The Heart of Rage stronghold version. Stop the Monitor from harnessing the Cenotaph.
Hints and Suggestions
- The dialog exchange between the characters will change depending on whether single player or multiplayer mode is played.
- Remember to perform Feats to obtain XP for increasing Pilot Level and receiving Alliance bonus.
- Visit Freemark Ruins page to get familiarized with the sections and areas within this location.
- Visit the Cenotaph Ruins page to get familiarized with the Final Boss Arena
- Make sure to read the text pop ups that show up with the icon
. This can be easily done with the help of Sniper Rifles, by zooming in near the icon. - The dialogs during this mission are not the same as the ones during the Heart of Rage Stronghold and Seasonal Expedition.
- Since this is a repeatable expedition, it will continue to show the logs on the screen (top-right corner]] as though it wasn’t completed. This can be safely ignored and a different mission can be chosen from the Journal.
- It is impossible to make progress without opening the first treasure chest that reveals after defeating the Titan.
- The second treasure chest has a bug. If it is not opened when inside the Relic Chamber after opening the door, it will disappear. This means once the chest becomes visible, if any other areas are visited without having at least one lancer present inside the Relic Chamber, the chest cannot be opened and rewards cannot be received.
- Make sure to equip lots of armor and shields, and equip the most damage dealing Combat Equipment.
- Ancient Ash Titans are very tough enemies. Using
Acid or 
Armor Buster types of damages is the most effective way to fight them. Make sure to focus on their weak points, since it is the most effective way to defeat them. When only a fourth of the Titan’s health remains, green and blue circles show up on the ground. At this time, it starts randomly throwing its attack. If the Titan is destroyed before the two circles meet, the rewards received will have a better chance of having a high rarity. - Furies have a massive health pool. Quickly deplete their shields and start damaging their armor. They can go inside their crystal barrier to recover health. Their entropy attacks are randomized and do large amount of damage. During such times, it is best to take cover. See Dominion Fury for more details on ways to tackle them.
- Use
Acid, Armor Buster, or Fire type damage to tackle Dominion Brutes or Turrets. - Use Ice or Lightning or Shield Breaker damages to deplete any shields of enemies.
- Set the Dominion Valkyries on burning status by doing Fire damage to them or freeze them using ice and disable their flight until the status wears off.
- Avoid defeating elite type Dominion Shocktroopers and remaining near them, because they drop loose death rattle grenades after their health is depleted, which self-explode in a matter of seconds to do massive Lightning Blast damage.
- The Frost Hounds are very vulnerable to fire attack.
- For full details on fighting and defeating the final boss of this mission, see The Monitor (Transcendent Form).
- It is also recommended to make use of any explosives scattered across the map during combat when in need.
- Starting from a second playthrough, if Crafting Blueprints are unlocked, it is possible to craft combat equipment to improve the health and damage output of the Freelancer's javelins.
Puzzles and Special Tasks
- FLIGHT SUPPRESSION: The following is the location of the Dominion Grounder.
- Stay within the range. The minimum wait time with one javelin inside the Cypher projected green circle (range) is 40 seconds with a single javelin. The time reduces with multiple javelins and fewer enemies present inside the circle.
- Click on Expand/Collapse to reveal/conceal the locations:
| Grounder Location | Grounder Active | Grounder Inactive |
|---|---|---|
| Seen inside the Ruined Atrium |   |
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- SPEAKER RELICS: The following are the locations of the Speaker Relics and Echoes.
- To solve this puzzle, simply collect echoes (maximum 3 at a time) in the vicinity of the Speaker Relic and deposit them into the receptacle of the Echo Lock Ruin.
- Click on Expand/Collapse to reveal/conceal the locations:
| Type | Location | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Echo Lock Ruin | Immediately seen on the Right-side after entering out of the Relic Chamber |   |
| Echoes | Floating within the Relic Chamber |   |
- SHAPER DOOR:The following are the locations of the Shaper Door Key Item.
- Defeating the Fury Guardians Keeper and Hoarder will cause them drop the keys to the Shaper door. Collecting both will open it and suppress all the Shaper Nodes.
- Click on Expand/Collapse to reveal/conceal the locations:
| Key Location | Key 01 | Key 02 |
|---|---|---|
| Location: Inside the Inside the Relic Chamber, usually where each Fury is defeated (occasionally away from their place of defeat, but still within the Relic Chamber). |
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- TREASURE CHESTS: The following are the locations of the Treasure Chests.
- Treasure Chests can provide a maximum of 15 items. Total number depends on the difficulty.
- Click on Expand/Collapse to reveal/conceal the locations:
| Chest Location | Chest Image |
|---|---|
| Location 01: Inside the ruined gazebo of Ruined Courtyard |
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| Location 02: Beside the opened Shaper Door of Relic Chamber |
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Objectives
The Heart of Rage Stronghold
Race to Silence the Heart of Rage
Enter Freemark
Clear out Dominion forces
Defeat Dominion Forces
Race to Silence the Heart of Rage
Find the Monitor
Defeat Titan
Find the Monitor
Defeat Dominion Forces
Signal
Find the Monitor
Silence Relic
Echoes Delivered
Defeat Dominion Forces
Kill the Dominion Forces
Pick up Keys
Stop the Monitor
Silence the Cenotaph
Defeat the Monitor
These are the locations where the Freelancer begins the expedition, has to perform tasks to advance, and conclude the expedition.
Cortex Entry
The Cortex Entry shows the description and the outcome of the expedition.
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For a Collection of similar Cortex Entries, See: Strongholds (Journal) |
Quest Chain
This expedition is a part of the Tales from the Strongholds. When the storyline is completed, an appropriate challenge is also completed, which will reward the Freelancer. The following are the related quests in order for this storyline:
Trivia (May Contain Spoilers)
- This is the only stronghold where Haluk is heard during the expedition and Sev isn’t.
- This is the only stronghold where there is a Cypher Annotation. It is near the place where the Freelancer was attacked by the wyvern during the first attempt to Silence the Heart of Rage.
- Interestingly, the position of the wyvern corpse is moved from its original location, indicating that the storm was at work and time has indeed passed.
- After entering the calm pocket, if looked behind and above, it is possible to notice Haluk’s Strider.
- This is the only expedition where non-purple colored lighting or electric discharges can be seen. In this case, it is pale yellow lightning. Although, the purple lightning is also seen striking the ground.
- The ending of the stronghold plays differently than the mission version by taking a different path to reach the Monitor, and the Transcendent form of the Monitor having a fourth combat phase called Burnout.
- This stronghold is the shortest and can be completed the fastest as there are only two puzzles of impediment to reach the subsequent location: Grounder and Speaker Relic.
- This is the only stronghold where non-Boss type named enemies are encountered: Hoarder and Keeper.
- In the beginning, this mission was among the toughest expedition as the Dominion Brutes had an additional shield as health and enemy shields were tougher to deplete. Even after balance changes, the mission still remains quite tough to solo.
- This is the only stronghold to feature Apex Enemies before reaching the final boss arena. There are 3 of them in total: 1 Ancient Ash Titan and 2 Dominion Furies.
- In the stronghold version, the final boss is explicitly mentioned to have died. This doesn’t happen in the mission version.
- This is the only stronghold, where during the final boss fight, non-javelin specific boosts are available: Four amplification spheres show up, standing inside which will increase all weapon damages. The amplification becomes five times if all 4 spheres are occupied by a javelin each and they do weapon damage.
- This is the only stronghold where the terrain changes during the boss fight multiple times.
- Post Update 1.7.0, because of the normalization of power Level 80 items, and the fact that the game was not balanced for this level of equipment, all enemies can be one-shot killed. However, this is the only stronghold and the only encounter where it is impossible to “one-shot kill” the final boss in any difficulty setting, because of the change in terrain mid-combat.
Below is the Script and Walkthrough for The Heart of Rage Stronghold:
Briefing
There is no specific briefing for the stronghold version of The Heart of Rage. Several instances of dialogs are taken from a rotational pool.
In Expedition
Race to Silence the Heart of Rage
The Freelancer enters Freemark Outskirts in a relatively calm pocket inside the Heart of Rage Cataclysm, whereas Faye] and Haluk remain inside Haluk's Strider. The Freelancer has started at the Arrival Area.
Enter Freemark
The Freelancer flies
- The Freelancer: " The Heart of Rage. Can't believe we're back."
- Haluk: "Well, believe fast, because we've got work to do."
- Faye: "The Monitor's already steps ahead.... need to move quickly."
- The Freelancer: "Faye?"
- Haluk: "She's all right. Just make your way up to the city ruins."
The Freelancer flies toward the Freemark Ruins. There is a massive valley overflowing with lava. There are three Wyverns hovering, likely spawned recently. The Freelancer can fight them. At this point, the Freelancer has reached the Lava Valley.
The Freelancer can explore this location to find a Cypher Annotation about the Wyvern from the attempt to Silence the Heart of Rage in 466 LV. After that the Freelancer can fly to reach the Monitor by entering the Ruined Entrance
Clear out the Dominion Forces
The Freelancer enters the ruined city and notices several Dominion enemies, including turrets.
- The Freelancer: "Dominion's made themselves at home!"
- Haluk: "Ignore the turrets. We need to catch the Monitor."
Defeat Dominion Forces
The Freelancer is interrupted by the Monitor, who is already ahead.
- The Monitor: "Freelancer. So pleased you could join us."
- The Freelancer: "Oh yeah? Then tell your troops to stop shooting at me!"
- The Monitor: "(Chuckles.) Meet me at the Cenotaph, if you can."
The Freelancer fights all the enemies and defeats them!
- Faye: "I think... that's it."
Race to Silence the Heart of Rage
- Haluk: "Monitor's still ahead. Keep pushing."
The Freelancer flies through the Minor Chasm where a Gauss Turret and some Dominion Troopers wait for them. The Freelancer fights them all before moving ahead to the Ruined Corridor where a familiar sound is heard.
- The Freelancer: "That sounds... foreboding."
The Freelancer now goes inside the Ruined Courtyard. A familiar figure awaits the lancer, along with some Dominion Troopers.
An Ancient Ash Titan had fired several homing fireballs at the troopers, who would not survive it. Then if any survived, they wouldn’t be a match for its fire shockwave. And even if some still remained standing, the Freelancer would put them down.
Defeat Titan
- The Freelancer: "Oof. That looks like it hurt."
- Haluk: "That's nothing compared to what you're gonna do to that titan!"
It truly was nothing, because the Freelancer annihilated the Titan with ease.
There is a 
Treasure Chest here, inside the ruined gazebo. Opening it will reward the Freelancer with loot and ember.
Find the Monitor
The Freelancer now flies into the Ruined Vestibule, above a small stream of lava and through there, enters Ruined Foyer
- The Freelancer: "We've made it further than ever before."
- Faye: "(Pained cry.)"
- The Freelancer: "Faye! Talk to me. Haluk?"
Defeat Dominion Forces
There are enemies waiting here with turrets. The Monitor Interrupts again.
- The Monitor: "Connection problems? Oh dear."
- The Monitor: "The Anthem does have its way of weeding out the weak."
- The Freelancer: "Oh, shut up."
The freelancer fights and defeats all the enemies before heading into the Ruined Atrium Just before entering this atrium, the Freelancer loses flight control.
Signal
- The Freelancer: "Something's up with the flight controls."
- Haluk: "Grounder interference. Destroy it, or enjoy the stroll."
The Freelancer must wait inside the Cypher projected green circle.
- Haluk: "Watch out for the Brutes!"
More Dominion enemies gate-in. As the disabling of the Dominion Grounder, Faye becomes available to contact.
- Faye: "Freelancer... I'm here."
- The Freelancer: "Faye. Thought I lost you."
- Faye: "It's taking everything I have... to keep your suit running."
- Faye: "But... "Stronger Together," right?"
- The Monitor: "How touching. You really believe teamwork will get you through this."
- The Freelancer: "Excuse me. You're ruining the moment."
Once the grounder is disabled, the Freelancer can fly to the Ruined Passage. The enemies need not be defeated, but doing so will likely make the world a slightly better place.
Find the Monitor
The Freelancer now flies into the Relic Chamber to see a volatile Echo Lock Ruin causing it to keep the Shaper Door locked.
- The Freelancer: "Looks like a relic?"
- Haluk: "And, of course, the Dominion just had to poke it."
- Haluk: "Silence it so we can reach the Monitor."
Silence the Relic
The Freelancer must deposit 10 Echoes into the Echo Lock’s receptacle, while fighting a horde of Dominion enemies.
Echoes Delivered
When some echoes are deposited, Faye gives a notification.
- Faye: "That's it... just a few more echoes."
When only a couple of echoes remain, Faye gives another reminder.
- Faye: "Almost... there. Keep gathering echoes."
Defeat Dominion Forces
The Freelancer also defeats two hordes of Dominion enemies spawning through gates. However, neither silencing the relic, nor defeating the dominion forces open the Shaper Door. There must be another way or some other guardians that have the key. At this point the true guardians gate-in.
- Haluk: "Furies. Mean bastards."
Kill the Dominion Furies
Two Dominion Furies called Keeper and Hoarder. Nevertheless, the Freelancer defeats the two guardians, even though several electical Shaper Nodes emerge into this area.
Pick up the Keys
Each fury drops a key. Both keys are required for the Shaper Door to be opened. Once the keys are collected, Haluk gives a heads up.
- Haluk: "Path's clear. Monitor's next!"
There is a Treasure Chest here, beside the now open Shaper Door. Opening it will reward the Freelancer with loot and ember.
Race to Silence the Cenotaph
The Freelancer flies through the Ruined Hallway and then into the Igneous Ravine. The Freelancer can also go into the Cenotaph Antechamber, however, there isn’t much to do in these locations.
Stop the Monitor
The Freelancer enters the Cenotaph Ruins to see the Transcendent Monitor reveal himself.
Silence the Cenotaph
The only way to reach the Cenotaph relic is to defeat the Monitor.
- The Monitor: "You're too late."
The Monitor has now been remade into someone who can control Fire
- The Freelancer: "You look taller. New shoes?"
- Faye: "He's been... remade... by the Anthem."
- Haluk: "Probably something to do with that crap he's hooked up to the Cenotaph."
- The Freelancer: "It's not over. He's still mortal... right? He's still mortal?"
- Faye: "Yes."
- The Freelancer: "Then let's finish this!"
Defeat the Monitor
The Monitor summons exploding meteors.
- Haluk: "Freelancer"
These meteors are so powerful that they can do a one hit knock out on any javelin. When at lease a fourth of the Monitor’s health is depleted, he is activated to a different location. At this point a Shaper Door mysteriously opens to reveal a path to the activated location. But the Monitor still has control over the storm. The Freelancer now traverses into the Major Chasm
- Haluk: "He's on the move again."
- The Freelancer: "The storm--it's changing!"
- Faye: "Through the Cenotaph... the Monitor has power over the Heart of Rage."
- The Freelancer: "My jav's not built for acid."
The Freelancer reaches to the second special location in the Cenotaph Ruins. Everything here is made of Acid, as the Monitor has changed the storm. At this point, the Monitor can summon Mordant Elementals when his health is being depleted. When another fourth of his health is depleted, the Monitor is activated again. The Freelancer must fly through the Major Chasm again and back into the first special location of the Cenotaph Ruins.
- The Freelancer: "What just happened?"
- Faye: "The Cenotaph can't be fully controlled... it's... activated him elsewhere."
Flying through the Major Chasm, the storm is changing again. Now the entire location is run over by lightning. The Freelancer continues to fight the Monitor, especially with the help of amplification spheres which have been bestowed by the Anthem, so that it becomes easier to defeat the Monitor. Because the Anthem refuses to be controlled.
After depleting another fourth of his health, the Monitor is activated into the center of the area. Now the Anthem will not bend any more, causing him to be in a state of burndown. This means, he becomes immobile for a long duration until he can be fully defeated. The moment he tries to take control of the Anthem again or his health is fully depleted, he disappears.
- Faye: "He's gone. The Cenotaph is silenced."
- The Freelancer: "And the Anthem?"
- Faye: "I let it go."
- Haluk: "Knew you had it in you, Faye. Wasn't worried for a second."
- The Freelancer: "Really? You sounded worried."
- Haluk: "Quiet, you."
Post Expedition
The Freelancer returns victorious.
Notes and Remarks
- Since the Heart of Rage Stronghold is a tougher version of Return to the Heart of Rage mission, it doesn’t have any specific briefing or debrief conversations.
- The main cortex entry for this expedition is the same as that of Return to the Heart of Rage, so it is not shown again in the game’s cortex (or in the wiki as well).
- There are two stronghold treasure chests which can reward up to 15 items (a combination of loot and ember each).
- The final boss can also reward up to 15 items in the afore mentioned combination. In this case, the number will decrease if the Monitor is not defeated during Burnout phase by the time he teleports.
- The dialogs in this expedition are the same as mentioned in this script only for the first time this expedition is played. Starting from the second time, all dialogs will be different, and lines will be taken from a pool that get rotated in-game. However, certain conversations may be skipped if actions are performed quickly, or additional conversations will show up if there is a delay
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