Couple of regional questions

I haven’t done many regionals - like 2. So, a couple of questions that I probably should already know the answer to. Are regionals the same as lairs? And where in Achievements do I look to see what regionals I’ve done? I see “lairs” and “regionals” under Achievements , but I couldn’t find something that said I completed an achievement for Blue Mountain (a lairs I did).

Regionals are slightly different to lairs.

Lairs are an area of each zone map, (except New Dawn,) where there are tougher mobs to fight in a group. Each lair has 3 side missions that take place in it - a mission to kill different mobs; a mission to gather items from the ground in the lair; and a mission to defend an area against waves of spawned mobs for a short time, culminating in a mini boss. Each of these side missions will give a blue Summoning Essence as a reward. You can then use each Summoning Essence to summon the lair bosses (each member of the summoning group needs to have an essence, so 5 in total). These bosses each give individual achievements for killing them, found in the Bosses>Lairs category in achievements. So for clearing the Blue Mountain lair, you will get the Polluted Effigy, Blue Harvester and Ferrous Dueller achievements.
There’s no actual achievement for clearing the lair itself, just for killing the bosses.
When you kill each boss, it will spawn a loot chest, which requires a lair key to open. Lair bosses drop blue distillates, and sometimes green signets. You do not need to be in the summoning group (or raid) to open the chest. It’s pretty normal for there to be a few extra people tagging along for the loot, these are known as leeching spots (it’s not meant to be an offensive term, just descriptive). Most lairs are completed by 10 player raids, meaning that everyone can then use their essences to summon 2 full sets of bosses (so 6 in total).

Blue lair bosses also have a chance to drop epic (purple) Summoning Essences. These are used to summon regional bosses, but you only need one essence per summon. Lair bosses will only drop regional summons for the region you are in, so you won’t get an Egypt regional from Savage Coast, for example.
You still need a full group to click on the heart to summon the boss, but you don’t need everyone to have an essence.
Instead of being able to summon in multiple places in each zone, you need to visit specific summoning circles in Blue Mountain, City of the Sun God, Beseiged Farmlands and Kaidan. Regional boss chests drop epic distillates instead of blues, and can also drop different regional boss summons.
Regional bosses give achievements found in the Bosses>Lairs>Regional tab.

There are also yellow boss Summoning Essences, these are for so-called Mega Bosses (MBs). These can drop from lair boss or regional chests, and like the epic essences, only one is needed per boss summon. For MBs, instead of using summoning circles in the zones, the public raid portal in Agartha is used. Summoning a MB will open a public raid, which can hold 40 people. If more than 3 people in the summoning group (clicking the heart) are in one cabal, then other members of the cabal on the platform will be asked if they want to zone in to the MB fight before the public portal opens. The MBs have a huge amount of hp, so it’s pretty important to call out for more people to join before summoning. Many cabals (and individuals) will do several MB summons, and will advertise in Agartha how many they are doing to help gather enough people to drop them quickly. MBs also spawn a loot chest which requires a lair key to open, and drop epic signet distillates and green signets.
The MBs award achievements found in the Bosses>Lairs>Raid tab.
The other thing to know is that if you are in the group which summons the MB, you will complete a main mission when it is killed. The mission turn in will give a signet and a distillate as a reward, but this only happens if you’re in the group clicking on the heart.

Because regional chests give weapon/talisman, glyph and signet distillates, they are normally the most popular, because you get the most reward per key. They are significantly quicker than MBs, and can also drop some of the most sought after agents, (like Petru,) from blue chests.

6 Likes

Such a full and informative reply, has answered all the questions I had about summoning things and how to get the things needed. Good job AWOL :star_struck:

3 Likes

Off topic, but love the reminder about the “in jokes” found in some chevos :slight_smile:

I get Blue Harvest and Ferris Bueller, but is there a nod in the name of Polluted Effigy?

1 Like

Blue Harvest was the production name for Star Wars, wasn’t it?

1 Like

Yup, that’s the one :slight_smile: It was their cover story in Tunisia. Growing up I always coveted the Blue Harvest t-shirts the crew wore :slight_smile: Still do…

1 Like

Thanks, AWOL. Great, comprehensive info! Everything I wanted to know about regionals but was afraid to ask :grin: Very much appreciate you taking the time.

1 Like

I think the best advice is to not be afraid to ask anything :slight_smile:

Plenty of people have been playing for a long time and still don’t know it all (and I include myself in that category!). Asking is often the best way to be directed towards good information sources and it’s normally a good idea to check if you’re unsure!

1 Like

I might add that the best way to do regionals is to do some lairs and gather purple essences for later (in many cases groups that do lair can’t reliably do regional). Then wait for somebody to organize regional farm with donation. It commonly takes 2-5 essences to participate and you get 20-50 summons from it not counting leechers.
At least it was like this 1-2 years ago. I don’t know if people still do that stuff.

2 Likes