Stratos Vault: tips

[jknut]

Has anyone passed the Stratos Vault where you have to use all the switches to find the seals and scrolls?  Would you mind passing on any tips?

This doesn't work:

SPOILER: Click to show

 

[contributor]

I'm curious to know if this level is bugged. I don't want to start it if it is. I finally beat the Fall Of Team Stratos on Brutal, which was very brutal.

[bobc]

jknut no tips other than take a packed lunch - it took me 65 turns on normal! The route you've highlighted is the only one that goes all the way through.

fallen Cory Trese are the door switches working properly? The first switch (on arrow 1 of the screenshot) only opened the inner door of the two, while the fourth switch (on arrow 4) did not seem to do anything at all. Is this intended behavour for these two switches?

[contributor]

jknut did you figure this out yet? I just started the level. The one thing I see is that you never captured the western TP at the top of the map. In the first dialogue it says something about his being the Eastern TP, so I figured there must be a Western one. There is, straight to the west. When I captured that one it tells me that now we can begin the search for the Scroll of the Ancients or something. So it might be that that is your problem. fallen, Cory Trese if this is the problem, it should be more clear in the opening dialogue that you need to capture both TPs before pressing on into the level.

[fallen]

Thanks, we'll take a look at some point.

[jknut]

contributor, I just figured this out.  It took me 33 turns (30 goal) on Hard -- I had to spend 6-7 turns completely cooling down because a squad member was massively overheating and near death.

This is a level where I wish I had some melee builds.  There are some tight hallways and melee probably would have helped.  Perhaps, my anytime respec wish will be granted.

This was a very hard level and needed more direction on how to complete it.  After a couple tries, I was very tempted to just give up and move on to another game.... so my feedback is to make sure the player has some clues on where to go.  After getting both seal/scroll, there was no indication on where to go, so I just went back to the beginning.

Here is the route and strategy I took (click Spoiler link).  I hung around the first TP long enough to get my 6th squad member (stealth scout).  Actually, my squad moved away from the TP the turn before because I knew I would have enough TP the next turn.

SPOILER: Click to show

Here was my squad at the end:
Barnabus is my Stealth Scout - she needs a cool bath after this one.
Gimblard was my lead Overwatch HL Soldier, he took a beating trying to stop the incoming and was the main reason I had to blow 7 turns to cool him down.  



Still had a bonus of +3??

[fallen]

The level of instruction & dialog in the alpha levels is not representative of final game levels. We will work on improving the level for P3.

Glad you were able to beat it!

[Cory Trese]

My best time is 23 turns it looks like. Scouts and Berserks formed the core of second squad for that run.

[contributor]

Wow, I just tried to do this level more or less following a clockwise path (cross bridges and stay to the right and then bottom perimeter). In the bottom left corner you get stuck and have to backtrack pretty much all of the map, I think. I don't know if that was intentional but I don't think most players are going to think it's a funny joke. I'm halfway tempted just to start over rather than spend the next 12 turns just walking back in a circle.

[jknut]

Jun 16, 2015 9:55:22 GMT -5 contributor said:

Wow, I just tried to do this level more or less following a clockwise path (cross bridges and stay to the right and then bottom perimeter). In the bottom left corner you get stuck and have to backtrack pretty much all of the map, I think. I don't know if that was intentional but I don't think most players are going to think it's a funny joke. I'm halfway tempted just to start over rather than spend the next 12 turns just walking back in a circle.

That's what I did the first time and was not too happy when I got to that blocked door.  I started over with the plan to send my stealth scout over to the switch.

[fallen]

Jun 16, 2015 8:35:10 GMT -5 fallen said:

The level of instruction & dialog in the alpha levels is not representative of final game levels. We will work on improving the level for P3.

[contributor]

I'm just helping you know how to improve it.

[contributor]

Finally finished this level after 74 turns and 141 xenos. I decided just to press on and did the whole tour of the level. It was weird though with the AI really getting overwhelmed. I had tons of groups of Xenos just sitting around waiting for my soldiers to walk up to them and go crazy with their Leviathans. Felt sort of like cheating, but fun after the hard knocks on The Fall of Team Stratos. Now I've worked through all the P2 content too on Brutal. I think I'll keep working with the same squad and see how they do as they mature. Looking forward to being able to equip some heavier weaponry.

[Kanly]

Just finished this one on normal in 21 turns. I based my strategy on the map jknut made, only I sent one scout after each relic and used the rest of the squad to hold both TPs. I used overdrive to activate stealth but I find it unnecessary to use the extra move points because they generate heat that won't dissipate. I only used the extra moves to sneak past xeno spawns, because if a xeno spawns next to you, they will attack you. The xenos completely ignored my scouts and went after the TPs.

[jknut]

I tried this again with my next squad which features my Captain and Engineer with a melee build.

Modified Kanly's strategy with the following... took 18 turns on Hard.  I feel that I've come a long way since struggling early on how to get past this level.

SPOILER: Click to show