I love the Challenge of the Hat quest in R22

I have to say, this by far was the most challenging Hat quest yet (for me at least) It took me a while to do it, but yes, I did it!

 

Probably would have been a bit easier if those darn Ghosts had not been able to "Drain Life" around corners and through solid rock.

But yes, this one was a fun jaunt, I agree.

 

I agree, the LOS is a bit skewed lol. I ran into the room with all the gold veins in it (to lure the ghosts) but they stayed put and just drained my life like an evil succubus through the walls!

 

Ghosts are an effective Frank filter.

 

After struggling to login to the game today due to being stuck on "equipping avatar" screen I was able to complete this, though I wonder how new players went with this. The difficult felt a lot more aggressive than previous grand tour quests and I'm curious if this has put people off doing it.
I guess on a plus side it will make the item a little more rare in the game, as I don't see everyone being able to complete this quest.

 

Ya, that is true. I feel like though if some one really wanted it, they could ask for help and have some one accompany them.

 

I agree it was challenging. I hope they do it again but not in the first release after a wipe.

Must be hard for new players to succeed as well.

 

I am torn. On one hand, having just gotten here, I am not spending ALL my time becoming better at survival. Some of the (little) time I have is spent doing other things, like just exploring. (I am still wearing cloth armor)
For me, just having the guides *at* the entrance to the areas would have been enough for me.

On the other hand, I had NO clue about breaking about rocks to open new areas. SO cool.

 

I play in solo mode.
I have to say the trail of skeletons in the mines helped me zero in on the Tour Guide.
Of course, I left many skeletons of my own behind.

 

The Tour Guide gave you a warning this time that it was going to a doozy so the spike in difficulty from the elves and ghosts wasn't unexpected.

I'd say the biggest problem at this point isn't so much the difficulty of the monsters (since R22 made it much easier), but the difficulty of figuring out where stuff is. The overworld map doesn't zoom out far enough to be able to get your bearings. The Tour Guides will give super vague directions that are okay when they're simple like "west of Ardoris" but for anything beyond the proximity of Ardoris and/or Kingsport, those descriptions/directions become unreliable.

Exploration is one thing but repeatedly dying in a specific area makes you wonder if you were supposed to be there in the first place. So you have to deal with the monsters and the constant nagging that you might be wasting your time in an area you shouldn't even be in... because that's not where the quest is but you got no way of knowing until you go through it.

Etceter Crag Mines is even harder to find because the label of the zone doesn't match what's being displayed on the overworld in-game... Thank god there are at least English translations from those runic gibberish.

If you're rolling your eyes at this... you're most likely one of those players who expects people to go online on some wiki page.

Asking other players for help is all fine and great but I want NPCs to tell me this stuff! If the Tour Guide can't, then I expect other NPCs in the various regions (in Inns for example) to be able to help me as I'm traveling.

"In a far away land, beyond Brightbone Pass near the Perennial Coast, journey to the west to the Etceter Mines."

 

It was hard for those of us who only log in to complete these quests, meaning that on the second or third release after a wipe, we are still level 1. I had to /zone to someone to complete it...

 

I'm still trying to make it through the ghost infested part of the mines. Heck, I'm honestly to the point where I scout out the locale while dead to find things; if there's an ankh nearby, then so much the better.

To be fair, I'm still trying to determine what build I want to focus on, and I've taken builds I wouldn't have selected at first to survive (for ex., I really wanted to be a dual wielder, but my pledge level granted me Vanduul Polearm & the damage difference was too good to ignore, especially when I was suffering at Solace Bridge not long after starting out.

I just need to get down beyond the barrier now....

 

Was more difficult that the earlier ones. Hope the next one is 10x harder, make the hats rarer

 

I tried a few times last night, but had no luck getting through the Crag Mines. Ghosts are too tough for me. I'd love to have been able to zerg it, take the few deaths it needed, but you can't even bash the walls because every lifetap interrupts you. I play at odd times, so if I can find someone else on I might get it done, but I have no expectation of being able to solo this one.

We need a Focus skill that helps ignore interrupts for this to be a solo-friendly game.

 

It took me two blonde ales, about an hour and a half, and I don't know how many deaths. After the first couple dozen deaths, you start to learn which blind turns not to take.
First time I got to the Tour Guide, I said hello but died before he answered. Half a dozen tries later, I made it to him again, and this time he answered before I died.
Sir Frank hasn't leveled anything. I don't know if skills were reset for R22, but in R21 I put all of my skill points into some strategy that helps regeneration rate.

Hope that helps some.

 

I tend to spend a lot of time mining in Etceter mines these days. I needed a lot of copper ore to craft a piano so I've been a frequent visitor there of late. I know that place like the back of my hand and I'm able to solo my way through the ghosts to the tour guide as I've done so for several people already.

That said, if anyone is stuck or struggling at this stage of the hat quest and needs a hand, feel free to whisper me - Daxxe Diggler - in game and ask for help. I'll gladly assist you with getting to the tour guide if I'm online.

Even if I'm not in the mines when you ask, as long as I'm not doing anything special I'll come help you out.

 

Is there yet a walk-through for this tour?

 

This is not all that difficult. I have helped half a dozen through at least. Let me know if you need help in game, just whisper kazyn phoenixfyre. Ill be glad to help.

 

Well it you just click away when you get to the tour guide each time, one time you'll get it. I didn't know I had it until I hit the 'j' and checked and it showed up in my journal as I had talked to the tourguide in ecseter mines(spelling wrong probably)

 

An easy way to remember is that the town was named after the mundane phrase "et cetera", meaning "and other things".
Other towns have a focus, but this town was founded out of a hodgepodge of folks from everywhere.