I hope everyone is having a great Tuesday so far. After seeing “The Barracks” master escape guide do well and have a healthy discussion I’ve uploaded another Master Escape guide.
As the thread title suggests, there was no grenade duplication for this run. In this run, we ran Keegan, Lahni, & Mac. A few things about this hive are that there are three areas that are I would call choke points, areas where you could easily lose the hive.
The first area is right after the first battle where you are faced against hunters, elite drones, poppers, and a drop shot scion. Mac is critical to start this fight off while keeping a distance and using his boltok and sniper. Lahni will come in using her venom blade bleed to destroy the rest of the enemies. Keegan will be used for support.
The second choke point is when you’re on a bridge with hunters, grenadiers, and poppers. Lahni will need to push the action to trigger the enemies to move up. Lahni will use her bleed and Talon to destroy the poppers while Keegan and Mac provide overhead support. Eventually, a wave of enemies will start pushing up and then two Warden’s will come. Lahni’s electroblade with shock chain is great if the Keegan or Mac use the Dropshot Relic to freeze them. The bleed will destroy everyone in sight.
The last chokepoint is near the helipad where you’ll be faced with multiple juvies, hunters, grenadiers, a matriach, and dropshot scions.Use Keegan and Mac to provide overhead support again and Lahni move up. The venom will begin moving closer. The matriach will eventually run towards you, avoid fighting it at all cost. Leave it for last.
I personally found that Mac and Lahni are the two key characters for Ice Queen. Keegan is alot less critical and many people I know have swapped him out for someone else like Emile or Lizzie.
Regarding your video - just to expand and clarify for other players you mention that Mac did a great job alternating the Boltok and Longshot - for those not quite in the know, this is crucial as it’s about managing / juggling the cooldowns of active reloads. Once Mac has gotten an active on the Boltok and used those bullets the active reload needs to cooldown, and that’s usually a good time to switch to the Longshot or other weapons if you’re midway through a firefight. The Longshot obviously doesn’t cause bleed, but is still high-damage. The venom on this map on master moves very quickly and you won’t have much time to wait on cooldowns, so therefore juggling weapons is very important.
And lastly, just to really highlight an aspect of Mac’s role which was only briefly touched upon regarding his Bloody Shot card - I mention this purely because I tend to play Mac so this is from his perspective really. Mac’s role isn’t just to hit accurate headshots and get kills. This is obviously very desirable, but in fast moving and high-pressure situations it’s not always possible. I feel strongly that Mac players need to master hitting active reloads as a number 1 priority. I say this purely because any active shot will cause bleed, and for supporting Lahni and her Thrill of The Hunt card, this is utterly crucial. Mac’s role is partly to create a defensive screen so that Lahni can go about cutting up the enemy and to be able to tank damage due to her increased healing as there’s lots of bleeding enemies around her.
It’s a good guide. Worth watching if anyone needs advice and help on Ice Queen. It’s definitely one of the harder maps.
I don’t think Keegan has much impact in this hive. I mean, there’s no explosive weapon and low chance of Frags dropping from Poppers. Relic Dropshot doesn’t count because it’s not explosive and only freezes. And Venom Explosive Resupply doesn’t even work with it. There can either be Claw Drones or HB Drone sets for the beginning encounter, so Keegan won’t be guaranteed his Custom HB.
Lahni is very important. But I wouldn’t use Shock Chain. The Ult are very short in this hive. Mid Range Deflection and Short Range Deflection are too important to drop for Shock Chain. The Wardens, just Flashbang or Relic Dropshot freeze then Electroblade Ult.
Mac is useful for range, Poppers and Longshot with Adrenalin Junkie for one shot. But will suck against shielded Grenadiers at beginning.
Emile is useful, along with Lahni in close quarters. Can get early head start on melee bleeding shielded Grenadiers at beginning. More deadlier if he gets Breaker.
Lizzie’s Silverback is immune to Poppers, which won’t hurt her Silverback when explode or blow up. Still a useful character, can freeze Wardens or Matriarch if low health. Or if backed up in tight situation, summoning Silverback could save the run. Or going in to 1 vs 1 a Warden with Silverback.
I guess Baird could be useful with Longshot and Markza that can be found on the map. Precision Bleed and maybe summoning the improved DR-1 with mid range 100% bleeding Tri-Shot if situation got difficult. Or could be good decoy against double Wardens but not tested.
Clayton has potential to be useful. And his freezing resist card could counter the freezing Snipers and freezing Relic Dropshot Scion. But not tested.
Cole works as well, head start to melee or tackle enemies ahead of Venom. Can close quarter along with Lahni. Can be immune to both Wardens when Ult ready.
I’d say that Mac is a very necessary character for this. Lahni is the key one because it’s her movement that will create openings for Mac to get shots off at the Grenadiers, but I reckon that Lahni equally relies on Mac’s Bloody Shot to create a heavy-bleed environment for her to go about her knife attacks.
Definitely agree on Keegan though - I don’t find him that useful and would happily trade him out for someone else.
I would say Lahni is the only necessary one and Mac could be replaced. Like Baird could do similar role that Mac does. There’s still other weapons that can be used against Poppers like Overkill and Hammerburst or sidearms. Even three melee characters could work, Lahni, Emile and Cole.
Not at all. Lahni is a very independent character so long as there is venom presence as she will get up to 80% damage reduction in it, and she creates her own bleed while tanking Grenadier and Grenadier Elite melee and their shots while closing in. Plenty of venom coverage on Ice Queen too so that’s not an issue. It takes some seriously heavy firepower to stop her from going in. Mac isn’t necessary to create bleed for Lahni.
Yes and no (in my opinion). Lahni can be very independent and create her own bleed-heal environments, but I think there are scenarios where Lahni needs another player to cause some bleeding. Some situations occur where Lahni has to close some distance to reach an enemy in order to attack. If she’s killed all of the bleeding enemies, then she won’t be able to regenerate health. I get that she has cards which give her better defence, but sometimes the enemy damage output is very unforgiving. Mac can be a really useful safety net. I just think Mac does it alot better than say, Baird or any other ranged character. Emile is also a good bet, but is also close quarter. The Ice Queen has some hairy areas where there are quite a few enemies in the same room and with the venom chasing you quickly, I feel that Mac helps alot in these situations.
Great input and I fully agree. I’ll note that these videos are not scripted like I do for most videos as they are extremely long in length and have a lot of areas to touch on.
This map is extremely difficult on Master and a long one. Mac is critical to making this work as discussed. Alternating his shots + landing big damage is what makes him viable. I would see Emile or Lizzie being useful as well with the bleed and/ freezing ability.
I beat Ice Queen on Master yesterday with a group of Clayton, Lahni, and Emile. Clayton is so clutch. Even though the “shorter ultimates” modifier is on, he still can help clear out pesky Elite Drones.
Thanks @NEON_VEL0CITY this got me motivated to get this one done on master tonight. We had a Lahni, Clayton and me as Mac and did it on insane to warm up and then did it on master 1st time.
I would say Mac and lahni are essential but we could have probably done it with Emile or Lizzie instead of clayton.
The key is to be quick and get Mac to take out as much as possible with the longshot and then close in with the boltok while lahni mops up.
Any tips on the line? Those freezing mulchers are something else!
First things first : Have 2 or 3 melee characters, you should at least have a Lahni but Emile can prove useful early on when there isn’t venom coverage yet. The third character is up for debate - currently, one Cole gets his ult he is invulnerable to melee with Trashball Pro and Inner Fire at sufficiently high levels(just have them maxed and you’re good to go). Don’t make use of your ult so you have permanent melee invulnerability. He can basically stand in the faces of Scions and not take their hits then, but he will still be vulnerable to gunfire.
However, you can also opt to have either Lizzie or Mac as third as well, be it for the Silverback or because Mac has a skill that makes it so that an enemy focuses its aggro on him for 6s after a headshot, if the skill is maxed. Alternatively you can have Keegan for explosive bleed but I haven’t done any runs with him outside of the first Master attempt that only succeeded with frag duplication. I did do more Master runs after that which did not use it.
For the hive itself :
Get the Flashbangs from the middle, preferably without alerting the Scions(it can work, but you may need favorable spawns and follow a path as close to the wall as possible to sneak past them and back), then circle back and take the left path as seen from the starting spawn to find EMBARs as their active reload stun is super useful against the Scions(there will be Scions in the way so that’s why you should get the Flashbangs from the explosive ammo boxes in the middle - grab the Torque Bow if you want it). From there, it’s just repeating the process of stunning a Scion and melee bleeding it to death.
Do note that you can have 2-4 or more Scions coming up behind you depending on how many you avoided killing in that initial section. Lost count of how often we had to restart the run due to the fact that even though we’d done it several times beforehand, people just kept forgetting or ignoring that the Scions have such ridiculous health that they’ll march through the entire venom cloud to get to you, if Faster Scions is enabled, and charged off to the last major encounter which got us caught in a Scion sandwich, so to speak. Deal with them before moving on once you reach the point where there is three Scions after turning hallways(basically, after the tile which has weapon lockers - it appears they have removed the Scion spawns there, be it intentional or by accident).
Before the last big Scion encounter with 6-7 in one room, you’ll also get Flashbangs again. If possible, do not use Lahni’s Electroblade there and try to preserve it for the three Scions that will spawn at the ending as it will be difficult to hold them off from getting outside if it is Mulcher Scions. If it’s Buzzkills, it will be easier, but you still don’t want them getting out. Also keep in mind that there is seven Scions by the ending - two that will initially wait outside, two that spawn when you go into the space between the outside and the hive, and three more once you flip the switch. Deal with those spawns one at a time, otherwise it will be difficult to deal with those Scions properly.
Thanks for the detail reply! We tried a few different ways and got as far as the last big room until a freezing mulcher caught up and got us from behind.
Only 5 more hives to master. Managed to do 5 last night after thinking I wouldn’t get any more since the launch hives. Having a team that are comfortable with certain characters makes such a difference.
I found that the key to The Line, is for Mac to use his In Your Face card (which taunts/attracks attention from enemies that he headshots) to constantly draw attention away from team mates.
The key you need to remember is that ANY headshot will do this - it does not have to be the Boltok, or an active reload - literally using any weapon to headshot an enemy will trigger this. While it’s desirable for Mac to land active headshots with his Boltok just for the added damage factor, you can just as easily use a Hammerburst. A single bullet from a burst will work.
Once the Scions are fixated on Mac, then Lahni can run in close range and use hit-and-run attacks with relatively little risk. It’s important to ride the venom so everyone gets the extra damage output and Mac to keep count of which Scion’s are distracted by him and which need to be hit again.
If Lahni can keep her bleed-heal situation up then she can tank more damage. It’s important that Lahni also flanks the enemy and run rings around the Dropshot Scions due to their frontal shields. This will create firing opportunities for Mac to get around them.
EDIT:
It’s a bit tricky, but the key is to play aggressively and to push the Scions rather than play defensively and let the Scions attack you. Keep the Scions bleeding and keep them distracted and they’ll be alot easier to kill.
I did warn you to keep an eye out for those Scions that come from behind you. They’ll usually be at lower health and less hard to kill, but you still have to be mindful of them. If you don’t kill those Scions it’s going to be very difficult if not impossible to get any further once they catch up. And they will. Best thing to do is wait for them to waltz through the venom cloud and move closer so you can take them out before you move to the big room with the many Scions in it.
Absolutely. They move so much faster on Master and with the extra health they can usually keep up with the venom so they won’t usually choke out and die. They often catch up and sooner or later the team will have to deal with them. I think I’ve only seen one Scion die in the venom on Master - and that was only because we were also fighting it and it had low health anyway.
