Secret World Legends – Introducing the Agent Network

During its Warlords of Draenor expansion, World of Warcraft popularized the “Garrison” mechanic where players had to manage a roster of NPCs and send them onto missions that took somewhere between a few hours and a few days of real world time to complete. And now, Funcom’s shared-world RPG/MMO Secret World Legends joins in on the mobile games-inspired fun with the launch of its Update 2.2 that adds the so-called Agent Network to the game. Here’s how it will work:

Hard work pays off! Upon reaching Faction Rank 3 (Level 15), your faction will entrust you with the tools to become an Agent Handler! Welcome to the Agent Network, a brand-new feature where you manage prospective agents, send them on assignments, gear them up, and get awesome rewards.

Once accessible, you open the feature by pressing P by default. Let’s go over the system in detail:

EXPANDING YOUR NETWORK

By the time you complete the Agent Network tutorial you’ll already be in command of a new Faction Recruit, ready to do your bidding. You can expand your network through Agent Dossiers – new inventory items you may use to view an Agent’s profile, lore, and abilities. Not all Dossiers are character-bound, allowing you to sell them in the Auction House, if you so choose.

Agent Dossiers may be acquired from completing a variety of tasks:

• Action Missions (Savage Coast and onward)
• Sabotage Missions (Savage Coast and onward)
• Scenarios
• Lairs
• Elite Dungeons
• Raiding
• Achievements
• Agent Missions

You also have the option of purchasing Agent Boosters for Aurum. Boosters can contain an Agent Dossier or a piece of Agent Equipment which can improve an agent’s stats. If you bought an Agent Booster with Aurum and didn’t like the outcome, you can vendor these items in exchange for HexCoins instead of Anima Shards. HexCoins are a new currency accepted by a shady vendor recently sighted in Agartha.

INHUMAN RESOURCES

Each agent has a set of stats and traits, making each agent adept at different types of missions.

Agents have three stats: Prowess ( △ ), Adaptability ( ☐ ), and Ingenuity ( ◯ ). Stats are used to determine how well an agent fares during a mission (we’ll go into more on that in the next section).

Agents can equip one (1) piece of Agent Equipment to augment their capabilities. Agent Equipment can have all sorts of different effects, so feel free to experiment with your favorite Agents and Items and see what works best for you! The Agent Network interface features 15 free inventory slots exclusively for Agent Equipment.

All Agents also have up to two (2) unique traits of various types, each with its own effects and accompanying description. Traits can vary greatly between agents, so be sure to check the agent’s details to see what they can do!

When completing missions, Agents gain XP and can level up. As agents level up, so do their stats, raising Affinity with missions or allowing you to tackle more challenging tasks.

At level 25, agents learn their first Support Ability – powerful passive effects that buff your character! When an agent unlocks a Support Ability, you can assign the agent to your character, granting you that power. At level 50, the agent learns their second Support Ability.

You can assign up to three Agents as Support for your character. Even while “equipped”, you may still send these Agents out on missions without losing their bonuses on your character.

SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT…

Just like you, the agents you handle may be sent on various missions, with different stat requirements for each mission type.

You can see what the requirements are in the mission interface – as missions increase in difficulty, so do their requirements and rewards.

Some missions can also have bonus objectives. If you match an agent’s trait types with the requirements of the objective, they get additional rewards upon completion of the mission.

When you select a mission, you’ll notice a large number shown on top of your agents’ portraits. This is the agent’s “affinity” to the mission; the higher the number, the greater the agent’s chances of receiving greater rewards when completing the mission. An agent’s affinity to a mission can depend on their stats and traits.

(Please note that while it is possible to have 100% affinity, this does not necessarily guarantee greater rewards.)

Assigning an agent to their task locks them into the mission. You have to wait until the timer reaches 0 before you can send that agent on another mission. High-level missions will take more time to complete, although you have the option to instantly complete the mission by using Aurum.

In addition to having stat requirements, missions also may require one or more Agent Network-specific resources: Intel , Supplies , and Assets . Missions that require one resource usually award a different resource, so you’ll need to cycle through mission types as you work your way up.

Finally, agents have a chance to become incapacitated when completing missions. Incapacitated agents cannot be sent on missions. The odds of this happening increase as the agent goes on more missions and decrease while an agent is not on assignment. The results of a mission also impact the chance to be incapacitated, with greater successes having lower chances. An incapacitated agent can be instantly recovered by spending Marks of Favour.