The Seed of Hamidon

The Seed of Hamidon

Hello, all! Jeff "Arbiter Hawk" Hamilton here, with a rundown of the newest Giant Monster coming to City of Heroes Freedom™. The Seed of Hamidon is a zone-wide encounter in the Sunken City neighborhood of First Ward, designed for a group of at least eight characters. The Seed follows a flight path throughout the area, planting Seedlings that will infest the area with the Tellurian Plague if left unchecked--the same plague that Hamidon used to conquer Praetorian Earth. Each of the strains of Seedlings has a different power to deal with, detailed here.

This is the first time we have combined a zone event (such as The Great Escape, from Neutropolis) with a Giant Monster (like Caleb or Jurassik). This Giant Monster is also new, in that many of its powers rely on its potent pets. The Seed is much tougher than an average Giant Monster, but if you band together to weaken it by destroying the Seedlings, you can finish off the enervated Seed with a direct assault.

The Seed of Hamidon is one of the first encounters we've staged mostly in the air. When a character defeats a Seedling, that character is coated in the Seedling's Buoyant Membrane. The Buoyant Membrane allows both the character and nearby allies to take the fight to the air to combat flying Seedlings and the Seed itself. Local Seed Hunters vendors also sell Membranes. Being part of an army of Heroes, Villains, Loyalists, and Resistance members taking to the sky to fend off a monster that could destroy one of humanity's last bastions in Praetoria is truly exhilarating.

Stage 1: Outbreak
When the Seed begins its assault on First Ward, it starts to spawn Seedlings and leaves them strewn about the zone. For each living Seedling, one of the Seed's following powers gains in strength: three auras of spore clouds that make attackers weaker, and powerful Defense and Regeneration buffs that it applies to itself. While all of the Seedlings are alive, the Seed's defenses are nigh-invincible. However, as you take out each Seedling, the defensive spore clouds weaken in strength, making a direct assault on the Seed more feasible.

Each of the six types of Seedlings has a unique power, as well as several shared abilities.

• Contaminating Seedlings use a player-based area of effect (PBAoE) Hypnotic Thorn Blast when threatened. Five seconds after their blast begins to power up, Contaminating Seedlings hit everyone near them with Psionic and Toxic damage, which reduces their targets' damage done and the range of their targets' powers.
• Respiring Seedlings have a similar effect with their Toxic Shock power, a burst of blue acid that deals Toxic damage and Holds those unfortunate enough to be caught in its blast.
• Hematic Seedlings are the most deadly of these three--their Consumption ability is a very large-radius PBAoE that deals irresistible, undodgeable damage five seconds after the power starts.

Fortunately for would-be Seed Killers, the powers of these three Seedlings are fairly easy to avoid by moving away from the Seedlings - but they can be very dangerous if not handled properly.

• Tellurian Seedlings fly near the Seed itself and function as its antibodies. While their own offensive power is fairly low, they are capable of spreading a particularly virulent strain of the Tellurian Plague to nearby targets, confusing the targets and causing them to attack their own allies.
• Maturing Seedlings spread a different strain of plague, which causes a Malignant Infection. Although a Malignant Infection does not confuse its victims, it is capable of jumping to nearby allies, spreading its significant Toxic damage over time (DoT) effect to multiple targets if an infected character does not move away from the group.
• Finally and most dangerously, the Bulwark Seedling fires bursts of corrosive chemicals at nearby targets, attempting to completely dissolve them. The only way to survive this attack is for allies to stand together, splitting the damage so that everyone can walk away.

Because every Seedling is linked to the Seed of Hamidon through a collective consciousness, destroying Seedlings deals damage directly to the Seed. Destroying Hematic Seedlings is an especially effective method of damaging the Seed, since they contain the Seed's blood in such great quantities that their loss causes the Seed great pain. Damaging the Seed until it reaches a low-health state causes it to enter a full defensive mode, which brings us to...

Stage 2: Eradicate
When it senses that its demise may be near, the Seed of Hamidon stops expending energy on spreading plague and redirects its efforts to repairing itself. The Seed sacrifices most of the remaining Seedlings so that it can more efficiently regenerate. It begins bombarding nearby characters with its Corrosive Barrage, dealing high damage with a deadly secondary effect. The Seed also spawns an additional set of Tellurian Seedlings to provide a tighter local defense. You have only a short time to defeat the Seed, or it will successfully recover its health and begin Stage 1 again.

If you bring down this floating monstrosity, you are rewarded with Reward Merits and a temporary power that boosts your XP and Influence gain for 30 minutes. There are also several badges related to the encounter, but I'll leave the challenge of discovering them up to you! Thanks for joining us today, and I'll see you in the skies of First Ward soon!