Natural Selection 2 Tips

This content has been moved to my miscellaneous game blog here.

Frostgorge Sound POIs, Skill Points and Vistas

POIs

POI east of Watchful Fjord:  Just swim close to the bottom of the water and you'll get it.

POI NE of Bore Lynch:  Jump into the water in the central area of Bore Lynch, then swim down and towards the POI.  There is also a rich mithril vein here.


POI in Groznev Delve:  Head east from Bore Lynch to reach it.

POI south of Grimstone Mol: Deep underwater, reachable via an underwater tunnel.  Shown below is the entrance and the map.  Also shown is an alternate path through the caves to the southeast.

Vistas

Vista in Bore Lynch:  It's at the very top of the area, and requires you to use the ramps to run up to it.  Look for a very tall spiraling tower to climb.  Watch out for knockback from the dredge, as it will probably kill you if any of them manage to push you off the ramp.


Vista south of Refuge Shore:  Start from the Leopard's Tail camp to the east.  On the southwest corner of that camp are a few rocks you can use to jump onto a ledge along the cliff wall which you can walk all the way to the vista.

Vista south of Trionic Lattice:  Multiple ways to get to this one, but here's one solution.  Climb the ridges to the east (make sure to climb the TOPMOST one, not the one below it), go north a ways, then crossover to the west onto the ridge the vista is on.  Walk south to get to the vista.

Skill points

Talabaroop Waves skill point:  Once on the island (see "Access to Talabaroop Waves" below in Misc.") take the east path that spirals around to reach the skill point.  It's a standard combat.


Bore Lynch Skill Point:  This one is even further underground, accessible via a couple tunnels.  Shown below is one route you can use to get to it.  It's a standard combat skill point.

Skill point at Watchful Fjord:  This one is underneath the ship/island.  Swim under the ship, then go straight down to the lake floor.  It's a commune surrounded by poisonous urchins.  If you are alone, you almost definitely need to kill them first as their ranged attacks will interrupt your commune channel.  To reiterate- you do NOT need to go into the dungeon to get this skill point.

Misc

The dungeon "Honor of the Waves" is located in this zone.  It's in the northeastern section of the zone, in the Watchful Fjord area and next to the Honor of the Waves waypoint.

Access to Talabaroop Waves:  There is a bridge to the southwest of the ice island that you can use to reach it.  There is also a waypoint there.  It's possible the bridge is out due to a dynamic event.  You can either drive off the dredge to rebuild the bridge, or swim near the waypoint and then teleport to it to get onto the island.

Access to Bore Lynch:  This is the southern area of Frostgorge Sound.  There are multiple ways of entering the area.  The one shown below is dropping into the dredge pit in Stonesledge Drift and walking through the tunnels.  You can also approach through a cave to the northeast in Refuge Shore.

Rich Mithril Vein:  See "POI NE of Bore Lynch", above.

Rich Mithril Vein: Southeast of Trionic Lattice.  See map.

Butternut Squash Farm/Patch:  There are eight of them in the northern section of Arundon Vale.  Map is below.

Frostgorge Sound 100% completion reward (at level 80):

44 silver, 25400 xp, two level 78 exotics, a Black Lion Key, and 40 Ancient Wood Logs.

Fireheart Rise POIs, Skill Points and Vistas

POIs

Missing a POI?  It might be Mangonel Cavern, on the northern side of the map.

Vistas

Sati Passage Vista:  Climb the pipe from the west.

Vista west of Pig Iron Mine:  Approach from the beach to the north.  As soon as you reach the rocks in front of you, jump on the ledge to your left to get up.  After that it's a straight walk to the vista.

Vista NW of Buloh's Crossing (SE of Havoc Steppes):  Approach from the north.  There are a bunch of Breeze Riders and a Veteran Wind Rider here that may prove troublesome, as you'll probably need to kill them to get the vista.

Vista east of Highland Thaw:  Starting from the southwest, jump up a crumbling wall and onto a wooden beam.  Then make your way to the vista.  Below is the beginning point for the jump and the map.

Vista south of Keeper's Sanctum:  There are some rocks that you can climb southwest of the vista.  Go up those, then take a right and go up some more rocks to the vista.  Below is the start point and the map.

Sweltering Canyons Vista:  Approach from the west.

Amduat Vista:  Approach from the north.  There are a lot of enemies here to fight through to reach the vista, so you may want to consider running to the vista, logging out and logging back in to clear aggro so you can get it without fighting.

Vista west of Sloven Pitch (southeast of Keeper's Sanctum): Climb up to it from some rocks slightly to the north.  Careful not to fall into the lava, it hurts a lot.

Skill points

Liberation Dell Skill Point (skill point near the northern part of the map):  It's in a valley that can only be approached from the west.

Misc

Butternut Squash patch/farm:  South of the Apostate Wastes (SW section of the map) is the farm.  There are  eight in all.  In order to reach it you must climb up the path around the back to drop down onto the ledge where the squash are.

Rich Platinum Vein:  It's at the end of the Onager Bivouac.  Map is below.

The dungeon Citadel of Flame is also in this area, in the Northeast corner.  You should get the waypoint here (in The Baelfire) so that you can easily teleport back when you want to run the dungeon.

Fireheart Rise 100% completion reward (at level 80): 36 silver, 25400 xp, two level 70 exotics, 3 Basic Transmutation Stones, 40 mithril ore.

Iron Marches POIs, Skill Points and Vistas

POIs

Lake Desolann POI:  Approach from the southwest, underwater.  There's a ledge that you can swim under.  See the map below.

POI west of The Infestation:  It's down in a pit with a spiraling path along the outside.  You can't drop straight down- the fall is too long.  There are some leafs that look like you can drop and stand on them, but you will fall through and die.  There are a LOT of Branded, so this might be a one way trip.

Vistas

Vista NW of Southshore Wastes: Just approach from the west.

Vista southwest of Ebbing Heart Run:  Climb the cliff from the west.

Vista NW of Gladefall Run:  This one requires you to take the long route.  Start from a path to the west, which will lead you to the waterfall.  Jump along some ledges (swiftness is STRONGLY recommended) to reach the Vista.  There is also a rich platinum vein here on the plateau, guarded by a Veteran Ram.

Vista North of Glory's Steps:  Approach from the camp to the south.  You can jump the fence on the eastern side and get on some ledges that lead to the vista.

Vista southeast of the Granite Front (NW of Lake Desolann):  Use the path the southeast to get to the vista.

Skill points

Skill point NE of Viper's Run:  Climb from the west to reach this skill point high on the cliff.  It's a story + question test.  The correct answers are "Blood Legion", "Tribune", "On patrol", "Bandmates corrupted by the dragon", and "Left to the form the Vigil".

Soldier Mesa Skill Point:  There's a path around the northern side that leads to the top.  It summons a mob and two smaller mobs.

Skill point NW of Lamprey Grottos:  You can reach this either from a hole above the skill point or tunnels from the west or east.  The easiest path is to just walk on the area over the skill point, find a hole nearby and drop down (it'll drop about 70% of your health).  The map below shows the drop path, right after you drop through.  It's a standard combat skill point.

Misc

Rich Platinum Vein:  See "Vista NW of Gladefall Run" above.

Rich Platinum Vein:  The very NE corner of the map, by the Heartsond Falls POI.  It's guarded by a veteran skale.

Missing a POI or Vista?  Don't forget to check The Scorchlands, which is in the NW section of the map.

Still missing a POI?  Try the very northeast corner of the map, NE of Ebbing Heart Run.





Iron Marches 100% completion reward (at level 80): 34 silver, 25400 xp, two level 60 rare items, 3 Basic Transmutation Stones, and 40 Platinum Ore.

Raw Candy Corn

Each "tick" of mining raw candy corn uses up 1 charge of your mining pick, just like normal mining.

Any mining pick can mine them, so if you're planning on doing a lot of candy corn collecting you should use lower-level, cheaper picks.

There are rich candy corn veins out there as well.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown review and tips

This has been moved to my miscellaneous game blog here.

When do daily achievements reset?

They reset everyday at midnight GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).  What time that is for you depends on your time zone.  For example, the east coast of the United States has it reset at either 8pm or 7pm, depending on whether it's currently in Daylight Savings Time or not.

Fields of Ruin POIs, Skill Points and Vistas

POIs

POI east of Thunderbreak Hills:  Missing a POI?  It's probably this one.  Approach from the west through a tunnel.

POI Northwest of Wildlin Narrows:  Not particularly complicated to get to, but you have to enter the ogre camp to reach it.  There is a champion Ogre chieftan who spawns here as well- run by him to get the POI.

Vistas

Vista east of Tenaebron Lake:  There is a tower to the east of the vista (same building the vista is on top of) that you can climb to reach it.

Vista north of Hunter's Gorge:  Multiple ways to get to this one.  You can either drop down from above it, or you can use the fence path. The fence path is shown below.  There's a crack in the fence near the vista that you can use to walk along the outside of the fence and up to the vista.

Vista south of Sniper's Woods:  Much easier then it looks.  Head up the cliff slightly to the west of the vista, then cut east across some wooden planks.

Vista south of the Stronghold of Ebonhawke:  This is completely unrelated to the pipe organ, if that's where you are (it's a red herring.  Only leads to a chest.  For the solution to that, check out the "Misc" section below).  Instead, head from the west.  There is a ledge against the southern cliff that you can climb, which leads to a path that takes you up to the vista.

Mithric Cliffs Vista:  The tower it's part of has a spiral staircase around it that you can use to reach the vista.

Misc

Pipe organ south of Stronghold of Ebonhawke:  Getting up to this is easy.  There is a stairway slightly to the west of the vista that you can use to get up to a tower.  At the very top, jump to the west onto a balcony with a couple nobles sitting on it.  There will be a room right in front of you with a pipe organ.

Play the following sequences (done with the default hotkey layout, may need to adjust for your own setup):
5, 6, 5, 4, 9, 1, 8, 3, 5,      5, 6, 5, 4, 9, 1, 8, 3, 5 to open a chest in the left door.  It's the same sequence repeated twice.

Grape farm/patch: Eight grapes in a patch together along with three ogres.  It's in the SE section of the map.  I'm standing by the grapes.

Rich Gold Vein: South of Highden Caves.  I'm standing at the vein.

Fields of Ruin 100% completion reward (at level 80): 24 silver, 25400 xp, a masterwork level 38 and level 40 item, 3 Basic Transmutation Stones and 40 Gold Ore.