ARCTIC Part 2: The Thing Conclusion... Tips

Well... After many hours I finally made it through The Thing quest, and got my arctic helicopter.

I am still not an expert with this quest despite how long it took me. Here are the following issues I ran into:

1. I cannot find any storage terminals in the Arctic. So, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR VEHICLES SPAWNED WHEN YOU LOG OF. They get returned to storage, and NOT to Rocktropia storage either! So I had lost my Arctic Truck to storage. Without it, you are going to have a hard time getting through all of the things gathered along the path to the exit point. It quite possibly may take a trouble ticket with MA to get your truck back if you lose it.

2. When you enter the refueling base, you basically keep to the right, and there is a large building, and a smaller building kind of close to the satellite receiver. Don't worry about fixing this satellite, theres no terminal on it. Instead, you have supply and repair terminals on the side of the buildings there. Inside the smaller building is a hole in the floor that you are to drop down and you will find underground tunnel with Things all over.

3. It does appear that your Armor works from Calypso. My shogun was doing an admirable job, but that could just be from my defensive skills who knows. Supposedly only the arctic armor should work, but who knows really. In any case, the Things are very tough despite being level 7. These aren't the 1 shot 1 kill level 7s of Rocktropia. It took about 20 shots with my breer M3A to kill one. The shotgun you get from the supply terminal is powerful, but it was a 50/50 if I died or not while killing one. And if you get more than one attacking you you are better off to run for it unless you are uber. So if you plan to do the thing, BRING SOME POWERFUL WEAPONS AND THE APPROPRIATE AMMO!

4. You must reach the escape point from underground. There is no way to complete the mission above ground, believe me, I tried. Upon escaping you are at the surface next to a base. You will receive further instructions by Radio, and then it just gives you your Helicopter and says thank you for playing, and more episodes coming in the future. So it does appear that they will be expanding the Arctic.

5. MINING IN THE ARCTIC: You cannot buy bombs there. BUT you can drop them! Though all I found so far is Lyst and Oil but I did use the crafting terminal in the refueling base, and ran a small profit on standard dampers with the mined Lyst and Oil. Just bring everything you think you need and maybe even some things you don't think you need.

If you are not wanting to spoil the spirit of The Thing, and juse use all Arctic gear, that's fine, and I can respect the ambition of that, but you might want to go with friends since it will be helpful to have a team in dealing with all the Things.

Please see Arctic Part 1 in case you missed it for tips on getting through the first half or so of the mission.

ARCTIC PT 1: I Begun The Thing Quest: TIPS

I just wanted to give you a few tips for starting the Thing Quest...

1. You get to be either a Scientist or a Soldier. The Soldier gets to use the Assault Rifle to begin with, and the Scientist gets to start with the 9mm pistol. It's not as bad as it sounds though... Even though the weapons are weak, the mobs aren't very hard to kill.

2. You have to do everything in the proper order or you will confuse the Quest system. It's not too bad.. But for instance when going to the first satellite receiver, don't TP chip or otehrwise cheat, actually walk down the road to it!

3. When you arrive at the next base after getting your vehicle, you have to turn on the power generator. This requires a level 1 access card but I have not yet found it. I do not know if you have to loot it from a mob or actually find it... However... You can right click and operate the parked vehicles in the bases. Some of them will have things stashed in them to find like Ammo and etc. There is one vehicle that is locked, but I do not know if it is possible to break into it or not, and part of me thinks that the access card may be found inside it, but I dunno if they put that much complexity into the quests to where they would make you pick your way into a vehicle to find something.  UPDATE: Continue south through this base, almost to the next satellite dish, you will see a vehicle. THIS vehicle has the access card.

4. The freebies you get amount to a couple peds probably, including the fap, weapon, ammo... But you may purchase the shotgun, assault rifle, and additional pistols at the terminals attached to the various buildings.. And the ammo.. The shotgun is fairly powerful to be honest, it packs more of a punch than the sollomate opalo...  But they are limited so you can't repair them. So if you like them, and leave, stock up while you can.

5. What is the sequence for the power generator?
Reduce power to Beta.
Increase power to defenses.
Increase defenses again.
Increase cooling.
And you want the 13/20 split on last one.