Weekly Marathons

A rather overdue post which I initially wanted to work on a while back when this event first became official.

This post is intended to be a mix of a guide and a database reference to not only those who are new to the game, but also for long-time players in completing Weekly Marathon events. These have now become a permanent(?) installation to the game to give players an additional set of objectives and rewards to complete over the course of the weekdays.

Also, much credit to ObiWan, Critique, Darken Rhal, yui and many others who have written in on the #Strategy section of Discord.

Update (12/4/18): Changes to SF boosters as mentioned by yui

Update (15/4/18): Changes to Mission 6 as noted by Dragec

Update (20/6/18): Additional quest requirement for kill minion with ‘weapon type’

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Marathons and their Quests

Weekly Marathons are apparently an ‘old‘ event-type feature in the game which were released sporadically during special occasions (eg. Eurocup, A7X crossover, Lantern,  Spring festival etc.) usually as a way to bestow players with special gears, skills and/or chests for their efforts. These were revived recently mid-way in the last update (23) and have been integrated in the event schedule ever since.

These events start typically on Sunday/Monday shortly after GW and lasts till Thursday/Friday depending on which side of the world you live in. These small-scale events present 4 different quests and finishing these quests offer up to 50 gems (at the time of writing this post).

The quests/objectives of these marathons follow the element of the week, usually coinciding with the ToE/GW/LegHunt element unless otherwise stated. To the best of my knowledge, quests that have appeared before include:

• Kill X number of monsters in Solo Missions
• Kill X number of monsters in Stronghold Raids
• Use X number of items for fusion
• Clear X number of waypoints in Trial of Elements
• Craft a Trinket
• Clear X number of Legendary Hunts/ Event Mission

The shortened Marathon to make way for the Good Friday/Easter edition

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Kill X number of monsters in Solo Missions

Currently, the number of monsters to kill is fixed as 75. While this seems like a large quantity, it actually requires about 1-3 instances of attempting a solo mission with adequate number of right-element monsters.

It is recommended that you go with the easiest difficulty (normal) as these usually have a single element of minions as other difficulties usually have a mix of . Additionally, minions killed by your ally also adds to the kill counter.

Note: A good tip shared on Discord and Forums is that you can bypass the energy consumption by ending the mission before you collect the final chest. As the game registers the minion kill(s) during the mission itself, it will add to the final counter. However, you’ll lose out on the gears you obtain during the mission itself.

*All missions listed below are on Normal Difficulty. 

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Fire – Mission 12, 34, 64 (Expert)

While I’ve yet to find any missions that only require a single clear to achieve the 75 minion mark, missions 12 and 34 should require about 2 attempts to get to that number. I’d prefer mission 34 though since there are a greater number of minions per run with less delays in between.

Edit (8/1/2019): Courtesy to Wasikeo, Chris and many others who have mentioned this to me before, Mission 64 Expert is also a good source of fire minions with its endless spawn along the fallen log bridge right after you meet up with Madie. For those stuck way further back on the Expert level missions, Hard mode also gives a constant spawn at the same location. However, it is much less Fire minions (with a mix of water ones) than what is given for Expert mode.

Nature – Mission 58 (dream portal)

This mission has a full line-up of nature minions complete with Assassins, Rogues and Harpies etc. and should require 1 (or the most 2) attempts to reach the 75 counter. Equip Fire and clearing this mission should be a breeze.

Dark – Mission 14, 78

Mission 14 is an easier mission and there is a chest after entering the first portal and moving straight instead of going down the ramp on the right. This provides a continuous spawn of 3 minions every time you walk off and revisit it (Credit to Critique for sharing this discovery).

Location of Mission 14’s endless spawn

Edit (8/1/2019): There is, fortunately, an easier way to get the endless spawn of dark minions. Simply visit the last area of the map (ie. the large pronged room) and stand at the large door. 3 ghouls will spawn continuously even after the final boss has been defeated. If they stop spawning, walk to the end of the corridor and back again for the spawn to continue. Repeat, Rinse and profit(?). 🙂

For those who want some challenge, Mission 78 is a good alternative as it offers numerous spawns of dark minions (>75 minions) if you delay killing Corvus and its totems. Be warned as you need to fight your doppelganger right before a long match with Corvus. Assuming that you’re going in with Nature armor, have a Fire secondary DOT weapon or skill and the (pre-)match should be a breeze.

Moreover, the spirits that spawn from Cursed Minions also contribute to the kill counter.

Light – Mission 23

Not much to say here since one instance of Mission 23 should be able to complete. Do note that summoned minions (from Spirius, Immortal Gatekeepers, Rhinos) also add to the kill count – an information which would be useful in the next section.

Water – Mission 6, 16, 64 (dream portal)

Mission 6 might require a few runs to complete but Running missions 6, 16 and 64 would complete the quest in one go. My favourite is Mission 64 as it has an endless spawn of water minions once you met back up with Maddie. This happens about half way through the map and the bridge will have an endless spawn of Water minions, which you can clear to your heart’s content.

Update (15/4/18): As highlighted by Dragec, Mission 6 has the same endless minion spawn as Mission 14. This means that you can go through the top right exit of the starting room and 3 minions will spawn. Once killed, walk back a few steps and return to get another set of 3 minions. 

TL;DR:
– Fire: 12, 34
– Nature: 58
– Dark: 14, 78
– Light: 23
– Water: 6, 16, 64

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Kill X number of monsters in Stronghold Raid

This quest might get quite tricky since it is dependent on what other players have in their strongholds in your league. Do be forewarned as if they exist naturally (in higher leagues), they most likely would be OP (eg. M7) so do exercise caution when dealing with them.

The easier way to complete this would be through teamwork, if you’re able to convince your non-allied/guild friends (on your server) and yourself included to participate by having 5 weak minions of the same element. Of course, this wouldn’t be an easy task since you’ll be the prime target of other raiders trying to achieve the objective as well.

And no, testing your own SH does not contribute to the minion kill counter. 😐

Fire – Besides the once-common Ruby Temple, locating these minions now can be challenging in the upper leagues (ie. Master, Legendary). The Dominator, Ignicore, Fire Colossus are the main ones which you’ll be facing which exist even outside of their innate elemental strongholds. Fortunately (or unfortunately), these are less of a threat outside of just the Ruby Temple.

Nature – Second to Water minions, nature minions are popular with the large number of Courtyards and Nettles around. Mossbacks, Assassins, Druids and the pesky Rangers are frequent in majority of Strongholds. However, do watch for DOT, especially if you’re geared up in Dark armor.

Nature minions can be found in most strongholds, though watch for those in Courtyard or Nettles since they might boast high stats

Dark – These minions are slightly less difficult to find as Corvus-es or the less common Lords of Eve are can be found in a number of strongholds (eg. Seashore, Courtyard, Pits etc.). Mastered Corvus-es, however, can be a pain to deal with in Pits or if you’re wearing unmastered Light Armor.

Light – These minions are actually a little tougher to find, particularly in the upper leagues. However, there is a neat trick to gather more than the number of minions are shown in the SH preview.

Apparently, light minions are the few which still retain their summoning abilities, adding additional minions/items to their aid in Stronghold. Destroying these contribute to the final minion count. Specifically, these are Gatekeeper (summons up to 4 Totems per raid), Rhino Vigil (summons 3 clones at a go), Spirius (summons 3 meroes at a go).

Water – With the popularity of Kringles in almost every SH, this element should be the least of most player’s issues. Just remember to bring a good light weapon or have Immortal Justice on standby. Alternatively, you can check out this post here for dealing with multiple Kringles in Seashore. 🙂

TL;DR: Easiest to hardest elements to locate in SHs – Water, Nature, Light, Dark, Fire

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Using X of items as Fusion material

This is fairly straightforward an objective as all types of boosters can be used for this quest. For those short on boosters, you can use gears which you obtain from missions and bounty chests which adds towards this requirement. Moreover, these give more experience than boosters of the corresponding tier and element.

Fusing Dark Items also add to the count

Additionally, this objective is particularly easy to achieve for Light as Celestial (SF) boosters are considered as Light-based items.

Update (12/4): As mentioned by yui (extracted from a Japanese Blog mola village), Celestial (SF) boosters are considered as a universal elemental fusion item. This means that fusing them into an item adds to the counter regardless of the element. Additionally, rainbow boosters also can be used for the same effect.

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Kill X minions using specific Weapon in Stronghold Raids

[Update: 20/6/18]

A recent addition to the Energy Marathons would be to kill a certain number of monsters using a specific weapon during raiding. The quest requirement is straightforward as the criteria is that you land the ‘finishing blow‘ on the monster using said weapon type.

Of course, this will be easy if you’ve been diligently building up all the different weapon types and raiding with them frequently. However, it will pose some issues if you don’t have a well built-up weapon type. Perhaps this is GL’s way of motivating us players to build up and use a variety of weapon types instead of sticking to just one. 😉

Unfortunately, this quest is marred with a slight mishap (or glitch rather) since the killing blow will not be registered if it were made by:

• A Skill (eg. Mist of Death/ Ice Stalagmites)
• Damage over 3s (DOT)
• Damage to Attacker (DTA)
• Strike Chance (once the animation shows)

In short, the final attack must be strictly made by the weapon type.

That being said, let’s hope there will be a looser requirement to this to ease the clearing of this quest 🙂

TL;DR: Kill monsters and deliver the killing blow with the specific weapon type.

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Other Quests

Most other quests are relatively straightforward with ‘Craft a Trinket’, ‘Spend X energy’, ‘Complete Legendary Hunt/Event Mission X times’ or ‘Complete X number of waypoints‘. For the last one, do note that skipped waypoints from VIP rank will not add to the counter.

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That’s about it for Weekly Marathons. I’ll be updating this if I see new objectives in the near future. 🙂