Comprehensive Solo Cacpetus Adventure Guide

You will have to perform this mission on hard (or higher) difficulty to satisfy the Packet requirement. On hard difficulty, Cacpetus Adventure restricts you to 1000 BP. My suggestions to meet this requirement would be to have your 2 initial mechs around the 490 cost. The cost of the last mech is completely up to you. Play at your own comfort level (and not something you may not have developed as of yet).

My further recommendations would be to have your unit compose of 3 Airs. In terms of design, air units shine in their ability to manipulate the map layout to their benefit. This is especially true in PvP and even more so in Cacpetus Adventure. For your first mech, I would recommend blasters. Alternatively, you may also equip particle guns followed by shotguns. For your second mech, I would recommend wide beam guns (and any similar counterparts that you may have already encountered in your adventure in CB). Finally, your last mech is up to you, but I would insist on keeping true to the style of your second mech and stick with wide beam guns and similar guns. I DO NOT recommend melee at all.

You have 10 minutes to perform this mission. USE IT. There is no need to kill something if you have future opportunities to do so with less risk. As far as your shine busters go, you should reluctantly delegate them to meat shield duty. Let them tank the hits for as long as possible. As long as they live, find opportunities to support them but never at your own risk.

This mission requires patience and as with many other missions, you should NEVER trade hits. Do it right the first time so you don't have to waste time doing it over a second, a third or even fourth time. Personally, I believe the safest vantage point are the high grounds directly to your left and right. They are the areas on which you should ever decide to touch ground (in my humble judgment) within the intro battles. Once you step into the midgame, you have your option of either the canyon or back area. The choice is yours. Finally, against the Boss, I highly recommend setting up camp never too far away from the canyon's high ground ridge.

This first instance will pit you against many small and medium sized cacpetus. Here is where your multishot weapon (such as your blasters) will shine. Your weapon will be capable of poking several targets and since most of the S and M sized Cacpetus have low hp, you will be able to eliminate several at times. Generally, it is better to shoot on high ground over them than to face them on the same level. If you can, always target the M sized cacpetus first as their hits deal significant damage as well as possible stun. The S sized cacpetus should not overly concern you as long as you play smart. Keep moving here and you’ll do fine. Support your shine busters as there are 2 of them and one of you. With all things equal, there is a 66% chance they will engage them, over you.

This is your baptism by fire level. You either perform this outstandingly well, or you fail. Here, you will get an opportunity to test your survivability in the long run.

You will be pitted against a single totem cacpetus SH as well as several S cacpetus and 2 camel cacpetus. To defeat the latter two, do what you have been doing thus far. This should involve a combination of left and right air strafing, some forward and reverse boosting, followed by a bit of dual wielding. Keep in mind, you should only dual wield if you can guarantee your safety.

Your first test will come when you engage the totem cacpetus. For this engagement, I would recommend circle strafing. This is a common tactic used in any fps or 3rd person shooter. As you circle strafe against the totem cacpetus, it will turn towards your direction to match you and subsequently shield itself. Thus, you will need to circle strafe HARDER and sharpen your circle*. Once you master circle strafing, this instance as well as the rest of the mission will become relatively easy.

In this stage you will face off against 2 oversized cacpetus as well as its’ smaller sibling. These targets are much easier to kill due to their size and speed. There is nothing more to note here.

In this instance, you will face against 2 totem cacpetus GM, 2 copters, and several S cacpetus. Do not engage linearly against any of the main targets as both of these opponents benefit from that. Instead, circle strafe as you did against the totem cacpetus SH and things will go your way. Deal with each enemy individually in your attack runs and gain safety on the 2 high grounds on the left and right. Your general movement will be back and forth on these high grounds with several pit stops for boost refueling.

The important thing is to manage your space against the mobs, your ammo, wonderbit, and boost gauge. Ammo consumption will become exceedingly important as you become a master of this mission.

If you are fortunate enough to finish the last instance at the entrance to the ridge, you will have a chance to instantly finish off the totem cacpetus SH. Otherwise, you will want to deal with the guider first.

To fight against the guider, use (aerial) reverse boosting and dodge any of its flamethrower shots it may take at you. It is imperative here to dodge everything it throws at you. If you have ever gotten hit by the flamethrower, you would know this is one of the sure ways to die as its attack does terrible, terrible damage followed by a guaranteed burn effect.

The second method to engage the guider would involve (aerial) circle strafing but do this only if you can guarantee a kill before your boost runs out. Otherwise, stick with the former tactic. Finish the rest of this instance similar to all previous ones.

If you play with fire, you get burned! Don't.

At this point in the mission, you should be extremely familiar with the most simple (and effective) ways to deal with these mobs. If it’s not circle strafing, it’s reverse boosting, and vice versa. Dual wield only when you can guarantee your immediate safety afterward.

You will want to deal with the right side enemy, Quartetpeus, first. He is equipped with range weaponry but his turning capabilities should not be able to match yours. To deal with him, circle strafe. Afterward, head over to the left side and engage Leox. Leox is a melee character equipped with a sword, shield, and camel mount. You can either choose to circle strafe against him (thus nullifying his shield) or reversing up and simply brute force him.

This is the last instance within the canyon and here you will engage a single multihand cacpetus. It is equipped with both melee and range weaponry. Thus, circle strafing here is in fact very risky. Instead, reverse boost against it and complement that tactic with a few left and right strafes. It should be relatively easy.

Here is where your entire decision making in the previous exercise comes into real practice. As oppose to the previous engagements, there are a lot of different mob spawns and accidents even if not guaranteed, will definitely and often, happen. If you get stunned while surrounded by enemies, it is almost guaranteed that follow up shots will hit you as well. In this case, you will most likely lose your mech, and consequently, your alternative mechs may pay a similar cost as well. Therefore, you will NEED to engage in facile ground*. In these types of grounds, you will be able to ‘aggro’ a few enemies one at a time, and put what you have learned in the previous exhibitions to practice.

There are two areas in this map that are facile ground. The first area is the place that you have just recently cleared. It is the canyon area. Lure aerial enemies to the high ground, single them out, and eliminate them.

The second area is the very back of this stage. You can lure various foes such as the totem SW (the last of the totems), the pterocacpetus, glider, multihand cacpetus, and the M cacpetus. Once again, stay afloat and only land to recharge your boost gauge. It is imperative to try to single out as many targets as possible.

After that is done, you can engage the rest of the mobs who are set within the middle realm such as the totem cacpetus SM as well as the running in circle, S cacpetus.

There are three instances here.

If you have done everything right up until this point, with minimum personal errors, then you are set to finish this mission with flying colors. By this time, you would have hopefully returned back to the high ground or, are in route to it.

There will be two gliders and you will want to finish them off first. Lure them within the canyon and take them out safely without interference from the King himself. Afterward, return to the high ground. King Cacpetus will periodically engage you but he will never go beyond the ridge. Use these opportunities to damage him. You can chase if you wish (to deal additional damage), but I implore you to watch your boost gauge. Always return to the high ground and dip behind it to recover boost. Pay attention to the melee cacpetus that are deployed all around the King and dodge them. If you maintain your distance, the fight will sway your way. The last thing you MUST do involves dodging the missile from the King. It’s so big you literally can’t miss it. Strafe to dodge these and the fight should be very one sided. Be PATIENT. After a few engagements his health bar will slowly dip. Finish him and you can finally reward yourself with a solo victory in Cacpetus Adventure. Good Job!

If you have taken note of the way this guide implores you to fight, you will easily understand why blasters are your ideal weapon for your first mech. The multishot enables you to take out pesky targets such as the S and M cacpetus as well as easily ko’ing L cacpetus and any large targets. When circle strafing, it effectively increases the firing arc of your weapon and thus, effectively gives you an easier engagement against targets such as the totem cacpetus SH and glider. This effectively lowers your risk of danger while improving your opportunities to finish off these low hp enemies. A dead enemy cannot DPS you.

When precision along with range becomes a more dominant factor, the wide beam guns are your ideal guns. They will allow you to kill what you want, at a distance you want, whenever you want. Circle strafing becomes exceedingly useless when there are several angles your opponent may attack from. An advantage to your left may be a disadvantage to your right. Relative to the intro, in the midgame and boss run, your ratio of forward/reverse boosting and circle strafing should have switched off from the former being less useful to more useful.

If you have any deployable wonderbits such as the turret or sniping unit, those are good to use as replacements for your allies. Otherwise, use any ranged bit such as a dual beam bit to supplement your attack runs and guarantee kills.

… sharpen your circle*-

Intermediate to advance circle strafing is one of the trademarks given to air units in CB. The best air combat unit will always be able to out circle strafe you.
In order to circle strafe, boost up with the space bar and then hold down either A or D for left and right, respectively. If you hold down A, gradually move the mouse right and vice versa. This is the most fundamental form of circle strafing. Unfortunately, this does not enable you to eliminate the totem cacpetus SH.
Therefore, as I previously mentioned, you need to circle strafe HARDER. To do this, you can either add a directional input which is always W or (instead of drag) push your mouse in the respective direction.

Why does this work? It’s very simple and intuitive. If you imagine yourself performing the first method, you will always circle strafe in a set radius to your target. The circumference will always be the same (as well as your FLY) and because of that, your rotational speed will be a constant. You gain NO advantage circle strafing this way.

If you perform the latter method, things become A LOT more interesting. If you hold down W, your effective radius rubberbands towards your target. Your circumference decreases, and with FLY being a constant, you will effectively increase your rotational speed. Imagine running on the inside as oppose to the outside of a 8 lane track.

Alternatively, if you push your mouse further and faster, instead of a circle, you can manipulate your circumference and perform ovals. In this way, you can immediately rubberband left and right of opponents.

Each mob is blessed with a ridiculously slow turning capability, and because of that, you will out turn them and in no time, always find a means as to be behind them. This lesson also applies in PvP where it is primarily used in Air to Art combat (to fight in the blind zone of artillery weaponry).

... engage in facile ground*-

Honestly, here I just wanted to draw an excerpt from Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Facile ground is territory that encroaches on enemy territory but provides the benefit of free movement. Once you clear the intro and step into midgame, the facile grounds enable you to constantly take potshots at the enemy with minimum risk to yourself. Drag an enemy to you and slowly retreat. Eliminate your enemy and drag another. Rinse and repeat. The process sounds extremely tedious on paper but in game, this will occur so fast you won’t even realize you are doing it once it has become embedded as part of your mechanics. Use this to complete the midgame as well as to finish off the boss. Patience is a virtue. Use it!