and seeing tons of people doing it simultaneously, and seeing people ask for tips in chat, it’s all so great. Props and a hearty Thank You to ANet, just these little things changed so, so much for the better.

Quick update: I found a big undocumented change: In Shooting Gallery the 30th target and beyond start spawning super fast, but remain on the map. In other words, they start to build up and at any given time there are multiple targets to aim for. This means there is a huge reduction in RNG for the last phase to push from Silver to Gold, since you can just glance at the minimap and see where all the targets are and aim for the next easiest/most reasonable target, rather than try to shoot them sequentially one by one like for the first 29 targets.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very hard, but it’s doable and more fair, so I will adjust the difficulty score accordingly.

edit: I’m also considering adding Bronze difficulty ratings, since the Bronze is required for the new Daily Achievements, but maybe it doesn’t matter.

Video for the ley line run “holy crap route” doesn’t work anymore. The video is set to private.

Aww, that’s too bad, I’ll edit the post. I mean, My 0:25 is basically the same route, but 6 seconds slower.

Anyways a few more updates, as I work through my guides:
– I finally got Gold in Scrap Rifle Field Test and The Floor is Lava and Shooting Gallery. I’ve re-written these sections and re-rated them.
– As I’ve been playing around with my video editing skills, I’ve been making video GUIDES. These have useful tips incorporated directly into the video with pauses and occasional diagrams.

Current GUIDES available:
Sanctum Scramble – GUIDE for Gold
A Fungus Among Us – GUIDE for Gold
Tendril Torchers – GUIDE for Gold
The Ley Line Run – GUIDE for Gold
A Fungus Among Us – GUIDE for Gold v2

Where is that chest you mention after the end of Drone Race? The only thing in the area I can think of is Gertrude’s Satchel.

Khisanth.2948:

Where is that chest you mention after the end of Drone Race? The only thing in the area I can think of is Gertrude’s Satchel.

Oh, I totally forgot about that in this guide lol. Yes, I was talking about the Satchel.

Sanctum Scramble no longer requires doing the story.