Unofficial HP Challenges Feedback Thread (Tiers 1-3)

Likely tier 3, whoever designed it had some very unique things like the deep ludi object finding (I forget what its called, where you had to charge and search map to map. Although the range of the "finder" was very small so it was hard to tell if you were close or far from the item.

I did solo for everything since I had 19x bm and 17x bishop at my disposal for kills/farming items

I bought everything I possibly could. If I were a lower level I'd likely farm but I was in a situation where I needed the quest done asap.

Is there even rewards for non-challenge players? Lol

My personal input:

One of the first things I noticed and appreciated with tier 3 is the new player market that staff created. They created a early game market for low level mob etcs (soft feather, robo drops, etc) where these new players can reasonably farm them to help fund themselves. It would have been very nice to have when I was first char grinding for my zhelm at the time instead of trying to farm chronos back then for helm dex 60%

Whether this market gets utilized is left to be seen. The quests feel very monotonis(?) personally it'd be nice to spread out the kill 999 vs farm 999 a bit more, but I liked the creativity with quests like the color pouch with the goblins. It was something different, the scavenger hunt type quests were also an interesting way to break up the storyline a bit.

 

I'd like to know this too before I start investing time and effort for my two washed characters. I'm noticing "albatross" as a thread tag, and I've been seeing a lot of players with albatross pets recently, so I wonder if that's where they're coming from, and if it is I would be incentivized to do the quests.

 

That is where it comes from, you're given the Albatross pet to keep upon completing the tier 2 storyline quest.

 

Albatross is from tier 1 or 2, you get it in the aquarium questline

 

haha time to speedrun this shit.

 

The quests are very fun. Kudos to the brains behind them.

One feedback I have: don't allow the quest items to be thrown away / don't lock players from getting more if they get all the quest items.

Lemme explain.

In the radar blueprint quest I got all 4 pieces but accidentally threw away the last piece - it's now vanished into the void and I cannot continue with the quest. Trying to use the radar again just gives me a message stating "I got all 4 pieces! Time to go back to Karen".

When the challenges are done I think we could install some idiotproof failsafes for the quests. As of now I'm still waiting for a GM response to give me back the blueprint piece or even just reset this part of the quest for me.

But yeah fun quests. Didnt seem to manage to find anyone to do the quests with me though - even with smega. The aqua road genocide quest was really painful with a solo warrior

 

If I were to rank the tiers (best to worst), it would be:
Tier 3
Tier 2
Tier 1

Tier 1 was a nice start to the challenges system, featuring my favorite area Victoria Island in the main questline, which I enjoyed. Felt awesome to have new content for it.
Unfortunately, I still consider this the "worst" of the three questlines thus far, mainly due to some parts being cryptic (like one of the very first tasks where you have to find the coins in the swamp), and others being reaaaaaaally tedious. I think those who've done it already know what's coming: the Thunder Catalysts. There's certainly worse quest objectives out there some involving Sleepywood as well, funnily enough but god damn hunting the Taurospears and Tauromacis is not a fun experience. Their spawn is low across all their maps, they're timer-based, and you can't freely change channels. The drop rate on these were brutal too, on both my Marksman and Shadower. At the very least, it seems the drop rate is a little better according to the recent patch, but I haven't seen how much it makes the grind less painful. By the way, after doing this, you still have to hunt 999 Dark and Ice Drakes too.

Tier 2 has a cute little questline featuring the Albatross, who you take around in Aqua Road to see the sights, eat the common delicacies, and more. It's a step-up from the previous tier, even if I'm not a huge fan of the Aqua Road area. The story has a simple and cute premise, and I think some of the unique quest objectives here were pretty chill (though a bit unwieldy), such as the quest where you hunt and feed your bird friend fish across the area. I also was pretty impressed by the final quest, where you have to collect the souls of weakened mobs EPQ-style, but have to avoid taking too many hits. It's a pretty intense mission, but I think it was done pretty well, and a nice challenge. You even get your bird friend as an actual pet! Was a lot more impressed with this one overall. It's oddly short, though, and does still throw a large "kill mobs" quest near the end which is always kinda eh. I haven't been mentioning them, but I just want to say that the job quest for this tier on Marksman was really annoying as a side note. Having to get the 1shot on Mortal Blow 50 times is really painful, to put it lightly. The only saving grace is that the main questline takes place in Aqua Road, which hosts a pretty good map to complete this. (first map with Bone Fish/Goby) Not sure how the job quest is for other classes, though.

Tier 3 takes place in Ludus Lake, another region that I enjoy quite a bit. Felt nice for Omega Sector in particular to get more relevance. Bit of a weird compliment, but I love the many unique maps created for this tier. From the other part of the library (via the door that you can FINALLY enter!!!), the really cool alien base interior from the jump quest, and the clever use of older event assets for the 2 gods that you visit on the moon. I also think the story is pretty solid, featuring some neat Ludi lore and making you explore the entire Ludus Lake region. In contrast to Tier 2, Tier 3 felt looooooong. Not necessarily a fully bad thing, but the main questline felt much longer than the previous two questlines. Not sure if that's actually true or not, but that's how I felt at least. I think this tier also generally felt more straightforward on its tasks, but did feature a few fun ones, like the dye mixing in KFT and repairing the tower in Ludi. I do think it also featured some rather confusing ones too though, like the radar quest in Deep Ludi (probably the worst aspect of the questline), and the second part of the jump quest in the alien base having a slightly cryptic, not very visible path. I also enjoyed the big scavenger hunt of the etcs, cause it felt nice to just explore Eos Tower and other areas of Ludi and gather up the required etcs for the quests. The reward is solid too, giving you a unique teleport between Omega Sector and KFT. Should be pretty handy when I walk from Vic Island to El Nath for Zakum or something. Another aspect of Tier 3 that I enjoyed was the job quest this time around. It does kind of amount to a big kill quest once again, but I thought the training sequence with Dr. Kim was pretty neat. A little more interesting than the "Use x skill y times" quests in the previous two tiers.

Collectively, I think these tiers are pretty solid so far. Wouldn't say 10/10 or anything, but I think the quality is good, and the dialogue and story can be a nice read. One of my favorite things about them is the aspect of exploring areas that otherwise are largely ignored when you get to higher levels. No tasks feel too mind-numbing or tedious so far either, which is nice. The closest I can think of is the Thunder Catalysts and the Deep Ludi radar quest, and even then they're not too bad all things considered.
I apologize in advance if this is overly ramble-y

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the HP challenge questlines, even with their frustrations.
Overview -
Tier 1 - Only issues is figuring out where the coin is at the beginning of the quest. There is no indicator of what you're looking for, nor a hint that there is a hidden NPC you must interact with (this may have changed, but since i did it upon launch this was my experience). I'm curious if anyone who has done the quest post-drop rate increase for the Thunder Catalyst feels regarding that item drop, but the original drop rate did not feel good.
Tier 2 - No complaints except for the Bone Fish kill requirement. Needing to kill 999 Bone Fish while both Sharks and Squids are only 500 each seems a bit odd. The 999 requirement for Goby is fine due to the number of maps that have the Bombing Fish houses in them.
Tier 3 - At the beginning of the quest it felt weird simply due to the low level ETC fetch quests, but I rather enjoyed the later sections within Deep Ludi Clocktower. Only item I bought in FM was Stiff Feathers, as those are a pain in the ass to farm. Everything else I personally collected.

Spoiler: Don't read if you haven't finished the quest

The new warp between Omega Sector and Korean Folk Town is a little goofy, as you need to run many many many maps over to reach it, but it does feel better than waiting for the Helios Tower elevator. That shit is awful.

Rewards -
Tier 1 - Rewards felt fine, but kinda dull. 5m is 5m, won't say no lol.
Tier 2 - Albatross is fuckin adorable hell yeah.
Tier 3 - Cool but underwhelming.

Would I recommend washed characters to do them? Yes, I really enjoyed the episodic feel of the quests. They all felt organic in storyline to vanilla questlines, which I really enjoy while questing.

Final opinion on them as a whole? 7.5/10. Excited for whatever comes for the future tiers.

 

I didn't do the quest on any char, I'll probably do it if the quest ring or some incentive like that comes along, but I liked the thread's initiative

 

I was going to say it feels like it was significantly buffed, but after I got these 3 dropped at once, there was like a 10 minute gap before any more dropped. on the whole it took me a little over 2 hours to get 10 catalysts for 2 characters.