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Quests: Welcome to Cantha

Factions-born characters, please skip down to the next section. Alright, so! Foreign-born (i.e., Proph and NF) chars, nice of you to join us! You've loaded into Bejunkan Pier explorable area. Talk to Dockhand Quangmai to get your quest reward for Mhenlo's Request and acquire your next primary: Welcome to Cantha. Don't thank them for being so polite just yet... head up the steps towards Mhenlo's giant mob of friends, where Cynn is having a jealous fit cause Mhenlo is friends with girls. ... so what are Devona and Eve, chopped liver? (actually, Eve would probably enjoy that comparison...) Well, let's have a slight distraction from all of this catfighting about, shall we? Head towards the stairs just past Mhenlo's mob, but be ready to do a quick about face when you see two red dots appear on your compass. When they do, run back behind Mhenlo's mob (especially if you're low level or haven't brought a party along or both) and they'll quickly dispatch the two Afflicted. Yes, they're called Afflicted (or plague creatures/beasts), and Factions-born chars will have met these guys already (albeit at lower levels). You can attack them if you want to, but beware that they explode once they die, and anyone nearby will get hit by the explosion. Also, if you hang back you can watch the way these things work, since you'll be dealing with these things for most of the rest of this campaign and the sooner you learn, the better. But if you're low level, make sure you at least get one hit in on both creatures so you can get some EXP (although you'll soon find yourself drowning in a ton of quests that give around 3k EXP each, so... up to you). Once the two Afflicted are dead, head up the steps and into Kaineng Center. And... skip down to the Kaineng Center section.




Quests: A Master's Burden

Factions characters, you've loaded in a small explorable area. Find Headmaster Greico up the stairs and talk to him to get the A Master's Burden primary quest. Now, for my convenience, and because Kaineng Center not only is the first town in Factions where you can acquire max armour but also has a crapton of quests that give a crapton of EXP which is good because you need to get to lv 20 as soon as possible, get your butt up to Kaineng Center already! Often enough there are people hanging about in The Marketplace who will run to Kaineng for a rather small amount of gold or even for free (although you might have to ask in allchat). Alternatively, you can grab some henchies and get there yourself pretty easily. Use this map to get there, but just be careful when you get into a open area with a grey floor that has a bunch of holes in it, because really strong monsters (you'll recognise them as the Afflicted from Zen Daijun, cept these are higher level) will probably jump out of the holes and attack you. The easiest way is to cautiously enter the area and run back when you see red dots appearing on your compass. This will usually cause you to avoid aggroing the Afflicted and they will instead go after some nearby guard NPCs. Take this opportunity to run past them and up the stairs at the north end of the area (you should be able to see the stairs before even entering the area with the holes) while the Afflicted are distracted by the guards. Remember, even if only one person makes it to the portal the entire party gets to go through it, and there are no more monsters before you reach the Kaineng Center portal.



Quests: Chaos in Kryta (Prophecies travel quest), Sunspears in Cantha (Nightfall travel quest), The Xunlai Agent, I Feel the Earth Move Under Cantha's Feet (Eye of the North travel quest), The Search for a Cure, The Afflicted Guard, Feed the Hungry, The Emperor in Peril, The Drunken Master, Capturing the Orrian Tome
Services: Guild registrar, guild emblemer, Canthan Ambassador (guildhalls), materials trader, rare mats trader, rune trader, skills trainer, travel quests, max armour vendors, Imperial quartermasters

Alright, well, non-Factions chars will need the town The Marketplace in the very near future, so go ahead and use this map to find your way there, then map back to Kaineng (you'll save yourself a lot of hassle if you take the The Drunken Master quest before you go; the quest-giver is Barkeep Mehoro in the middle of the city on the lowest level. This will clear out the only enemies that spawn between here and The Marketplace. Just don't aggro the drunk guy from the quest when you go through there (he's not a red dot til you get near him so keep an eye out) because not finishing this quest for awhile makes things easier later). DON'T talk to Mhenlo yet when you get outside, either. We'll do that later). Um, yeah, welcome back! ^<__<^;; Well, apparently a lot of people find Kaineng Center incredibly confusing, so here's a map for your convenience, showing key NPC's, making your day and mine that much easier. Now, there are various places you could have spawned in this town, so let's all move to the same area before we start picking up quests. Alright, on the west side of town, on the lower level (in other words, not up any flights of steps) there's a small fountain, which is approximately where the Rune Trader is on the city map. Just to the west of the fountain and the rune trader is Guardsman Chienpo, who gives the travel quest to Prophecies, if you've not been there yet. Just north of Guardsman Chienpo is Imperial Guardsman Linro, who gives the travel quest to Nightfall. I HIGHLY suggest that if you have both Prophecies and NF linked to your account that you ignore Linro's quest, do the quest that takes you to Proph, and then pick up Sunspears in Kryta from Lionguard Figo in Lion's Arch. Trust me, Sunspears in Kryta is much MUCH easier than Sunspears in Cantha. Also, the FAQ has walkthroughs for the travel quests if you need one. If you go up the steps just to the north of the fountain, you'll find the Canthan Ambassador just to your left. This guy will allow you to preview the guildhalls you can purchase for your guild (if you're a guildleader). Now, you don't really buy a guildhall with money. You need an item called a Celestial Sigil which can be acquired by winning battles in HA (Heroes' Ascent), a PvP (Player vs Player) arena. However, if you talk to this Canthan Ambassador person (by the way, why is there a Canthan Ambassador IN CANTHA?? ^O__o^;; ) and choose an "island" to preview (doesn't matter which), there will be an NPC called a Sigil Trader there (depending on which isle you view, you may or may not have to go looking for her. If you choose Warrior's Isle, she's only about two steps away from you) from whom you can buy a Celestial Sigil for varying amounts of gold (usually between 10-15k, but at the time of this writing it has gone down to 7k. The price is based upon supply and demand, and thus is not a fixed price). Just to the west of the Canthan Ambassador is storage, but there's another set of storage boxes in town that most everybody uses (so if someone in town says "meet at storage," this is NOT the storage they are referring to).

Going east from the Canthan Ambassador you'll soon come across a mob of players clustered around an NPC. This is the skills trainer in Kaineng (she's up a short flight of steps that lead nowhere other than to her. Why don't I get my own set of steps?). About one foot east of special Michiko's special steps is the Guild registrar, in case you want to make your own guild. Just a tad east of this guy is a small flight of steps going down. You'll see Xunlai Agent Honlo right in front of you. Grab her quest, then press X to do a quick about-face. Take note of the NPC that's just to the right of the small set of steps you just came down (his name is Bujo), as you'll need him in a bit. Alright, south of Honlo is a longer flight of steps going up which you should follow now. Right in front of you is a row of three dudes called Imperial Quartermasters. A lot of the quests in the region of Kaineng City (the brown area on the map, not the city you are in, which is Kaineng CENTER because Anet likes to be incredibly confusing) not only give you EXP and money but also an item called an Imperial Commendation. If you're Factions-born or Nightfall-born, these function exactly like Monastery Credits (Shing Jea Island), Battle Commendations (Istan), Kournan Coins (Kourna), Trade Contracts (Vabbi), Ancient Artifacts (The Desolation), and Inscribed Secrets (Realm of Torment). In other words, you can trade them in to various people for some useful stuff. In Kaineng City, the people you can turn them in to are these Imperial Quartermaster guys, and each one will trade a different amount of Commendations for different things.

Also on this level on the south side is a dude with a very very long name. Minister of Maintenance Raiugyon gives the travel quest to GW:EN, the name of which is also appropriately long. Right across the way (go north) from Mr. Long-Name is Imperial Agent Hanjo, who's got a quest for you. To the east of him is another Imperial guy named Kintae. Grab his two quests, and then hold down Alt for a minute and look at the wall behind Kintae. You'll notice it says "Raisu Pavilion" in yellow text, which indicates a portal to another area. Make a note of where that is cause you'll need it in a minute. Speaking of things I said you'd need in a minute... well, first check out the two NPC's on either side of Kintae (albeit not very close to him, or eachother for that matter). One is Gorani [Kurzick Poet], and the other is Anja [Luxon Bard]. I'll explain the whole Kurzick vs Luxon thing when it comes up in the storyline (yeah, the Factions chars' primary Mayhem in the Market mentioned it rather briefly, but it plays a bigger part in the story later on, which is when I'll explain it). For now, just grab a copy of Shiro's Return from Gorani or Anja (doesn't matter which one you talk to, since even if you, say, get the book from Gorani you can still turn it in to Anja when you finish with it) and KEEP THIS BOOK IN YOUR INVENTORY. At least, don't do a mission from here on out without this book in your inventory. You will get EXP and gold by turning in copies of the book that have six or more pages (i.e., missions) completed in them, and the pages will only be completed if you have the book in your inventory when you complete the missions. However, if you somehow forget to take the book with you on a mission, you can pay either Gorani or Anja to fill in the pages you missed (as long as you do this within a month of completing that mission). You also get a certain amount of faction (Kurzick or Luxon) upon turning in the book (Kurz from Gorani, Lux from Anja). What faction is is explained in the FAQ so I won't go into it here. Also, these two NPC's also give you the option of getting a Hard Mode copy of Shiro's Return, or a Hard Mode copy of Young Heroes of Tyria, but since people who have unlocked Hard Mode would probably not be reading this guide, I won't go into that here. What Hard Mode is is also explained in the FAQ. What I will say is that "Young Heroes of Tyria" requires you to do all of the "n00b" missions in Hard Mode; in other words, all of the Prophecies missions before Lion's Arch, all of the Factions missions before reaching Kaineng Center, and all of the Nightfall missions before Consulate Docks. Alright, moving on!

OK, so, back to missions. Go back to Bujo to update your Search for a Cure quest, then go back up to where the Imperial Quartermasters are. Continue south down another flight of steps (hi, henchies!), then up another flight going west. Just to your left will be more storage boxes, which are the storage boxes that most everybody uses. Look to your right (to the west), hold down Alt, and locate Guildmaster Luan. He has a quest chain for you, so grab the first one now. West of him are more stairs going down, which lead to the armourers. If you're a Factions-born character, BUY NEW ARMOUR NOW ASKDF;ASLD. As mentioned in the Marketplace section, this is the first town in the Factions storyline where you can buy max AL armour, and since almost everything around here is lv 20+, it's a good idea to have max armour before doing anything else (which is why I had you come here first). Alright, make your way back to the fountain thing we started at then go east into the lowest area of the city. We've got merchants and material traders down here, and also a couple more quests. To the south are two NPC's: Barkeep Mehoro and Minister Jaisan (Min. Jaisan is a bit north of Mr. Bar Dude). Min. Jaisan will only have a quest for you if you're Factions-born, but Mr. Bar Man doesn't care who you are or where you're from.

[quest stuff here]

Fix this up!

Welcome to Cantha: Mhenlo will not follow til dialogue is done, even if you talk to him. Talk to him anyway, head SE, then hang a right at the end, then go left across the bridge to find Emi and Chiyo. Let them talk (there's a quest a bit to the south but be careful not to aggro the Jade Brotherhood on the other side of the wall. Wait til the NPC's stop talking. Around this time, (the guard quest) will probably update itself as finished, if not head north to kill off the boss and whatever of his mob the guards there didn't kill already. Head back to where you met up with Emi and Chiyo, go all the way east (to the back of this open space) then go right for your first fight against the Jade Brotherhood. Priority target: Jade Brotherhood Mage. They have an uber AoE that really hurts (Dragon Stomp). However, with all the NPC's you've got in tow, these guys should be cake. If you want to collect more Jade Brotherhood guild capes (only drop when the quest (that one brotherhood quest) is active), make sure you drop the capes on the ground as you go, or you won't get any more after (number required for quest). Head up the platform and right, mow down the mesmer boss (Jin the Purifier), then go left at the end, left again (up on the rooftops!), kill the mob that comes down onto the rooftops, then get back onto actual solid ground and head east. Go all the way up and then turn north and go all the way to the back to find Guardsman Chow who, after telling him Yes about a billion times, finally lets you in to Vizunah Square (Foreign Quarter).


(Factions-born characters)

(Factions-born characters)

(Prophecies and Nightfall characters)

(Prophecies and Nightfall characters)




OK guys, here's the deal. Factions does this... THING... where it puts you in a mission with two teams. This only happens twice in the entire campaign but it is still weird and kind of annoying. What am I talking about? What two teams? I only see my own teaaaaam whaaaaaat. Well, the thing is, Factions likes to make things complicated for story purposes. See, Factions-born characters had to venture into the Undercity for their primary, while foreign-born characters got to stay above-ground, so while everybody has to do Vizunah Square to continue the story, you each start in different outposts and thus load into different locations in the mission when you start, but there are two teams (why Anet didn't just have the story leading to the same outpost and both teams starting from there is beyond me). You can talk to eachother via the same team chat even though the other team doesn't appear in your party menu. Sometimes, however, you end up with a party of henchmen for the other team if nobody is trying to do the mission at the same time as you. Also, any non-hench team coming in from Vizunah Local (i.e., Factions-born) will usually not be lv 20 or have max armour because their story path doesn't actually take them to Kaineng City (unless they've read my walkthrough~ :op or someone told them, whatever). If you have a friend who has the other outpost that you don't have you can usually time it so that your two teams end up in the same mission instance together, which usually makes things easier. Also, one more note before we get started: Foreign-born characters can get into Vizunah Local if they get into a party doing A Master's Burden and the Factions-born player is the party leader. This isn't really all that important unless you want to do the "team with my buddy from another outpost" thing. Oh, one more thing really. This is an escort mission. Factions is full of escort missions. Factions chars have already dealt with this nonsense for their previous missions. In this one, each team has their own escort NPC (although both show up on the party list so either side can heal them if they're close enough). Why do you need to heal them? Well, if an escort NPC dies (even if there are two and the other is still alive) you fail the mission. This also counts as a death for survivor characters so, KEEP THEM ALIVE AAAGGGHHH. Moving on...

By the way, there are a TON of elites that you can cap in this mission, so be sure to bring a sig or two along. Yeah, these bosses also appear in explorable areas but since you have to do this mission anyway might as well cap them now. Alright, so, even though you two (as in, you two teams) load in different areas, you will soon join up and continue together. Foreign-born chars, please skip to the next paragraph. Factions chars, you load behind a locked gate with Master Togo (your escort NPC). The countdown to the mission begins (around 50sec). About 10secs after the countdown ends, or whenever he gets bored of waiting, Togo informs you that he's sent for a healer friend of his named Mhenlo to come help all the way from Ascalon (a region in the Prophecies campaign). The gate then opens, so head forwards and down the flight of stairs. You find yourself in the middle of an open courtyard-type place. You're going to spend about 1/3 of the mission here. Soon after you arrive, Afflicted start popping up out of holes in the ground from three locations: where you just came from, in front of you to the right, and behind you to the right up some stairs. Your best bet is to stay in the middle of this courtyard so that Master Togo doesn't get murdered ^o__o^;; Also, keep an eye out for Canthan Peasants because when they die (which they often do even if no enemy has targeted them at all) they will usually be infected with the plague and turn into an Afflicted (in case you are doing the mission and then wonder where the hell those random Afflicted behind you by the closed gate came from ^O__o^;; ). These first waves (before the other team arrives) will be made up of mostly lv 10 and 14 Afflicted, with a couple of lv 20's and one lv 24 boss at some point. Around the time the boss shows up the other team should join you here in the courtyard and you'll be together for the rest of the mission. Skip the next paragraph.

Foreign chars, you start out at the north end of this mission, behind a locked gate. Mhenlo is here too (your escort NPC), and the countdown to the mission begins (around 50secs). After about 10secs after the countdown has finished, Mhenlo finally starts talking, and informs you that this area has been quarantined to prevent the spread of the plague, but that he's bribed the guard to let y'all through. ... the CDC would have a fit if they knew about this. ^<__<^;; Anyway. After the gate opens, you see a path clear of enemies. Do not be fooled, however. There are three Am Fah spawn points before you reach Master Togo (they jump down from the rooftops as you've no doubtedly seen at some point already). I put their spawn points on the mission map so you know where they are so you can drop spirits or set traps or whatever while these idiots are busy rappelling from the rooftops (cause while they're doing that you can get some free hits in cause they don't start attacking til they've hit the ground). The first one is almost right outside the gate, about two aggro bubbles away, where the path gets narrow just after where some pillars rise up from the middle of the path. This first spawn exchanges some trash talk with Mhenlo but no other spawns in this mission do that so don't get used to it. This is basically just a straightforward path until you meet up with the other team, so just keep following it. After awhile the path opens up a bit and there's a ledge. From here you can see the other team but you can't join them yet. Keep going and right at the next turn in the path is another Am Fah spawn. The last spawn before you meet up with the Local team is after you pass some weird orange circle thing on your compass (you won't see it in the field) and the path goes downhill. There's a lighter patch of grey ground near the middle of the decline, and this is where they will spawn. After they're dead, keep going a bit more and eventually you'll find an open gate on your left and some stairs leading down. Here's where you join up with the other team. Sometimes they've finished off all of the enemies by the time you get there, but often enough they haven't, so go ahead and give them a hand.

So, now we're all together. Foreign team, meet local team. Local team, meet foreign team. Foreign team, if you have minions, please head to the gate at the very back of this area because otherwise Mhenlo will get distracted healing them and the mission doesn't continue until the cinematic finishes, and the cinematic doesn't start until Mhenlo reaches Master Togo. Also, Factions characters already know this (and Nightfall characters, really) but the "bonus" parts of missions in Factions usually involve a time trial, i.e., you get more EXP/gold and the Master's reward (counts towards Protector title (NM) or Guardian title (HM)) if you finish the mission under a certain amount of time. In Factions the time limit is usually 25min (if you go over this time you don't fail the mission, so don't worry. You can take as long as you like, you just won't get as much EXP/gold or progress towards the title).


After the short cutscene, more Afflicted appear from the same spots as before (i.e., southwest by the stairs the Foreign team comes down from, southeast up the stairs where the Local team enters from, and northwest up some stairs). There are still some low-level Afflicted here, but most will be lv 20. Your primary targets are lv 20 monks (have Ray of Judgement which really hurts), lv 20 ritualists (the only ones that have res), and lv 20 elementalists (for obvious reasons), in that order. Remember, Afflicted explode when they die, which will hit anyone even relatively close to them and hurt a lot so try to avoid standing near them. Again, stay down near Togo and Mhenlo so they don't go and get themselves killed. You might want to have one person pull mobs to make things go a little faster, as sometimes the mobs will procrastinate a bit before going off in search of someone to hit. After awhile the Afflicted stop showing up and Master Togo wonders why this is the only district that's been hit by the plague (even though, you know, 1) they're EVERYWHERE in Cantha (you'll find this out soon), and 2) WE SAW THEM ON SHING JEA ISLAND! I think Togo has Alzheimer's... ^<__<^;; ) and is therefore convinced that the answer to why the plague exists is somewhere in Vizunah. The ugly teal gate in the back now opens (if it's not opening it's cause you've got minions and your escort NPCs are being distracted by them. Back up all the way to the gate to get Togo and Mhenlo close enough to the gate to trigger its opening) so head on through. The Am Fah random ambushes that the Foreign team had to deal with in the beginning of this mish exist at any point in this mish where you're not standing in one area fighting Afflicted, so be aware of this. Mostly cause there are two right outside this ugly gate, ahaha... Keep going forwards up a ramp and all the way to the back. Where the path makes a right turn is another Am Fah spawn. Right here, two Canthan Peasants will turn into Afflicted, so make sure you've killed two Afflicted before moving on (otherwise one Afflicted might spawn and kill Mhenlo and/or Togo who are lagging behind while you're off banzai-ing to the next area). After this recent mob of Am Fah and the two Afflicted the path is clear until you get to the next open area. There are another three Afflicted spawn points here, two on the left-hand side and one on the right (they are denoted by peach-ish rectangles on your compass). I suggest keeping the top-left spawn point outside your aggro bubble near the beginning so you can hopefully not aggro three mobs at once. Keep your eye out for the ele boss that sometimes spawns in this area, as this area is the tightest quarters in the entire mission and that makes for a lot of pain, so if you see him, take him out quickly. Same goes for the monk boss.

After the waves of mobs subside, Master Togo seems to shake free of his Alzheimer's and informs Mhenlo of the outbreak on Shing Jea. They both ponder why Shiro's become so active all of a sudden, 200 years after he was executed. Maybe he just took a really really long nap? After the discussion the gate opens, so head on through. After two right turns you'll be on the other side of the canal from where you just fought the mobs of Afflicted. Be aware that two Canthan peasants here will turn into Afflicted, one right at the last turn and the other near a house in front of you. Just after that house is another Am Fah spawn (after the slight decline in the path). There's another spawn right before an open gate just a bit further on. In this next area is the last area you will have Afflicted coming at you from three different directions. Right after the gate are some stairs going down on your right. There are some other stairs going up in front of you and some going down on your left. Go down the ones on your left and make your stand here, since Togo and Mhenlo stay over on the east side of this area. There is a ramp leading down onto a lower level on the south side of this area. DO NOT go down this ramp. Afflicted spawn from down there, but they also spawn at the west end of this middle level and at the top of the stairs that went up that we just passed. Just stay here and let any Afflicted that spawn down below come to you. If you want, you can have the other team stay at the top of the steps that came down to this middle area so they can deal with the top Afflicted and the middle Afflicted while you deal with the middle and bottom Afflicted. Same deal here as in the other two places. Waves and waves of Afflicted attack you but it eventually stops... After they're gone, head down the ramp that I told you not to go down before and stop at the gate. Togo and Mhenlo speculate that Shiro is looking for something and that it involves reading lots and lots of books. And then destroying those books, apparently ^O__o^ I mean, I don't think having a huge army of monsters invade those libraries or whatever, especially monsters that explode when they die, would preserve any of those books. ^<__<^;; Anyway. Right outside of the gate is another Am Fah spawn, kinda like as if that Canthan Guard had given them a cue that we were coming ^<__<^;; TRAITOR! After you dispose of them, the path is clear until the very end so just follow the path until Mr. Talky-Shiro'ken Thing starts babbling. This is your last battle here and all of the enemies you see are all of the enemies you will get, so no more mobs popping up out of holes in the ground or anything. The Shiro'ken guy isn't that much more dangerous than anything else so feel free to ignore him until after you've taken care of your usual Afflicted targets (monks, eles, rits...). After the entire mob is dead, the cutscene triggers. Usually I don't really comment on the cutscenes since I always post screenies of them but I do want to mention one thing about this cutscene. YOU WILL DIE IN IT. And yes, this will count as a death for survivor characters, so if you're a survivor character and don't want to die, Alt-F4 out of the game as soon as the cinematic starts (not before it starts because you'll have to redo the mission). If you Alt-F4 after it starts you'll still get credit for completing the mission but won't die. Yay? Yay. OK, moving on...









Celestial Shenanigans


First Day of School!


Looking For Trouble in All the Wrong Places