From level 1 - level 50 in two weeks (without powerleveling)
This is a 14 day guide to getting to level 50. Any player of any skill level can do this, they just have to know how to get a team together and hopefully will learn how to react with their team and how their powers work. If you have a problem with these things, it may take longer, but it only took me 14 days.
Completing this guide will give you a few very useful things. It will give you all three respec missions completed, the Katie Hannon contact, several Task Force IOs, the Shadow Shard TF Badges, a shot at the MSTF, and at the very lest you will have the Task Force Commander accolade. You may also earn a few other badges with this guide, but that is the only one that I can guarantee. I will run this guide using a raw character and see how many I make doing the bare minimum of badges, just to get an update. Most people will say that powerleveling their characters is better for them, but while it would only take about 4-5 days to get to 50, they will not have the same grasp of the powers that a player that runs with my guide will have.
This guide is assuming that your EXP is very poor and that you are doing the lowest expected level per day. If you are getting higher levels you may want to skip some of the TFs that I mention and you may even want to modify the guide a bit for yourself. Any modifications may loose you your places with the badges possible and may even loose you valuable contacts in the game.
Day 1 - Level 1
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The first thing you should do is skip the tutorial (unless you think that it will be useful, some players need the tutorial and it does give you a couple of fairly useful inspirations. Most players will want to skip the tutorial though. After you are in Atlas Park (do not choose Galaxy City), search out a Sewer Team. While you are looking, head to the south of the Atlas Park Square and beat up a few thugs, you may reach level 2 or even 3 doing this, which will help in your search for the Sewer Team.
Once you have your sewer team, head on into the sewers at the south end of Atlas Park and go all the way down to the central area. Doing this SHOULD get you to level 6 or 7, depending on how far you go. It will also teach you how to work with a team and give you a basic understanding of your powers.
Now that you are level 6 (at least) head to Kings Row and pick up your Police Scanner. This will give you three missions to complete. I always suggest doing the ones where you have to beat up a specific bad guy, just because they are significantly easier than killall and MUCH easier than escort missions. After you have done three of these missions you will be asked to go and protect Atlas Park. Finish this mission by beating up the named villain and any henchmen before they get out of the zone. This is fairly easy to do, and shouldn't give you any problems (defenders may have problems here
). This will give you a very useful item called a Raptor Pack, which will allow you to fly. If you mix this with the Jump Pack from the Heroes Vs Villains disc set, you will be able to move faster than most characters who take fly as a power (around 45mph) for a brief time.
Now you will want to head to the Hollows, which is a horrible place... without the Raptor Pack. Start of by doing the missions from David Wincott, which are fairly easy still, and then move on to Flux's missions. At the end of Flux's missions you will be given the mission to defeat FrostFire. This mission can be done either one or two times. The second time you will just raise the difficulty in Atlas Park to make the villains more difficult. The guide is written for doing FF one time, if you would like to do him twice, you may not finish all of Day 1, but that is your choice.
After defeating Frostfire, you should be at the VERY least level 10. It's time to start doing your Task Forces by heading to Steel Canyon (you should use the raptor pack unless you are good at dodging bad guys). Once you reach Positron, you will need to have a team of at least 3 members. To make this easy, for a 3 man team you need a healer of some sort, a damage dealer, and either a tanker or a scrapper. For an 8 man team you will NEED a healer and at least one controller, and a tanker. The rest of your team can be anything, but I strongly suggest controllers. They do a lot of damage and will also immobilize the enemies while buffing you up. Positron's Task Force is the hardest of all of the TFs in this guide, and will take you at the very least 3 hours to complete. It is important to find a team that can commit to at least 4 hours of the task force or you may have to start over from the beginning, which really stinks. By the end of the taskforce, you should be either level 15 or 16.
Day 2 - Level 15
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Today you are going to do two task forces. You will basically just do Synapse TF and Sister Psyche's TF. Follow the same patterns for your team as you did for Positron, it's best to get 8 man teams for these TFs and try to keep them as tight as you can, these missions are a lot of fun and you should be making some very good friends while doing them. By the end of Day 2, you should be at least level 23, but possibly all the way up to 26 if your Exp was good.
Day 3 - Level 23
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Yet again, more Task Forces. But now we're going to mix it up a bit, your levels are going to start dragging out a bit and you will want to pace yourself, so not everything is going to be one of the main Task Forces. Instead, let's head over to Striga Isle where you will want to find Moonfire around the center of the map. This is a fairly easy task force with about 8 missions to it, and should only take you about an hour and a half. Since you're going to be fighting the Council, you won't need a super tanker, but something that can handle a lot of lethal and smashing damage. Fire is useful, but really not required. When you finish off with Moonfire's TF, you should be around level 25.
At this point you should head back to Talos Island and talk to Citidel. He has another Task Force that you get to do, and it's another step to your Accolade badge. Again, you get to fight the Council, so it's a very fun day for you, as you already rocked the council in Striga. Finishing this TF should get you to either level 27 or 28 (See, those levels are slowing down pretty bad)
Day 4 - Level 27
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Today, you get to start off by doing the first Respec Mission. This one involves a lot of sky raiders and may take a decent team to get it right. Luckily, this is another one of those easy to find TFs that a lot of people want and some even need because of their bad choices in powers. It should take you about two hours to finish this TF. You should be up to L29 by the end of this, but hopefully you have passed L30, because you need it for the next part.
Next up, you get a few fun regular missions, you may even want to raise your difficulty by talking to a Hero Corpse Field Analyst. Today you are going to work on Croatoa's missions to get yourself the Katie Hannon TF. Today is more of a day of play than anything else because you can really farm the Katie TF once you get up a few levels. You can also play with it to get a bunch of really fun badges if you know the trick.
First off, you are going to have to find the Mayor of Croatoa. His name is Gordon Bower and he should be standing next to the sculpture in the center of the University. He has a few missions to do, and then he will introduce you to Skipper LeGrange. Same thing, and then you get to talk to Kelly Nemmers who you have to be at least L30 to talk to. If you haven't hit L30 yet, go do and then come back, but if you do make sure that you DO come back! Kelly will give you to Buck Salinger who is the final contact for Croatoa. Now that you've finished with Buck you will get another contact (that isn't really required) and can go talk to Katie Hannon and start up her Task Force. This will be the easiest team you ever found, everyone wanted to do Katie's TF because it only takes about 20-40 minutes(!) to do all 5 missions. At the end of this, you should be well rounded up around Level 32.
Day 5 - Level 32
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Today, you get to hang out with Justin "Manticore" Sinclair himself. Heck, this is the guy who got to bag Sister Psyche, so he must have SOMETHING going for him... Anyways, run off his Task Force in taking out the Crey. This isn't the easiest of Task Forces though, so be careful. Lady Grey is a very powerful person and is set in a very hard to reach place. You are also going to be introduced to Crey's Folley today, it's not as charming as you might think, but it's there at least. This TF should take you about 3-4 hours to finish (being the second hardest TF in the game) and when you're done, you get another high priced IO and are only one badge away from your first accolade... which you will be getting next.
By now you should be level 34, and very close to being able to do the last of the task forces. I will let you choose this time. You can do one of three things. Play with Katie Hannon until you are L35 (max level you can get from Katie Hannon's TF), Go play with Mender Lazarus and not get any recipes, but get to do some very fun playing with the Ouroboros system (which is pronounced Oh-Rob-Orus in Series VII of Red Dwarf). All both of these are totally acceptable ways to get to L35.
It's time to speak with Numina and get ready for the fight of your life. Short of the Statesman's Task Force, this is possibly the hardest fight in the entire game. Instead of fighting an Arch Villain or something like that, you are going to be fighting a Giant Monster. That means that he's purple regardless of your level. You will need a VERY good tanker and at least two VERY good healers. Controllers are also a very good idea and you will also need some great damage dealers. FireKins are awesome on this mission naturally, StoneKin is also awesome since they can possibly lock Jurassik in stone, which is no easy feat. Just remember that this is hard and you will do fine... possibly
You should also end of around level 38(!) today. You also now have one of the harder Accolade Badges in the game that gives you a bonus +5% to your HP.
Day 6 - Level 38
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Once again you get to start the day off with a respec trial. Head to Founder's Falls and talk with James Harlan just SE of the Hospital to get this one out of the way. You're going to be going against the Freakshow for this one, so make sure you have people who can handle the Tanks.
You should only be level 39 now, and need to get up to L40 to get to the next step in this task force ladder. This area is one of the rougher ones. What we are going to do though, is simply work around what we have. At level 35 you are able to go to the Rikti Warzone, where you will be able to start getting a few of the upper level perks. Head there now and talk to Levantera. She's going to give you a cycle of missions. I strongly suggest going through all of the contacts in the RWZ simply because you will get a lot out of it, including a few extra Merits that you can use to get more salvage slots and a whole new costume type. Finishing off all five of the contacts in the RWZ you should be very close to level 41. Now it's time to get a few more Task Forces under your belt.
Day 7 - Level 41
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Today you are only going to do one thing. You are going to enter Firebase Zulu and complete Dr. Quarterfield's Task Force. This IS the longest task force in the game and will take all day, but it will also give you the Portal Smasher badge and should get you up to around level 42 or 43.
Day 8 - Level 42
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Back into Firebase Zulu for you today, speak with Sara Moore and run her TF first, after that you are going to be in yet another one of those fun ruts between levels. This is going to leave you hanging around level 43, which isn't quite enough to get you the next respec. What we're going to do now is get a start on the next Accolade badge (which you will get from finishing this list). You are going to need to get the contact of Tina MacIntyre. She is introduced through Gordon Stacy and Maxwell Christopher. You can only talk to her if you have closed any open storyline arcs, which is why we haven't opened any as of yet. Open up your police scanner that you haven't used in almost a week and do a few missions in Peregrin Island. You should get in contact with either Gordon Stacy, Maxwell Cristopher, or even Tina herself. However you get it, just keep going until you are all set.
Tina is going to give you a bunch of really fun missions taking on some fairly difficult bosses, but since you know how to form up a good team, this shouldn't be any problem for you. A lot of people will want to team up with you for these missions since a lot of people try to save them to farm the exp and prestige you can earn from a couple of the missions. I prefer to get badges over a few farm missions that most other 50s already have (and you can make some pretty nice friends this way too that can help you get the rest of your levels in a day or so if you're lucky... but we're not doing that, we're doing this the au'natural way). We're going to finish off by just getting Tina today, this should leave you around L43 or even up to L44.
Day 9 - Level 43
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Today we're going to get a bit of extra EXP by taking on a few of the more exciting non-taskforce baddies. We're going to take on the Arch Villains of the Freedom Phalanx. Start of by talking to Tina MacIntire and get a go on the missions. These guys are better than most players ever could be, so you will want a decent team to fight these guys. Finding one won't be difficult though, so lucky you. Getting through this entire series should take about 3 hours and get you up to level 44. Don't forget to pick Unai Kemen for your contact!
You finally made it
Sadly, you are going to need another level to get to do the next contact, so it looks like you're going to have to do another respec trial. If you have this all set out right, you should be level 45 when you finish. And that's where we finish today.
Day 10 - Level 45
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Alright, you're level 45! Time to do some serious butt kicking! Right off the bat, head to the Rikti War Zone, we're going to get back to the Freedom Phalanx mission in a bit, but right now, we have another task force to do, and this time, we can invite some villains! Lady Grey's Task Force requires 8 members and is a rarely done TF, that means you shouldn't have TOO much trouble finding a team, but you might still have a bit, it takes about 3 hours to finish off and it's all against the Rikti, so Invulnerably Tankers are a bad idea. You are going to probably want a Willpower Tanker since they have the Psychic resistance and the rest of the team is all normal. With any luck, you are level 46 now.
Let's head back to the Freedom Phalanx mission. We need to speak to Unai Kemen, who you would have gotten from Tina yesterday. Start out his story arc and take out all the bad guys. This is the point where you may actually want to stop doing this guide, just because he has two missions that you can farm for influence and prestige when you reach level 50, but you don't want to get the mission until you ARE level 50. If you want to get the badge I mentioned earlier you will want to continue, and shouldn't have a hard time getting more people to join you. If you want to stop and farm, skip this section and go on to the next day.
Day 11 - Level 46 (and a half
)
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Alright, time to head back into the Shadow Shard. Hit up Sara Moore and do her Task Force today, it's a good way to get some extra exp to push you into 47 and you will get a rare badge at the end that most people never even realize called the Destroyer of Strength Badge. The Task Force will take most of the day though, so make sure you have a good team that is ready to rock this with you.
Day 12 - Level 47
Congratulations! You can now slot up to L50 IO Enhancers! I highly suggest getting a start on this by buying the MOST IO Enhancers you can get to make sets. While Armageddon is a wonderful little thing, those sets are going to make you significantly stronger and more useful to your team. Hold off on Armageddon and work on your lesser powers at first, a few good L50 SO Enhancers will do until you can start on your Armageddon sets (or whatever your god sets are). Do this before today's Task Force, it should take you about an hour or two, but with all of those great IOs you've been selling over the last couple of weeks, you should be somewhere around 30-40m Influence.
Alright, now that you have all of your Enhancers in, let's get a start on the TF of the day. We're going back into the Shadow Shard for the second to last time (thank god!) to speak with Justin Augustine and get the Protector of Kindness Badge. This is another big one that will take you a while, but with any luck you should be pushing L48 by the time you're done.
Day 13 - Level 48
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Today we're going back into the Two Task Force days. These two are some of the more fun ones though, so there won't be any problems. First off, we're going to get rid of the final Shadow Shard task force by speaking with Faathim the Kind. This is going to get you the Slayer of Madness Badge, and some serious bragging rights for finishing all four of the Shadow Shard TFs. With any luck you should be about half way to 49, which is why we're going to take our first run at the MSTF Badge (Master of Statesman's Task Force).
Alright, some requirements for the MSTF, you are going to have to run the TF with two settings listed, You can't Die at all and you can't use any Temp Powers. These two are REQUIRED for the MSTF Badge, but you can still get the Saved the World Badge and the Peerless Badges for taking on the last two sets in the mission.
The Team for this mission is VERY difficult to put together. You are going to need a Stone Tanker, though Invulnerably or Willpower Will work, you will need a Radiation / Radiation Defender, and the more FireKin's the better, though any good Controller will work just fine. Remember, Radiation will stack up, so if you have three characters who can radiate, all the better. Other than that, you shouldn't have very much trouble. this is the most difficult badge in the game to reach, so you will probably have to do it several times before you will finally get it, but still finish the TF if you are more than 2 missions down, the IO and HO Enhancers at the end is always worth it, and you should be 49 by now too.
Day 14 - Level 49
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Alright, final stretch here! Today we are going to do something a bit boring, but still very useful. We're going to take at least two more stabs at the MSTF badge, but three may be better. This is sadly how you are going to get L50, and remember the 3 hour rule. You have to finish the TF 3 hours apart from each other or you won't get the IO, that means you either have to pace yourself (fat chance) or take a break in the middle of each run.
Get your teams together using the formula I told you yesterday and rock it out. It shouldn't take you all that long to hit to 50 and be able to scream out the bragging rights to the world.
