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This is a quick guide for the recurring event Plague star. The guide includes how to do the bounty as well as the meta frames and builds to complete the event efficiently.
A Quick Guide for Plague Star
This is a guide to get the maximum possible standing per run. Not doing some things will make mission run easier, but will net you less standing. A successful run will net you 3k “operational supply” standing, enough to get any item from the event store at least once.
Things you will need
Infested catalyst: This is a blueprint that can be purchased for credits from our clan bio lab.
Eidolon Phylaxis: You cannot purchase this without reaching rank 1 with the event syndicate so you need to run without using this for the first couple of runs. As soon as you reach rank 1 use the standing to get this blueprint.
You need to equip both of these in your gear wheel.
Bounty
Stage 1: Get the toxin mixture from the cave. Pretty straightforward. One of the squad mates need to go into the marked cave to get the toxin mixture all the while hearing vay hek’s beautiful voice.
Stage 2: This is the most important stage. You need to put the toxin mixture into the designated console. If you are in a squad of 4 each one of you has to open their gear wheel and put 1 of Infested catalyst and 1 of Eidolon Phylaxis for a total of 4 each. Doing this will net you the maximum standing but with increased difficulty in stage 4.
Some people might not have the potions, so make premade squads to avoid that and also be prepared to use yours if they don’t put in theirs as last ditch save. Other than that just protect the console.
Stage 3: This is just escort drone from point A to point B. Take the mixture from the console, put it in the drone and escort it to the big boil marked on the map.
Stage 4: At this stage you will be fighting hordes of infested. Each infested killed will tick up the percentage. If you have put 4xEidolon Phylaxis, a hemocyte will appear at each 25% interval and you have to kill it before you can progress. If you mixed 4xInfested Catalyst, the hemocyte can be upto level 85. So only mix the catalyst if your team can take care of it in a reasonable amount of time(which is easy if you follow my tips/builds further down).
Hemocyte is just reskinned stage 2 Lephantis(mostly), so the broad strategy is to shoot the pink bits when each head opens its mouth. Have an order in which all of you shoot. The general order is Corpus head, Infested head and then grineer head.
Rewards
Snipetron: Garbage weapon, but it is event only weapon so get it and use as MR fodder.
Ether daggers: Very bad. You get this weapon as reward after you complete stolen dreams. In case you sold it without leveling it, buy this here. Otherwise skip.
Plague zaw parts: Plague zaws are so so so good. One of the main reasons you should run this event. Try to get multiple copies of each part. Focus on kripath and bokwin more than others if you have to.
10x of each exodia arcanes: The arcanes are in my opinion okayish. But this is the only way you can get them so might as well get them.
Sacrifice and Fulmination: Event only mods. Get at least 1 of each. Sacrifice is a very very good mod. It sells for around 25plat a couple of months after the event so not a bad idea to stock up on these if you want to save for long term. Especially if you want to buy forma with the standing. Buying Sacrifice instead of built forma directly and waiting a couple of months will net you more ROI.
Fish, gems and wisps: Unless you really really hate mining, skip these. Unlike mining, fishing is consistent and very easy. Up to you but I would strongly advise against wasting standing on fish parts. Contrary to popular belief farming wisps is very very easy. Never buy wisps from here. (Ask in comments if you don’t know how).
Squad and Loadouts
The most important loadout mod is “Corrosive Projection”. This will make your life so so much easier than running without it for this event. Even if your team has some shortcomings, you can still breeze through it if you have 4xCorrosive Projection and a good weapon. Ensure that all your squad mates have CP equipped unless someone has a very good rivened weapon.
Archwing: Consider having archwing launchers and use them liberally. Distance between each stage of the event is normally 600-1000m. Traversing that distance on PoE without archwing is very time consuming. You will need about 3-4 archwings per run. Itzal is the best because he is the fastest.
Squad: You will need a variety of frames to run this event efficiently. Some good frames for this event are: Nova, Rhino, Loki, Titania, Oberon, Harrow, Trinity.
Nova: You want to build as slowa with some duration and range. Nova’s job:
- Usually gets the toxin from the cave in the first stage because she is the fastest with her 3. Not mandatory job though.
- Slows down enemies in stage 2, so enemies can’t one shot the console.
- If you are good nova, you can teleport the drone and speed up the process in stage 3.
- Most important is stage 4. Slow the hemocyte down so that there is enough window to take care of the head when it opens. Only slow it down once it is already on the field. Do not slow when it is emerging form the big cyst. That will slow your whole run.
Rhino: You want a buff rhino with as much strength as possible with decent range and duration. Your job is to buff.
- Buff when in stage 2.
- Buff in stage 4 when hemocyte appears. Tell your group to move near the hemocyte when it appears and then roar so that all of them get the buff.
- You can also stomp the hemocyte as it opens its head, but the stun lasts very short time on the boss.
Loki: Pretty much here for his teleport ability.
- Use him for CC in stage 2
- Use his teleport ability to teleport the lure forward during stage 3. Very important as this cuts down mission time significantly. You can use his 1 and 3 combo to move yourself forward very fast.
- Do not die in stage 4
Oberon: For the healing and protection against toxin procs.
- Keep healing up in stage 2
- Keep his hallowed ground active over a reasonable area to protect from toxin procs in stage 4.
- Keep his 3 up at all times during stage 4.
Titania: Her job is movement and dps.
- Getting the toxin from stage 1 to 2.
- Putting so many bullets in stage 4 hemocytes. Be careful not to die
Her Dex pixia build will be more or less the same as the build in weapons section. Just replace rifle mods with pistol mods.
Harrow: Does what he always does. Support his allies and hard CC.
- Support allies in stage 2 with CC and healing and 4.
- Chain hemocyte with 1 as soon as one of the heads you were shooting opens up, This provides easy targets for all your allies.
- Use his 4 to give immunity/crit buff to all allies.
Trinity: I would not recommend her as oberon is better for this event and can fulfill multiple roles.
- Just do what Trinity always does. Spam EV and bless during stage 4.
- You can also slow down the Hemocyte during stage 4 using EV.
Squad composition: If it is not clear, you can’t just mix and match all these frames however you like. Some of these frames do more or less the same job. My regular team composition would be: Nova, Rhino, Oberon, Loki. Each frame in this squad has very specific role.
If I have a good nova who can teleport lure without loki, then my squad will be: nova, rhino, oberon (trinity), titania. But that is too much minmaxxing, as long as there are 4X corrosive projection, any decently modded weapon can kill Lephantis in very reasonable time.
Weapons
This is the most important part of this run. Hemocyte has damage cap, so there is no use running hard hitting snipers. You ideally want fast firing critical heavy weapons. Status chance does not matter so leave it out of this.
Some good weapons for this event: Tiberon prime, Soma (prime), corinth, boar prime (prisma) Gorgon, Twin Grakatas, Akstiletto prime… You get the drift.
Modding: Take crit viable weapons and build for both crit and corrosive and if possible blast.
Melee: If for whatever reason your squad does not have 4XCorrosive Projection you can use Sarpa with shattering impact to remove the Hemocyte’s armor. You can shoot it as it emerges from the big cyst so you won’t lose any time that way.
These were the strategies used the last time, the event has just started so some things might change. WIll update guide if anything changes which is very unlikely as there are no patch notes of the event changes so far.