Grand Pagoda Library

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A (not so) warm welcome from the (not so) local cult.

The Grand Pagoda Library is the 2nd Mission of the Main questline (Not counting the Dark/Poptop Caverns, or the now-optional Erchius Mining Facility). You are tasked with retrieving the Hylotl artifact from the depths of the dilapidated library, but it seems like you aren't the only one looking for the artifact... ... At least in theory. In vanilla however, there are very few of the occassus cultists to bar your way, and those that are there offer little real challenge to you. Many rooms are desolate and empty, leading the mission to be unofficially dubbed "The Great Walking Simulator."

In Frackin, the layout of the Library remains unchanged. However, there are now many more enemies. The Occassus Cult is now out in force, native fauna have invaded the library through whatever cracks they can find (or make, in some cases.) There is hardly a room anymore where there isn't something going on. This becomes very apparent the moment you approach the entryway, as there are now a couple of guards on lookout for any intruders that might ruin their plans. Case in point: you.

Oh, but don't worry... there's dolphins now. Because everything is better with Dolphins.

The Cultists themselves are more varied than in the vanilla mission. You'll start off fighting the "basic" variety, which use pistols (though sometimes they'll have a machine pistol instead.) Not soon after, you'll encounter the "scientist" variety, who wield machine pistols. exclusively. These 'scientists' have a captureball with a pet on hand (usually a cultist scandroid, but can be other things) to distract you while they ping away at you. Further down the line you'll encounter the 'assault' variety of cultists: they wield assault rifles and shotguns. Along with them, are the 'sniper' cultists, usually perched on high places with sniper rifles. At the bottom you'll finally encounter the elite "rocket cultists", who weild powerful rocket launchers or grenade launchers against you.

The cultists are not your only obstacle now. Hostile sea life is more plentiful than before (including a massive specimen that has found its way from the aetheric deep into a flooded area of the library). And the cultist's defilement of the library has not gone unnoticed by the gosmets of the library. Unfortuantely, they cannot differentiate you from them, and will ambush you when you least expect it.

Asra Nox herself remains unchanged in Frackin... For now, at least.

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  At least there are some friendly faces to greet you...

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  They wield Frackin guns now.

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  Some other critters have joined in.

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  Ghosts will ambush you in some rooms.

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  The more elite of them wield assault rifles.

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  Once you reach the bottom, they'll throw everything at you.