P.O.R.T.A.L.
"Insert Quote Here"
P.O.R.T.A.L. is one of several strikes found in Monumenta, located within the Architect's Ring.
Unlocking
The Strike and teleporter to the lobby from Galengarde can be unlocked by talking to the Aradia Guards in front of the vault of the Aradia's base. The Scientists of Steelmeld III quest leads players to the Strike and is the canonical way to unlock it, but it is not required.
The Lobby
The lobby appears as a lush cavern with flowing water and plants. The key seller, enderchest, and leaderboard sign are next to a tree, and the rare trader is across from them. Past them is a short bridge leading to the one observer platform. Stepping on the pressure plates of the observer platform summons a wall around the entire platform, preventing other players from entering or leaving.
Entering the Strike
To enter the Portal shard, players must purchase Bermuda's Key from the NPC (1 HAR) and talk to the observer. After confirmation, the player and up to three others will be teleported into the shard. Similarly to dungeons, only one key is required for the group.
Gimmicks
There are five main gimmicks in P.O.R.T.A.L.
Upon player death, they will be immediately ejected out of the shard. All items except for the C.A.L.D.E.R Interdimensional Wands are kept, but they will not receive completion for the Strike nor receive a loot room. X% experience will be lost.
Upon killing a mob, a S.O.U.L. counter will appear above the hotbar for a few seconds. This marks the amount of mob kills required to access the boss. 350 mobs must be killed to access the boss.
Chests are still located within the lab, but instead of loot, opening them will cause them to disappear. Instead of gaining loot along the way, all loot is transferred to the loot room at the end.
Upon leaving the starting room, there will be four pink tubes with a button on each of them. Pressing the button of a tube drops a C.A.L.D.E.R. Interdimensional Wand, each possessing different colors. Left-clicking and right-clicking with the wand will spawn one of two colored portals directed to where the player is pointing. Portals can only form on smooth stone and only one of each color portal can exist at once. Portals cannot pierce blocks other than purple stained glass. If both portals are formed, entering one portal will eject the player or mob out the other linked portal, maintaining any momentum they had. Because of the semi-sporadic nature of the portals, all fall damage is negated in the Strike.
Some areas of the Strike have iron pressure plates on green blocks. Stepping on these will launch the player in a specific direction. This can be used to access certain platforms quickly or enter a portal with high momentum.
Layout
The Strike is split into three sections.
The first section features multiple split paths. On the bottom path is a large door leading to the next section. To open the door, players must locate and activate three cores, purple glass pods with a button on them. Each core is located on a different path in the first main room. The top-most path leads to a room with a strange multi-layered structure, featuring the core in a nearby cave with dripleaves. The second top-most path leads to a large garden area, where the core is up above on a cliff opposite from the entrance. The third top-most path leads to a room with a purple glass wall, the core and a drop to the door located past it.
The second section is more linear, with a few diverging paths that lead to the same next area. This area features a lot of lava under the platforms. The final room is a massive room with an arching platform over the center. At the end of it is a hole that sends the player to the boss arena.
The boss arena features a large ring and a central island with a fairly large lava moat between them. Smooth stone is present on four small pillars on the central island and on four of the walls of the ring. Unlike the rest of the strike, this area is in adventure mode, meaning blocks cannot be broken or placed. Pressing the button in the central island will begin the boss fight, teleporting all players in the instance to the central island.
Boss
I.O.T.A. is the boss of the Strike. They can only be damaged by attacking its core, a spinning magma cube, in the central island after summoning it.
Passives:
I.O.T.A.'s fight has multiple passive effects present during the duration of the fight:
- Players are in adventure mode and are therefore unable to place or break blocks.
- Falling into the lava will inflict heavy damage and teleport the player to the outer ring. It also gives them three seconds of -50% healing.
- Located on the north and south sides of the outer ring are buttons. Pressing either of them will spawn a Companion Cube on the stained glass at the east or west sides of the ring. Players can pick up the cube by pressing shift while next to it and drop it by pressing shift again while holding it. A picked-up cube follows players through portals. The cube must be brought to the center of the central island to summon I.O.T.A.'s core. While phase one only requires one cube be brought to summon the core, every other phase will require two. Only one cube can exist at a time and pressing the buttons while a cube is present will cause it to disappear, even if it's being held by another player.
Phase 1:
- Security Systems: I.O.T.A. summons multiple Hostile Cubes and Spilled Concoctions on the outer ring.
- Error Field: A small purple ring will spawn around two players (one if solo) and begin making breaking sounds. Upon the third breaking sound (approximately one second after cast), any players in the ring takes 85 damage and gets knocked upwards.
- Sector Expunge: Purple particles will entirely cover either the central island or the outer ring and begin making breaking sounds. Upon the fifth breaking sound (approximately five seconds after cast) any players on the targeted platform will take 70% of their max health as true damage.
- Thunderstorm: I.O.T.A. can only cast this if the core is exposed. A beeping sound will activate, and gold block projectiles will emit along the ground from the center.
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Phase 2:
Phase 3:
Phase 4:
Mobs
Rewards
All the loot will be on the floor of each player's loot room, able to be picked up easily.
For the first victory of the day, victors will be given the following rewards:
- ~1
. - 1 Companion Fragment (For the first completion ever, you will receive 4 Companion Fragments).
- 2 Corrupted Circuits if this is a non-delve instance. 3 Corrupted Circuits if this is a 6pt delve instance.
- 10-12 Iron Nuggets.
- ~1 stack of Block of Quartz.
Delves
If the player holding the key has completed the Strike prior, they will be given the option to begin the Strike as a delve. This opens the delve modifier selection menu like any other dungeon, and the player can select the delve modifiers they desire (excluding Fragile due to the nature of Strikes). The soulfire lantern at the top-left of the menu gives the multipliers for damage and health of mobs, as well as the multiplier for Corrupted Circuitry given at the end of the Strike. Unlike dungeon delves, the loot modifier is not capped by the number of players, but still remains capped at 3.33x for 25 points.
Note that players other than the one with the key are unable to select or see the list of modifiers selected, so communication is crucial to discussing or informing players of modifiers. Additionally, players are unable to view the modifiers during the Strike, so players selecting Entropy should be ready for any of its selectable modifiers.