Ghosts in the Machine
From SpiralKnights
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Ghosts in the Machine is the fourth Danger Mission made in Spiral Knights.
Contents
Description
Warning: This is a Dangerous Mission!
Desna and her Recon Rangers are an elite team tasked with recovering intel from some of the most dangerous levels of the Clockworks. Joining them could lead to great rewards, but it is guaranteed to be a perilous journey!
Spiral HQ has received a distress call from a derelict facility deep within the Clockworks. The distress call came in the form of a digital message saying only 'save us.' Believing it to be a potential trap, Spiral HQ has deployed Desna's Recon Rangers to investigate the facility and assist anyone who may have sent the message.
Monsters
This section gives a comprehensive list of monsters that appear. Additionally, Static Souls spawn frequently when there are only one or two knights in the party, and much less frequently when there are three or four knights. Specific monster strategies can be found on the monsters' pages.
Dry Dock
Surging Bombie
- Frankenzom
- Static Deadnaught
- Shocking Howlitzer (Rarely)
Rocket Puppy (Rarely)
- Sparky
- Volt Knight
- Voltrode
- Electreant (Rarely)
- Surgebot
Iron Hulk
- Surging Bombie
- Frankenzom
- Static Deadnaught
- Sparky
- Volt Knight
- Voltrode
- Surgebot
- The Big Iron (Boss)
Recommended Equipment
In short, the monsters are constructs and undead with a shock theme, and there are numerous shock traps. Elemental weapons are highly effective against these monsters. In some places, crowd control weapons such as Shivermist Buster are desirable. The perfect armor would protect against normal, elemental, shadow, and shock.
First Level: Dry Dock
The Dry Dock consists of three parts: a tight initial battle, a deconstruction zone, and an arena-like final battle.
The initial battle is subdivided by a series of barriers and gates for the party to open. There are numerous traps, Golden Storm Wisps, and sparky projectiles. There is not much room to maneuver, so dodging the traps and enemies — particularly the Volt Knights — can be difficult. The party can somewhat control the flow of enemies by opening barriers and gates only after immediate threats have been destroyed.
The deconstruction zone occupies most of the Dry Dock. Unlike typical deconstruction zones, there are many shock traps and no gremlins. Most enemies are constructs, including numerous Volt Knights. There are scattered graves, out of each of which a few zombies erupt. There are also four statues, that the party must move to pads in a certain corner of the deconstruction zone. Sometimes a statue is trapped, in that monsters spawn when the party first touches the statue.
Once the four statues have been placed on their pads, the party may proceed to the final battle of the level. There are three waves of mixed constructs and undead. At the beginning of the first and second waves, totems appear that resurrect zombies and bombies. The third wave contains a Static Dreadnaught as well as four sparkies in the four corners.
Second Level: Iron Hulk
The second floor of the mission is organized into four parts: initial skirmishes, the west side, the east side, and the final boss battle.
The initial skirmishes are some small battles against constructs and zombies. The knights must dodge various shock traps while dispatching the enemies. After these skirmishes, the party arrives at two gates. The two keys for these gates are found in the west and east sides of the level, which may be completed in either order. Some knights carry the key from one side to the other side, using it to block wisps in key tactical locations.
The west side begins with a few waves of constructs and zombies, and then a small fight against some constructs. The party arrives at an arena with some scattered shock traps. The secret of this fight is that stepping into the north half the arena releases three or six bombies. To avoid them, many parties conduct the entire battle in the south half of the arena. There are three waves. Each wave begins with a bomb fall and the spawning of some constructs. One or two sparkies spawn in the north half; the party can take them out using guns, without spawning bombies. The final wave features a Static Dreadnaught. After finishing the final wave, the party can race into the north half, grab the key, and leave the arena, before becoming overwhelmed with bombies.
The east side begins with brief skirmishes and a shock wisp obstacle course. The party comes to a console with the unsettling text, "They are planning to ambush you ahead. MEDICAL SUPPLIES AVAILABLE HERE." Then the party enters an arena battle of three waves. The fight here is highly constrained by shock wisps (blocking one with the key from the west side is a good idea) and two totems. Each wave includes numerous constructs, zombies, and bombies. The final wave also features a Static Dreadnaught. After the battle, a closet opens with some heart boxes. This is the ambush: The heart boxes contain not hearts but rather more constructs!
Once both gates have been unlocked, the party may proceed to the final battle against The Big Iron. This boss fight is organized into three phases. In each phase, the party must wait for the Big Iron to lower its shields, and then attack. While the shields are up, the Big Iron shoots devastating lasers into the battleground, electric tentacles attack the party, and respawning constructs appear. The three phases differ simply in the quantities of threats. Each time the Big Iron raises its shields:
- In the first phase, there are one spawning site, two tentacles, and three rounds of two lasers.
- In the second phase, there are two spawning sites, four tentacles, and four rounds of four lasers.
- In the third phase, there are two spawning sites, six tentacles, and five rounds of six or eight lasers.
Each phase ends when the Big Iron has sustained sufficient damage. The battle ends abruptly when the Big Iron explodes at the end of the third phase.
In the Big Iron battle, it is possible to nullify the spawners by exploiting the weakness of the game's artificial intelligence. Kill any Volt Knights or retrodes that spawn, until only Surgebots remain. Shield-bump these into the nooks immediately north of their spawners. The monsters will get "trapped" by the cables, and will not attack the party. Other tactics for dealing with these monsters include knockback weapons (e.g., Polaris) or simply killing them again and again.
Third Level: Cargo Bay
The third level is purely a treasure level, with numerous treasure boxes and no monsters. Knights can change their equipment anywhere in this level, so that the heat earned can be applied to any item at the elevator.
Lore
In four locations in the second level, abandoned consoles bear mysterious messages. Each message seems to consist of a plea or warning from an earlier party of knights, followed by a response or correction from the enemy.
- "Help us. SITUATION RESOLVED. PLEASE EXIT THE FACILITY."
- "They will kill us they will kill you. THEY WILL KILL US THEY WILL KILL YOU."
- "They are waiting to ambush you ahead. MEDICAL SUPPLIES AVAILABLE HERE."
- "Do not hold back. WE WILL NOT HOLD BACK."
At the end of the second level, the plot thickens further. The party finds knight space suits that appear to be hundreds of years old. This suggests that knights have come to Cradle before Skylark has landed.
