Entanglement

After setting the stage with ‘Gates of Maguuma’ where we got a new zone with lots to do and an intriguing story, Arenanet has decided to raise the bar with ‘Entanglement’. The second episode of this second season adds a large chunk of the Dry Top map, almost giving us the entire map. The new area’s adds more diversity to Dry Top, as well as A LOT of new events. And then we’re not even talking about the new story part which is fast-paced, pulls in other parts of Tyria besides Dry Top, embraces the Guild Wars 1 lore and ends on a very exciting cliffhanger. Let’s take a look.

Entanglement

No big new feature like the Story Journal this time. This will (hopefully) result in a shorter article then last time, for which I’m sure you’ll be happy. Therefore we’ll get into the story part from the get go.

Scarlet’s Secret Room

The last two weeks Arenanet has really shown it’s 100% invested in this idea of a living, ever changing world. Most notably we have seen the emergence of vines near waypoints all over Tyria. These vines showed more than a little bit of interest in these waypoints suggesting something would happen to the waypoints in ‘Entanglement’. On a cliff near Prosperity you could also find a centaur, named ‘Mysterious Figure’, which told you that the centaurs would return. I really enjoy this because it really keeps you invested in the story and the world in those periods between updates and feeds speculation.

At the start of ‘Entanglement’, Mordremoth has decided to make his move on Prosperity by engulfing the little town in vines. The Scooby Doo gang assembles to basically save Scooby under the form of Taimi, since she stayed behind to study Scarlet’s artifacts. With this attack Mordremoth is kind of forced upon us as the main villain by the gang. As far as I recall, all we ever knew was that a dragon roared at the end of season 1, nothing more. All of a sudden this Dragon is called by name and the vines are immediately connected with that dragon. It’s like we missed a scene that gave the gang this knowledge. I feel it would have been better if Mordemoth wasn’t as rushed on us as the main villain. But on the other hand, I don’t know if the community would have that patience.

After a trimmer you discover a secret passage behind a bookshelf. This passage leads you to the newly added areas in Dry Top. In this passage you can find some really interesting artifacts that link to GW1 lore. One of them is a note that references Varesh Ossa, one of the main antagonists in Nightfall. Another refers to Nicholas Sandford or Nick the Traveler. Together with his dolyak partner Professor Yakkington, you could find him in a new map every week and collect trophy items. It’s funny how little things like this can get you so excited and it costs little to no effort on Arenanet’s part to add them so I’m glad they’re doing it more and more. Upon exiting the tunnel, you decide to follow Scarlet’s route to the ley line hub.

Discovering Scarlet’s Breakthrough

After a long track that basically takes you through the newly added zone, you end up in the Cavern of Shining Lights. After you deal with the Inquest who were tampering with what Scarlet left behind, it’s your turn to take a closer look at Scarlet’s stuff. It turns out we’ve arrived in a ley line hub where multiple ley lines come together. The amount of magic that comes together here attracted Mordremoth like honey attracts flies. This is the same magic that functions waypoints, which explains why vines have been appearing near waypoints all across Tyria. The two most troubling waypoints are the one in Fort Salma in Kessex Hills, where Belinda is stationed and Fort Concordia, the Pact encampment in Timberline Falls. Marjory and Kasmeer head towards Fort Salma, while you, Rox and Braham head towards Fort Concordia. Taimi, as always, decides to stay behind to study Scarlet’s lab.

The Concordia Incident

Upon arriving in Concordia, it’s already too late. Giant vines have destroyed the camp leaving the survivors to fight for their lives against Mordremoth’s minions. After clearing out the camp of Mordremoth’s minions, you meet up with tactician Art to assess the situation. Apparently a caravan transporting magic artifacts are the reason the camp got attacked but the caravan has gone missing. At this point we see the return of a mechanic that defined the personal story: choosing a course of action. Before launch Arenanet made a big deal about the fact that these choices would make your adventure truly unique. The impact of these choices turned out to be negligible but it’s nice to see this return for season two, although you only choose whether you take Rox or Braham with you and not a choice between two different roads to take. It does however entice you to replay the story and strengthens my point that I made last time that the personal story and living story are merging.

Whoever you choose to accompany you, you track down the caravan, pinned down in a cave nearby. After saving the caravan, magister Lindsay tells you of one very interesting magical artifact that she was carrying: the Krytan royal locket. It’s a magical locket and is said to always have the image of the current heir to the throne of Kryta displayed inside it. Sounds very interesting but what does it mean? I can’t imagine Arenanet added it just for the fun of it. If Jennah were to die this locket could prove very important to choose the successor. Does this mean that Queen Jennah will die? I don’t know but it does look like the different rules of Tyria will play a part in this story so I wouldn’t rule it out. I dread to the idea of Logan’s excessive whining over Jennah’s death though.

After regrouping with Braham/Rox and the survivors of the Concordia Incident and dealing with the remaining Mordremoth minions, you decide to head for Fort Salma fearing the same has happened there. Rox and Braham stay behind and make sure the Concordia survivors are safe.

The Defense of Fort Salma

You arrive at Fort Salma to the sight of huge vines and Mordremoth minions assaulting the fort. On a sidenote, Bloomanoo and Peneloopee make a nice and welcome cameo here as they hide from the violence. At the camp Marjory, Kasmeer and Marjory’s sister Belinda try to keep the fort strong but are slowly losing the battle. You learn that krait obelisk shards from the Tower of Nightmares are the reason Fort Salma got attacked. It’s nice that they throw these references in there so we don’t forget what has happened in the past. Luckily you are there to save the day and after fighting through several waves of Mordremoth minions and a Mordrem Trasher Boss, you regroup with Marjory, Kasmeer and… Well not with Belinda as Belinda has met with an unfortunate and, to be honest, quite gruesome death. Belinda got strangled to death by one of Mordremoth’s vines. Now, even though Belinda had all the signs of a death women walking, I didn’t expect her to die so soon because it shows of easy and predictable storytelling. Maybe I had the writers in higher regard but Belinda never was a strong enough character for her death to have a big impact. You might as well add Belinda to the pile of meaningless deaths Arenanet stacked up in the personal story. I do have to say they handled the scene where Jory discovers Belinda strangled quite nicely. No sound, you just hear the tragic music and see Jory crying but you don’t hear her.

After some emo-scenes between Jory and Kas, Marjory returns to her family to mourn, which could be a nice opportunity to get acquainted with Marjory’s mother and other sisters in the next episode. You and Kas return to the Cavern of Shining Light to see what Taimi has been up too in a riveting conclusion of this episode.

The Machine

In the cavern you regroup with Taimi, Rox and Braham at the ley line hub. There you share the news of Belinda’s death. Braham’s “Oh no, that’s terrible” in plain voice, almost ironic, voices my feelings toward her death quite accurate. After all the sentiments are said and done, Taimi shares her discoveries with us. She confirms her theory that the waypoints are connected with the ley lines. And these vines are not minions but Mordremoth himself tapping into the magic these waypoints work on. Luckily Taimi has a solution to the waypoint problem. She can reprogram the waypoint to be immune to Mordremoth’s corruption. This does make me wonder what this means for the practical side of waypoints in the game. Dry Top already has less waypoints then the other maps. Could this mean that we’ll be getting less and less waypoints, making us walk more and more (mounts anyone?) and making the game also more challenging in the future?

Next Taimi takes us to the machine in the center of the room. This turns out to be Omadd’s machine that Scarlet used to see the Eternal Alchemy which would lead to her insanity. Taimi, the curious little bugger she is, can’t control herself and charges into the machine. As the hero you of course try to save her not realizing the consequences. What happens next is the highlight of this episode and will be subject to much debate amongst the community. You seem to be floating in something similar looking to space with strange symbols and signs passing you. You see what Scarlet’s drawing hanging in her room represented. The Pale Tree with circles on either side. You get pulled into the Pale Tree and you witness what looks like one big element surrounded by six smaller elements. You have a red, blue, purple, black, white and green element. The six elements circle the big element until the green element dives into the big element, turning it green and looking like an eye. Screen fades to black ending with a road.

Epic, I know but what does it mean? The scene of the elements reminds me a lot of the popular theory that the six dragons are connected to the six elements the six human gods represent. You have the red (fire, Primordus, Balthazar), blue (water, Bubbles, Abaddon/Kormir), purple (crystal, Kralkatorrik, Lyssa), black (life, Zhaitan, Dwayna), white (ice, Jormag, Dhuum/Grenth) and the green (nature, Mordremoth, Melandru) element. I also think the big element in the middle is Tyria, which would explain why the green element attacks the big one and corrupts it.  I think the dragons as well as the gods are representations of these elements. I also think the small elements are what define Tyria to its core of what it is and how it functions. This means that by destroying the dragons, we’re destroying Tyria. It points to somewhat of a very grim and hopeless scenario where the people of Tyria can never win. Whether this theory is close to the truth, we won’t know for a long while I’m sure but it’s definitely food for thought.

On a side note, I have to say I love the irony in this situation. The majority of the community hated Scarlet as a character and now that we’ve seen the same thing Scarlet saw, we’re endangered to end up just like her. I’m curious to see how Arenanet will handle this situation further. Anyways, upon awakening you share what you saw with the others. Because you saw the Pale Tree in your vision, you decide we have to talk to the Pale Tree as it clearly has a part in this. You also decide that the leaders of Tyria need to know the Mordremoth threat, so they can rally together. What next? Well, then they decide to end this episode… With this episode I believe they have redeemed a large chunk of season one and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Dry Top

Next to the story we get newly added zones in Dry Top and once again Arenanet has outdone themselves in how these zones look. On multiple occasions you just stop and gaze at the beauty of this map. These additions to Dry Top do feel somewhat linear. It’s almost like the map was build according to the story. Whether that’s a bad or good thing, I don’t really know. It doesn’t really bother me but it might limit the possibility of big open maps.

The first new zone you explore is the Treadrock Uplands, which is basically centaur territory. This update thus marks the return of the centaurs which we’ve mainly encountered as enemies in the past. These centaurs however are peaceful. They don’t have a tribe name and don’t seem directly connected to the centaur Ventari, who gave the Sylvari their philosophy. They do seem to follow the same way of life as Ventari preached.  These centaurs have a camp nearby, Restoration Refuge, which houses merchants and an armor repair anvil like many other towns and encampments across Tyria have. It also functions as a refugee camp for the crashed Zephyrites. Treadrock Uplands is a zone where you’re flanked by big cliffs. It takes you to Raptor Prowl which is a big open canyon and is just breathtaking. Just take a minute and find yourself a cliff to stand on and take in the scenery. There’s also a lot of verticality in Raptor Prowl. With the crystals you can almost jump everywhere you want. Here, you’ll also find raptors as newly added enemies in Dry Top because well… it’s called Raptor Prowl.

Raptor Prowl takes you to the next zone which is the Uplands Oasis. If you thought Raptor Prowl was beautiful, wait until you take a look at this. Coming from a dry and death canyon, you end up in a lush and green oasis with a stream, palm trees and where it rains. This oasis is basically what makes this place hospitable for the centaurs. Once again, take your time to take in the scenery. A bit further into the Uplands Oasis, you’ll find Azarr’s Arbor which is a big pit you can cross by using a big vine as a bridge. This vine is grown by special seeds which are references to GW1.

From Azarr’s Arbor you wind up in the Unswept Uplands which is a desert area like Prospect Valley. In it you can find a centaur camp, events and a new legendary boss: the sand giant. This sand giant only appears in sandstorms which give you 20 minutes to kill it. Now, I don’t know if this giant counts as a big open world boss like the Triple Trouble Wurm or Tequatl but as far difficulty, it doesn’t compare to these two. The giant is easily zerked down and puts up little of a fight. It does however has a knockback and fear attack that it spams continuously which is not really a problem but it is VERY annoying.

From the Unswept Uplands you arrive in the last new zone: the Cavern of the Shining Lights. Now, naturally this is a cave but not a cave like we’ve seen before. The walls and ceiling of this cavern makes me think you’re on the moon or something like that. This is mainly a story heavy zone but also houses events, a skill point and a vista.

This is basically the run-through of the newly added zones. The sandstorms that we saw in Prospect Valley are also present in these new zones every forty minutes. Even though the sandstorm is a cool mechanic, it’s a shame that it ruins your view of zones like Raptor Prowl and Uplands Oasis. You’ll also find a lot of new events, vista’s, POI’s and skill points. This time they made the skill points a little more difficult where you have to fight something or someone instead of just communing with a source of power. The skill points also require some more searching then the one on Prospect Valley. Enemies-wise we got raptors added but also Modremoth’s minions got two new additions. Next to the tendrils, wolves and husks, you also have a new kind of wolf with a flower as its head who pack a good deal of damage if you don’t make quick work of them. The other type of minion is of an entirely new design. The Mordremoth Trashers are monstrous giant flowers who have a charge attack that leaves a trail of poison cloud. Some of them also have a nasty attack that sends roots to attack you and can really tear you a new one if you’re not careful.

Achievements & Rewards

Concerning achievements, I can be quite brief. Just like the first episode you can only complete these achievements upon finishing the episode for the first time. I don’t do a lot of these and mainly do the Dry Top achievements but they seem very doable to me.

Rewards-wise not a lot has been added. The events in the new zone also contribute to the Zephyrite meta-event to get to a higher tier. But because there are now more events, it’s now possible to get to tier 5. The only new thing is a merchant in Restoration Refuge. Gentt is looking for exotic insect fossils. Now, I’m planning to craft a shortbow from this weapon set. For every weapon you need at least: nomad’s orichalcum Imbued Inscription (5 sheet of ambrite, 5 ecto, 5 ori plated dowel), orichalcum weapon piece #1 & #2, ambrite fossilized piece (specific one for each weapon). You can get these ambrite fossilized pieces by trading unidentified fossilized insects with Gentt. Now, I’m not entirely sure but I believe you can find these unidentified fossilized insects in buried treasure chests during sandstorms in Dry Top. The recipes for these weapons you can get in tier 4 & 5 in the meta-event. It does require some farming of the necessary geodes for the lock picks, recipe as well as the necessary pieces of ambrite. They look nice to me but you have to decide for yourself if they’re worth the farm. Next to this fossilized weapon set there’s also a ley line weapon skin set. These look very cool but they’re only acquirable through black lion tickets which is somewhat of a shame but beggars can’t be choosers.

That closes the book on ‘Entanglement’. Turned out to be quite a lengthy post again but I blame the story for that this time. In ‘Gates of Maguuma’ the new map took all the attention. This time the new zones still excel and even top Prospect Valley but the story takes the cake. The story accelerated and fully pulled in Mordremoth into the story. The cliffhanger will also surely keep the community buzzing until the next update. Will they be able to top this in the next update or have they peaked already? Time will tell. Next week I’ll be giving a personal top three once again. So, until then. See you next time!