The Styx mission FLATLINE is a unique combination of the recovery elements of FORSAKEN and the hunting tasks in AGRICULTURE: Supply Stockpile. The twist is that the stockpile task has a short timer that constantly resets. It only stops when you use the recovered technology to fix a failing biological containment pod. With a 5-hour mission timer, you will have to choose carefully what shelter and technology you really need.
Objectives and Tips
FLATLINE takes place entirely in a Desert biome — the Dry Ridge region. You have to babysit a failing Biological Containment Pod that has to be fed Partially Digested Enzymes harvested from the local wildlife. These enzymes extend the timer, but the maximum is 20 minutes, so the best place for your base might be near a cave and the Pod in E5.
Check the Desert survival guide for tips. There is a severe lack of breakable stone nodes in the Dry Ridge region. If you find a sealed cave, treat that stone cover like the gold mine it is. Also, remember that desert caves can be used as a water source.
The Workshop Oxygen Tank and Canteen are good equipment choices. There is time to shoot enough scales off the local Sandworm to craft a good bow and excellent armor (if you completed the mission to unlock their recipes). Read the rest of the guide for other items that might help you survive.
Determine the Damage to the First Biological Containment Pod
Your first task is to travel to the Emergency Beacon marked on your map and assess how much time the First Biological Containment Pod has before it fails. Once you examine the Pod, emergency beacons for the Second Pod (to the South) and the Third Pod (to the East) will be added to your map, and you will get new mission objectives.
To repair the pod, you need a power source and a nutrient supply
IMPORTANT: as soon as you access the pod, the 20 minute enzyme timer will start. You may want to get some of your base, workstations, equipment, and resources sorted out before you activate the timer. Consider building:
After you activate the timer on the Containment Pod, your primary task is to keep the sample inside alive. To do this, you have to harvest Partially Digested Enzymes from skinned creatures and deposit them in the Containment Pod. NOTE: the skinning bench will not produce any Enzymes.
Once the enzyme timer starts, every skinned creature will yield 1-3 Partially Digested Enzymes
Like the mission timer, the enzyme timer constantly decreases. For each Digested Enzyme you put into the Pod, an extra 30 seconds is added back to the timer. The maximum time that can be banked in the Pod is 20 minutes (1200 seconds), which is equivalent to 40 Digested Enzymes. Once the maximum is reached, any Digested Enzymes added to the pod will have no effect.
The time remaining before the Pod fails can be viewed on the Pod display, as well as at the top of the mission objectives panel on the left side of your screen. Every time you leave the Pod to tackle an objective, consider filling it back up with enzymes. And every time you are away from your base, remember to kill and skin more creatures and collect their Digested Enzymes.
Examine the Second Biological Containment Pod
The Biological Containment Power Source is a battery that can be salvaged from the Second Pod. It is located on top of a mesa in D7, to the Southwest of the First Pod. Bring a stack of 10-15 Wood Ladders to help you climb to the top. Also consider bringing poisoned weapons.
Before you ascend, scout the mesa sides for walls with enough terraces that you can safely descend in a hurry without spraining or breaking anything. Consider building ramps and platforms so you can retreat quickly if necessary.
Atop the mesa, you will find the Pod swarmed and flanked by new armored breeds of Scorpions and Bloodclaws
You will need to kill the Armored Bloodclaw because it is a mission objective, but you do not need to kill any of the Armored Scorpions. These have strong projectile defense. This does not mean that projectiles are not a good strategy; just that they may take longer.
A stack of poison arrows can be powerful against an armored foe, working to destroy it from within
The Bloodclaw can be kited away from the Scorpions without aggroing them. Just hit the Bloodclaw with an arrow. The new Bloodclaw is formidable, with faster attacks than its larger variant that are more difficult to avoid on level ground. If you immediately retreat down the side of the mesa and ascend a safe ledge, you can force the miniboss to take massive fall damage and set yourself up for an easy kill from a distance.
The armored scorpions will stay near the Pod unless you shoot them or get too close
Once you have dealt with the Bloodclaw, go up to the Pod and aggro all the Armored Scorpions you can find. You do not need to kill them. There is enough room to kite them away from the Pod, giving you enough time to run in and recover the battery. You can use the rocky boulders to block the scorpion swarm. This will either de-aggro them or give you time to descend the mesa.
You will need 300 seconds or more to descend the mesa and return to the First Pod, so leave early if you need to refill it. As before, kill and skin creatures along the way, if possible, and collect their Digested Enzymes.
Examine the Third Biological Containment Pod
The last recovery objective is a walk in the park — a desolate park filled with mortally poisonous gas. Before you leave your base, build a Herbalism Bench if you haven’t already, and craft and bring a few an Anti-poison Tonics.
The gas cloud might look like it is behind the Pod, but you will be poisoned before you get to it
Make sure the First Pod is full of enzymes, and head East to G4/H4, the site of the Third Pod. You will find it immersed in a thick fog, and you will have to enter it to recover an Empty Enzyme Containment Unit from the inventory of the broken pod.
As soon as you do this, you will become afflicted with a slow-acting poison with a 5 minute duration. (It deals 4-5 damage per second.) This is enough damage to kill any prospector, regardless of your food buffs. However, it can be removed with a single Anti-poison Tonic. If somehow you get a poison stack greater than 1, you may need more than 1 tonic.
Will the poison eventually kill your prospector? Let’s find out. For science!
The trip back to the First Pod will take 200-300 seconds, so leave enough time on the enzyme timer to get back and refill it. As always, kill and skin creatures along the way and collect their Digested Enzymes.
Repair the First Biological Containment Pod
In order to repair the First Pod, you will need to insert the power source and the enzyme container you recovered from the other pods. However, the enzyme container first needs to be filled.
The Full Enzyme Containment Unit recipe is on your character, and it requires the empty unit and a whopping 100 Digested Enzymes. You’ve got the hang of this now: kill and skin creatures and collect their Digested Enzymes until you have enough to fill the Unit. At the same time, make sure to keep feeding the broken pod with Digested Enzymes so the timer does not run out.
The enzyme timer will stop when you insert the battery and the nutrient source
Once you craft the Full Enzyme Containment Unit, put it in the first pod with the Biological Containment Power Source, and the mission will be completed. Collect any gear you brought with you and head back to your Dropship to extract.
We hope this walkthrough helps you survive the Armored Bloodclaw and beat the clock restoring the Containment Pod! Let us know what you think in the comments below. NOTE: This is a brief mission walkthrough, a new format we are testing. It lets us cut to the chase with tips and tricks, and allows us to cover the many ICARUS missions and updates as they come out.
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SurvivalSherpa
SurvivalSherpa is an avid gamer spending most of his time at the nexus of the survival, crafting, building, and role playing genres on any platform, especially to test indie titles in EA. AFK, life is about work and education in STEM fields, reading fantasy, and sipping great coffee in the Pacific Northwest.
