Glow Attack Plan

So your team wants to run its adventures into Glow, one of the most dangerous PvE locations in The World, that just so happens to be fully enabled as a PvP place too. You've heard about loot there, and you know it's guarded by killer robots. You've been warned about the deadly radiation too, but your curiosity has a grip on your mind and you just have to go see it for yourself. Okay, but bring a team. You won't get very far beyond level 1 on your own.

Prep-Work

Build a tent down there or a base, and share it so your team has a place to meet between runs. Glow can be jammed with loot at times, and some of you will be so full you'll only be able to walk out slowly. Don't go back in alone! Meet at the base, form up again, and return as a united team. Sticking together is one of the keys to a successful Glow run, so having a place to meet is like a heartbeat in your success. Meet, repair gear, change gear, refresh your Drugs, get more ammo, detox, and form up to go in again.

Make sure everyone has Drugs, including Psycho, Beer, Nuka-Cola, and Buffout if you use it. Plenty of Super Stimpaks are advised, but most importantly you each need Rad-X and multiple doses of RadAway. Each team member needs to understand how RadAway works.

Have high First Aid skill, so you're ready to heal your friends when they get badly hurt. Have high Doctor skill too, to wake them up when they get knocked out. You need all team members alive and shooting to beat the robots.

Each of you should have Snakeater before venturing into Glow. Ideally, you also have Rad Resistance, but this is optional since a lot of Characters do not have IN 7.

You should each have maximum Lockpick skill plus Expanded Lockpick Sets to open lockers, and you'll fail a lot even with both of these, causing delays.

The best weapon against robots is EMP, so bring EMP Shotgun Shells in a H&K CAWS with some bonuses (or a Pancor Jackhammer which you can find inside), or any other good shotgun. EMP does not do much in a PvP fight though. Remember, this is a full loot drop location and PKs will sometimes crash your party.

Your gear should be in superior condition to avoid incoming crit damage. Ideally each team member (or at least someone in the team) should have maximum Repair skill and a few Super Tool Kits to help keep the team's gear in superior condition.

Make sure everyone knows how to use Control+Click for fast loot transfers. Timing is everything in Glow, and robots regenerate, so you'll be attacked again if you take too long.

Mission Briefing

You may be spoiled on voice chat, but if not, use Radios (helmet radios). Choose a mission channel and verify everyone is on it.

Before anyone leaves the base, designate the following:

• Which one of you will be the elevator operator (a tanky fighter with high First Aid)
• Who will be the generator repairman (does not need super-high Repair skill or any repair tools)
• Who will be the doorman (if this role gets confused, someone will open a door that someone else just closed)

Everyone should tag the elevator operator. When you all group up around an elevator, stand close but not inside, and don't block it. Let your elevator operator be the one who goes in and pushes the buttons. He should call out a number too (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) of the destination level, so everyone is clear where you're going next. People get left behind sometimes, and will need to know for sure where the team just went. So the elevator guy should call it out.

Elevator Hint

There are two floor hexes on which to stand inside each elevator. For whatever reason, the only one that works is the front hex. If you stand on an elevator's rear hex, you may get the elevator control prompt, but choosing a level doesn't do anything. To fix this, simply hit ESC to close the elevator control prompt, and move forward 1 hex - you'll get the control prompt again and it should work. This is why party members should not crowd too closely - don't enter the elevator unless you are the designated elevator operator. If both hexes get occupied inside an elevator, the guy in the back gets stuck and cannot move, until the front hex is clear.

Next, agree on a route, and call out the plan before you start. Example:

"Okay team, we're going to go to level 1 but run straight into the room with the first two lockers. Ignore the lockers though because we need to kill the level 1 robots first. Try not to trigger them until we're all in the room. Doorman, we need you to close the room's door and move aside. As the robots reach our room to attack, they will have to spend AP to open the door. Doorman closes the door as opportunity permits during combat. Once level 1 robots are down, we use 2 doses of RadAway each, and go straight to elevator wasting no time. Leave level 1 lockers behind - we will get them later on the way out. Elevator operator, we need you to step into elevator as we crowd near it, and call out 3. We'll appear on level 3 as a team, and repeat the process with door and killing robots again. With level 3 robots down, we move to right rear elevator and head to level 6 the same way. Once on 6, we'll clear a path to the generator, and group up at the left rear elevator. We need our generator repairman to fix the level 6 generator and meet us. Then elevator operator steps in, and calls out 5. We hit level 5 and beat robots there too, using the same process. Then loot level 5! Get full as fast as you can and start walking back to elevator. Generator repairman, you need to return to 6 pronto in case we take too long - make sure we don't get stuck on level 5 or we melt into death-goo. The rest of you, once you're full of loot, return to 6 as you can, but wait on 6 at right rear elevator so the team can exit together. Robots will be back up on other levels, and we need to hit them as a team to beat them, so no rambo exits. Go stash loot once we're out, and return here to base for the next run."

The above plan is about looting level 5 first, which is not required - you can hit levels in whatever order you like, but make sure there's a plan or it becomes chaos and people die.

Once you offload loot and meet back at base, verify people are ready for a 2nd run. Radiation levels need to be low again. Find out if someone in the team is having trouble with radiation before going back in.

When ready, call out the plan again. Maybe the above team will hit level 4 next. Launch your 2nd run and dive into killer robot fun!

Handling Losses

People fail inside Glow and they lose their gear. There is always a sense of urgency to return and recover your gear as fast as you can. Your team should decide in advance how to handle combat losses. If one person dies and the rest survive, the team will want to press on, while the one guy returns. In such cases, it's best to leave his gear pile alone - he knows right where he left it, so it will be fast for him to recover it, but only if it's still there. The question is, are the robots back up yet, or can he run in without re-gearing?

Otherwise if the whole team dies, it's best for everyone to meet back at the base, get fresh gear, and go in as a team to recover your lost gear. It's maddening to risk it, go back in naked bluesuit, and get killed again before you can reach your gear pile or teammates. Determine in advance how many people your team needs minimum to fight your way in and back out of Glow. If your count falls below that number, grab gear piles and exit Glow to meet everyone back in the base.

Managing Radiation

When you first enter Glow, you're already being radiated and you may be tempted to take a dose of RadAway immediately. One thing that works better is to wait until you get to the level 1 elevator, and then take 2 doses of RadAway. Notice they each remove 25 points of radiation. Now don't worry about radiation for a while. Watch to see when your two concurrent doses of RadAway work again (they're active for 3 cycles each), and you'll see your radiation reduced by 50 points, twice. When you get a message like this, it's more noticeable in pairs. The last one is the one you don't want to miss; it will show two 75-point reductions to your radiation level. That's when you can take 2 more doses (or wait a bit if it was less an 75 both times). Once you get practiced with this, you'll often happily report your rads are 0 and you're ready for more action.

Enjoy the fights, and happy looting!