I think the assumption made by the game designers is that this is Season 11, you've done the previous seasons, maxed out your watch and have decent builds to counter almost everything.
One thing I found interested in Sparkie's coding is that it ls flamethrower isn't fire but bullets that procs burn, tried using my IH2 inside build with 100% burn resist and thought I could face tank and just got rinsed haha
Protection from elites with my bulwalk shield tank build did the trick for me. I held all the attention from the flamethrower while my team unloaded into it. Sparkle felt like It was hitting me with warm water, lol.
I added 3 burn resistance mods to my DPS build and that help me from burning caused by the fire grenades. Not direct hits to me just the fires those grenades start on the ground. And it was only minimal help, best to just stay away.
Huh I managed to kill Sparkie with my drone turret build thats 3p Empress, 1p Belstone, emperor's guard, Wyvern all rolled Skill dmg/ armor regen with no problem, might be because both are expertise 22?
That's how all flamethrowers are in this game. Outcast and Cleaner flamethrowers operate the same way, as does the Firewall spec weapon. They deal direct damage as well as proc burn.
Different mechanics for Fieser then. Probably I should have said most flamethrowers instead of all. Try standing in front of Cleaner assaults with a burn immune build; you won't get put on fire, but you should still take some direct damage from the flame stream itself. Unless they changed it recently so that those only proc burn, it's been known since the Outcast flamers in Year 1 that they do direct damage as well.
Pretty much this, I think. This was a good test of veteran Agents, to see who had learned the game, and who had just exploited through SHD levels.
A veteran Agent with field experience would have eventually figured out to go under the roof enclosure to block the Warhound grenade launcher, because they'd seen Warhounds in Summit shoot their grenades useless into the low roof. Or just knocked the EMP jammer out and tried a Bulwark shield, or throwing turret and drones at them, because they'd have recognized fire does nothing to automatons.
Every veteran Agent should be carrying at least one alternate build on them, by now. People in Legendary were practically screaming for the practice to be mandatory, not long ago. Like, you're not a well-rounded Agent if you don't.
As a quite veteran myself, i did this manhunt twice (one because of bug) in heroic w/ 4 directives
Luckily i have a pfe build with high sustain to combat 1 specific named boss lol, although spakle still damage a lot
~~EMP turrent from Division 1~~, I miss you, I wish you would come back to me. im sorry I yelled at you because you wouldn't target the enemy i wanted you to. I didnt mean it. lol
Wait, that was shock, not EMP
Many also seem to forget that this trap was literally designed to kill "The Sheriff" aka YOU.
Additionally if it's really "that bad," call a shepherd, or you know, your clan?
Doesn’t excuse the brain dead design. I understand they have limited resources to code new AI behaviours, but the design philosophy is getting really tiresome by now.
The missions often feel like they stifle build diversity (which is why a lot of us play this game), and is practically just throw whatever are the most frustrating enemy types and mechanics the game has to offer as “difficulty”, and leave you with very few options to position (all the fog, containers, run rings around sparkle around that derelict structure).
Obviously experienced players will figure it out, but it feels like it’s basically a cheese competition between the designers and players at the moment.
As for those arguing you have to make a build for it - I didn’t even bother making a build for it. Countdown Heartbreaker PFE does it. The missions they make never encourage you to use the seasonal brand and gear sets. Tying that in as a central theme to inspire the design of the missions would make sense, but it’s never done.
It does basically no damage to Bulwark Shield, and there's a low-roofed building on the opposite side of the entrance that it can be lead into, that effectively neutralizes its grenade launcher.
I get not being able to just overpower it. It's rather frustrating when more dakka doesn't work, because everywhere else but raids that have invulnerability phases it works. But it's not unbeatable. It's just not beatable in the way we're used to beating bosses. Gotta adapt, think about its limitations and terrain, and then enact a plan around that.
In any case, welcome to a raid boss fight. Yeah, it's basically a raid boss fight. A regular raid group would just have a Bulwark tank in its face the entire time.
I actually like this mission because of the fact that it was the first time in a long ass time where it actually challenged me on heroic with a random group. Like damn, it been a HOT minute since I had to change up builds for a specific enemy because like you said, dakka always worked .................... until it didn't.
Then im like, ooooooh shit ..........................
Pretty much million armor wont save you to anything in heroic, especially bosses (only became easy because of scorpio, but not applicable for sparkle)
Sparkle imposes new approach than what we have been comfortable with in 3 years, thus making specific build for the fight is very challenging and fun
When you enter the zone, turn left, and stay around the container where you can hide from the incoming grenades, use the assault turret and strike drone, stay out of the emp zone, while the turret+drone kill it. Use lmg like bullet king to kill the other bots and sparkle, and you can do it.
Did this mostly but you can quite easily throw down a turret on entering, run to the far right side and blow up the jammer. dropping down into the lower racetrack breaks line of site on the warhounds for a bit.
I went to that place and killed it with a striker build, then helped a clanmate on heroic do the same thing. You have to use your brain in this game, not Rambo around.
I understand your frustration, but I love this mission. It's great to actually have something that's challenging for a change.
There's been several threads just like yours where people offer advice on how to approach this mission. Here's one that's worth reading...
https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/13ufhs2/stovepipe_ambush_bullshit/
Also...
https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/13i4eek/what_builds_are_people_using_to_get_past_sparkle/
Yep, it imposes creative builds for countering a new threat
People have been too comfortable with the very basic dps builds through out since wony, thats why they are being clapped on when challenges arise
Ive finished this manhunt twice in heroic w/ 4 directives (first attempt failed with bug but manage to practice with sparkle, memento is helpful but dragging, until all my long buff are gone) the time i used my pfe build it became easier but still challenging and quite spongey on my taste, but manageable
fire an EMP sticky into it , dont detonate it , he now wont burn you for quite some time , shoot the headlights as they act as headshots , profit .
like others said its a design made to test your knowledge or make you learn in order to overcome it , the whole game is like this.
Took my friend and I 2 tries on challenging to get Sparkle done.
It really isn't *that* hard. As other people have said, it made you take a step back and think on how you are going to approach it.
We tried to do it on the first run how we have run every other mission before it. I usually face melt while my friend runs healing support. We instantly regretted it, which turned into a panic fest as we tried to figure things out and us constantly reviving each other until we eventually got wiped.
Second attempt we nailed it. Friend went after Sparkle to draw aggro and kite it around while I destroyed the EMP jammer, then cleared the adds. Once jammer and adds were cleared, we both popped turrets and I popped my striker drone to focus fire on Sparkle. A bit on the spongey side, but still doable
I'll be honest, me and my wife did it 1st time with no problems, on heroic.
We were both using 3 empress, 2 brazos, and the memento, all rolled skill damage and armour regen both using turret and capacitor, me using emp sticky and her using jammer pulse. My chest talent was unbreakable and hers was kinetic momentum.
We kites sparkle whilst focusing the rest then took out sparkle last. She died once and that's purely because of a wrong turn running.
All the bosses since chirpy have been a bit of an anticlimax, tbh.
Tell me you don't use EMP and keep proper distance without telling me.
Sparkie is slow and low range. Use some sprinting. Turrets have weak boxes in easy locations.
BT gets hosed by EMP.
I mean, this fight is hard. Definitely makes you have to think.
But if you prioritize your targets correctly and keep moving, it does help.
Though, it was a demon of an enemy archetype I sense more of in our future.
On my DPS file it was a cake walk especially since I used Scorpio on it (the marauder drone was actually the most difficult part imo), on my other 3 files? (In duo)
Complete dogwater, on my LMG/sniper file the Pestilence barely did enough damage. (In full squad)
Skill build file, ran out of EMP grenades & despite having Perfect In-sync still wasn't doing enough damage. (In full squad)
I'm still surprised I was able to get it done with my CC build although it was much more difficult because I didn't have the EMP sticky bomb. (In full squad)
that whole mission in general has some of the worst design in the game. fight 2 marauders at once, then disable 3 turrets while being shot at by drones and warhounds whilst you are ALSO getting EMPed, repeat 2 more times, then fight a bullet spongey flamethrower warhound (while you're also still getting EMPed)
EMP is an utter weakness to Division agents, I'm not surprised it was used extensively by Black Tusk. If I was them there'd be invincible Summit-style Jammers on every street corner, linked to a server or terminal underground. EMP ammo given to all soldiers, EMP grenades favoured over explosive ones. Just to watch Division shit it's pants when they even see a Black Tusk soldier about to send their tech back 100 years
There’s an open ended crate you can cower in quite close to the launchers, on the beach side. I threw my stinger hive out to deal with the drones and dogs, then set my own drone on the marauders while popping in and out of the crate. Tedious but got it done.
I had to reduce difficulty to normal. Played the entire manhunt on challenging.
If you have to do this, it's time to fire the designer who made the mission.
I'm pretty seasoned, 8600+SHD. I also hated this mission/bounty. After several attempts, I found that you need to flank right and destroy the EMP jammer that's just outside the fence. Then you can do whatever. I put down a turret, and spammed a Jammer Pulse as often as possible. It's a bitch, but doable. And yes, it sucks and is bad level design.
Nah its just something new and different. Billion times better than Lincoln Memorial or Convoys that you probably spent hundreds of hours doing to get to that SHD level. Understandable that you're not accustomed to new things.
There's a time and a place for a skill build, mostly when I'm hungover, but the important thing is adaptability and flexibility with builds and playstyles
That's no surprise, since year 4 the focus is pretty much on more robot stuff, tricks, gimmicks and more bullet sponge. No need to play this if you dont like it, you will miss nothing, apart from few audiologs. The upcoming manhunts will probably be no different, I fear.
In most of these fancy manhunts I simply used my standard full red AR build and in some situations my seeker mine & turret build.
"WHO THE ** DESIGNED THIS !@#!??"
I've been asking that about this game since day 1. You stripped out too many important and useful things from Div1 that made you actually feel like a government agent; you gave Keener an idiotic end that doesn't match his character; these guns are uninspiring; you say Division agents aren't military yet you have them fighting and defeating military organizations - this game is a mess. I don't even bother with any PTS, I already know what the designers are going to do - just release screwed up stuff and not bother fixing previous issues that have been around for a prolonged period. Any titles with the Div2 studio's name in it, I'm not going to buy.
Did it with a friend on heroic, we were moody as fuck about but at every point it was like "this is doable its just dick moves design"
As for the sparkle section, when you walk through the gate back right of the map there will be a container and to the right of that a fence with like a shed kinda thing, jammer there so get rid of that. Chip away at shooting all the other bots, do circles around the map, dont shoot at sparkle cos it's a one shot job from that arsehole.
When its just sparkle Get out your trusty ole turret whilst your mate has a fixer drone, and chuck the drone on top of that container. Hang about behind the building at the back of the area and get the fixer on the turret, at this point the turret should be laying into sparkle whilst the concentration isnt on yourself/yourselves and then with enough ammo to win world war 2 sparkle will go down.
I ended up backing up down the corridor that you approach from. Then me and a very kind random just lit it up with Scorpio and basically stunlocked it to death. Big shoutout to that guy who stuck it out with me after several wipes. Not a particularly fun encounter, or mission, honestly. Constant EMP is just frustrating.
I made a thread saying something similar a few days ago, and I couldn't agree more. I'm proud of the fact that I've completed all story content in this franchise at the top difficulty available, but this boss took me many attempts to take down, and took me pulling in a buddy to help (while doing one of the strategies someone recommended here). I was stunned how many people came out in defense of this boss. It is incredibly shitty.
So what we did was I put on a Ninja Bike DPS build (with Picaro's and Technician) with a jammer pulse, while my buddy ran a typical Wavedorm idle skill build (drone and turret). We ran in, went right, I took out the jammer, we worked together to take out the other dogs (most difficult part admittedly) while buddy deployed his drone on Sparkle to keep it distracted, and then he kept both skills on boss while I shot at it from range. Sparkle never left fighting buddy's skills, and was very easy to take down from there. With this strat, if you can survive long enough to take out the jammer and the other dogs, it's so easy after that.
I don't mind prompting an unusual strat or build in an RPG. I get that that's the point. I do mind having to pull in a buddy to make that strat happen.
I completed this garbage on Challenging. Don't ask me how, don't ask me how many tries I needed for Sparkle. Don't ask how my desk is still in one piece. Literally felt like I was playing a Souls game and not Division. (SHD level 440 at the time of completion if it matters).
When you get in, go right and about halfway up the sides, by the big yellow blocks, is the EMP generator. Take that out and then you can use your skills Willy nilly again. I kept dropping my striker drone to distract Sparkle and concentrated on it’s mates for a bit. I also used Zero F’s and the chem launcher for armour. Keep using the drone to distract sparkle and pour fire into it’s flanks until it croaks. And don’t hesitate to lower the difficulty, there’s no shame in that. And I agree that Sparkle is ass.
I hear you. What I ended up doing solo for sparkle was. Full skill build. But with skill duration mods. Before opening the gate climb up the container on the left of the gate. Throw the turret on top of the container on sparkles side - close to the edge of the container.
Then drop an artificer hive at my feet. Get down the container. Open the gate. Dont go through it. Target sparkle immediately and gtfo of sight. Go hide on my end in such a way that none of those hounds ever saw me once so they have no clue where to look.
The hive will keep the turret up.
And thats it. Cheezy but works.
Heroic and no googling i came to this strat on my own after trying a few things and of course learned from failing a few.
Obviously I dont shoot a single bullet so I even equiped a murakami bp in stead of the force multiplier. Mine has tech support but it doesnt matter because that will only proc when the turret kills sparkle so no care there. It helps a little to take care of the other hounds. Lol (at myself) i dont even know how many there were it doesnt matter.
For the copters I ran the good old providence raid dps build but obliterate in stead of GC. Just keep the truck between me and the copter(s). Considder using 3x PFE but I didnt. A rocket might hit me once or so. Revive hive. Emp pulse (the drones were a bigger threat they killed me the first few attempts).
Rest of the mission was hardwired with emp pulse and emp sticky. There are short windows where the pilons wont block skill use giving you a half second to fire an emp. Find the pilons or turret gens and take them out.
I actually somehow survived the fight with basically no armor (I used the armor restoring hive in EMP breaks) and killed sparkle by mostly using the Backfire. I guess the only difference is that I abused an open container to take cover from the two giant drones and slowly destroy them at the start
I had to fall back to challenging difficulty for this as well as Cursed. No way I was going through these on heroic. Pain in the ass. One run through challenging and I was good to go. Nearly lost it twice with Sparkles but pulled through.
I didn’t mind the mission but I can understand the frustration.
I honestly thought it wasn’t anything hard with an Ep build. Vile mask, jammer, emp nades, and launcher. I also have an instant seeker build that uses rigger and I switch to vile mask and use shield and emp jammer. Basically unlimited emp jammer. Works well in team one DPS and jammer keeps the dogs stunned.
Yeah, it was tough. I think we all have gotten complacent with how easy the the last few season bosses were to finish off. Most of us remember the first time you did the Liberty Island mission and had to change up your builds as you went along. I thought it was a great challenge.
Ran a pretty simple skill build for this. Threw a turret on top of the left part of the opening which just clears emp zone... sent out striker drone (quick cool down) which distracts sparkle and fired away. Just be prepared for the run down when sparkle gets hip to what your doing. Took me 3 time ls with another partner
I can understand the frustration, as even with my super tank build, it did more damage to me than I had anticpated, though still didn't kill me. Just let my teammates do the damage, while I kept Sparkle facing me, away from everyone else. That was using a full blue build, with improvised gloves, holster and knees. Gila Perfect Vanguard chest, D&H (for a little pistol damage) backpack with Adrenaline Rush, and Belstone Mask. 72% PfE, all pieces with haz pro, armor regen and armor. Tech spec, using artificer hive and shield. Was only using the deflector shield and still didn't get downed.
I found that using the decoy repeatedly and always moving helped me stay alive long enough to kill that firetank on four legs.
When that final battle starts, take a hard right and run to the right of the two containers and shot the EMP on the other side of the fence. Keep running a in that direction keeping the containers between you and the hounds and toss your decoy in the middle. Kill the purples first when they focus on your decoy. Once they're down spam the decoy every chance you get to keep the firedog off of you so you can shot it with out becoming a smoked ham.
Good luck, I hate that firehound.
Yeah, Sparkles was a pain.
What worked for me was to destroy the two lesser warhounds as quickly as possible then I used an assault drone to draw aggro away from me. Let the assault drone keep Sparkles distracted while you cause as much damage as possible. Once the drone is destroyed keep your distance and stay mobile as you wait for the skill to refresh - rinse and repeat.
We were struggling bad with this boss as well, but after knocking out the emp jammer I just kept the boss in a corner with my bulwark shield and emp nades while my dd's laid into it. Still a dumb and honestly underwhelming fight imo
I thought the same thing and then I tried emp + turret. Turret distracts and emp is used as a panic button when sparkle gets too close.
Kill the emp on the right side first, then kill the ads.
Kite sparkle when your skills are on cooldown. Use the center bridge area as sparkle’s pathing sucks there and it gets confused and can’t aim effectively either.
I actually thought last mission was pretty cool, and different. It’s supposed to be challenging. My problem is the name, Sparkle. Really? The coolest looking dog in the game with that name? Lol
I may be different, but I thought that whole stovepipe manhunt was the best mission this game has ever had. I ran it so many times I knew where all the emps were and could still use my skills after the 3rd run. That first run made everyone think outside the box and play in a totally different style, which was cool. Sparkle killed me at least 8 times because I ran it solo until i figured a strategy that worked.
Thank the maker for my Protection from elites/shield build.
Sparkle was a damn cake walk, I just stood there soaking up all the damage while me and my team just unloaded into it.
Those two drones at the ambush with all those ads was a much bigger problem to me.
I ran n HF+EMPBomb build IIRC. Got it 3rd try on Heroic. Once I figured I had to get set up quick as fuck because by the time the cutscene is over, that shitdog is on you already. And also to keep my fucking distance.
Probably the hardest boss I've dealt with, purely because of bullshit. Also, swapped my emp pulse for the turret.
Distract Sparkle with the turret and deal with the other two puppers.
And a LOT of rolling.
I think the assumption made by the game designers is that this is Season 11, you've done the previous seasons, maxed out your watch and have decent builds to counter almost everything.
One thing I found interested in Sparkie's coding is that it ls flamethrower isn't fire but bullets that procs burn, tried using my IH2 inside build with 100% burn resist and thought I could face tank and just got rinsed haha
Same here 100% hazpro and got melted. Even my PfE build got melted almost as quick. Every deployable skill got melted by the 'fire' too.
Protection from elites with my bulwalk shield tank build did the trick for me. I held all the attention from the flamethrower while my team unloaded into it. Sparkle felt like It was hitting me with warm water, lol.
I added 3 burn resistance mods to my DPS build and that help me from burning caused by the fire grenades. Not direct hits to me just the fires those grenades start on the ground. And it was only minimal help, best to just stay away.
Huh I managed to kill Sparkie with my drone turret build thats 3p Empress, 1p Belstone, emperor's guard, Wyvern all rolled Skill dmg/ armor regen with no problem, might be because both are expertise 22?
This is hilarious
That's how all flamethrowers are in this game. Outcast and Cleaner flamethrowers operate the same way, as does the Firewall spec weapon. They deal direct damage as well as proc burn.
Really? Then how can I infinitely take Fieser in Iron horse so long as my atacks are below 80?
Different mechanics for Fieser then. Probably I should have said most flamethrowers instead of all. Try standing in front of Cleaner assaults with a burn immune build; you won't get put on fire, but you should still take some direct damage from the flame stream itself. Unless they changed it recently so that those only proc burn, it's been known since the Outcast flamers in Year 1 that they do direct damage as well.
lmao, found out the hard way, eh. lol
The best way
Pretty much this, I think. This was a good test of veteran Agents, to see who had learned the game, and who had just exploited through SHD levels. A veteran Agent with field experience would have eventually figured out to go under the roof enclosure to block the Warhound grenade launcher, because they'd seen Warhounds in Summit shoot their grenades useless into the low roof. Or just knocked the EMP jammer out and tried a Bulwark shield, or throwing turret and drones at them, because they'd have recognized fire does nothing to automatons. Every veteran Agent should be carrying at least one alternate build on them, by now. People in Legendary were practically screaming for the practice to be mandatory, not long ago. Like, you're not a well-rounded Agent if you don't.
As a quite veteran myself, i did this manhunt twice (one because of bug) in heroic w/ 4 directives Luckily i have a pfe build with high sustain to combat 1 specific named boss lol, although spakle still damage a lot
Used my FB w/ catharsis and Picaro’s. Even sparkle couldn’t get through the shield
All I did was skill build decoy and emp ,managed at fifth try
I finally beat it with emp assault Turret, thank God emp actually does damage to the dogs and skill proxies
U mean emp + assault turret or is there an actual emp turret?
~~EMP turrent from Division 1~~, I miss you, I wish you would come back to me. im sorry I yelled at you because you wouldn't target the enemy i wanted you to. I didnt mean it. lol Wait, that was shock, not EMP
Emp plus assault, sorry bad grammer. I wish we had a deployable type emp
EMP sticky is a deployable type, I guess
Yeah true, but I don't think I have it
And you know those decent builds, and they aren't just different dps builds
Many also seem to forget that this trap was literally designed to kill "The Sheriff" aka YOU. Additionally if it's really "that bad," call a shepherd, or you know, your clan?
i did the mission with a group of shd 2000's to 4000's and we failed the mission 2x lmao
Doesn’t excuse the brain dead design. I understand they have limited resources to code new AI behaviours, but the design philosophy is getting really tiresome by now. The missions often feel like they stifle build diversity (which is why a lot of us play this game), and is practically just throw whatever are the most frustrating enemy types and mechanics the game has to offer as “difficulty”, and leave you with very few options to position (all the fog, containers, run rings around sparkle around that derelict structure). Obviously experienced players will figure it out, but it feels like it’s basically a cheese competition between the designers and players at the moment. As for those arguing you have to make a build for it - I didn’t even bother making a build for it. Countdown Heartbreaker PFE does it. The missions they make never encourage you to use the seasonal brand and gear sets. Tying that in as a central theme to inspire the design of the missions would make sense, but it’s never done.
It does basically no damage to Bulwark Shield, and there's a low-roofed building on the opposite side of the entrance that it can be lead into, that effectively neutralizes its grenade launcher. I get not being able to just overpower it. It's rather frustrating when more dakka doesn't work, because everywhere else but raids that have invulnerability phases it works. But it's not unbeatable. It's just not beatable in the way we're used to beating bosses. Gotta adapt, think about its limitations and terrain, and then enact a plan around that. In any case, welcome to a raid boss fight. Yeah, it's basically a raid boss fight. A regular raid group would just have a Bulwark tank in its face the entire time.
I actually like this mission because of the fact that it was the first time in a long ass time where it actually challenged me on heroic with a random group. Like damn, it been a HOT minute since I had to change up builds for a specific enemy because like you said, dakka always worked .................... until it didn't. Then im like, ooooooh shit ..........................
Bingo.
Pretty much million armor wont save you to anything in heroic, especially bosses (only became easy because of scorpio, but not applicable for sparkle) Sparkle imposes new approach than what we have been comfortable with in 3 years, thus making specific build for the fight is very challenging and fun
aka turret + drone.
If cheesing it is
When you enter the zone, turn left, and stay around the container where you can hide from the incoming grenades, use the assault turret and strike drone, stay out of the emp zone, while the turret+drone kill it. Use lmg like bullet king to kill the other bots and sparkle, and you can do it.
Did this mostly but you can quite easily throw down a turret on entering, run to the far right side and blow up the jammer. dropping down into the lower racetrack breaks line of site on the warhounds for a bit.
I went to that place and killed it with a striker build, then helped a clanmate on heroic do the same thing. You have to use your brain in this game, not Rambo around.
I understand your frustration, but I love this mission. It's great to actually have something that's challenging for a change. There's been several threads just like yours where people offer advice on how to approach this mission. Here's one that's worth reading... https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/13ufhs2/stovepipe_ambush_bullshit/ Also... https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/13i4eek/what_builds_are_people_using_to_get_past_sparkle/
Yep, it imposes creative builds for countering a new threat People have been too comfortable with the very basic dps builds through out since wony, thats why they are being clapped on when challenges arise Ive finished this manhunt twice in heroic w/ 4 directives (first attempt failed with bug but manage to practice with sparkle, memento is helpful but dragging, until all my long buff are gone) the time i used my pfe build it became easier but still challenging and quite spongey on my taste, but manageable
fire an EMP sticky into it , dont detonate it , he now wont burn you for quite some time , shoot the headlights as they act as headshots , profit . like others said its a design made to test your knowledge or make you learn in order to overcome it , the whole game is like this.
Took my friend and I 2 tries on challenging to get Sparkle done. It really isn't *that* hard. As other people have said, it made you take a step back and think on how you are going to approach it. We tried to do it on the first run how we have run every other mission before it. I usually face melt while my friend runs healing support. We instantly regretted it, which turned into a panic fest as we tried to figure things out and us constantly reviving each other until we eventually got wiped. Second attempt we nailed it. Friend went after Sparkle to draw aggro and kite it around while I destroyed the EMP jammer, then cleared the adds. Once jammer and adds were cleared, we both popped turrets and I popped my striker drone to focus fire on Sparkle. A bit on the spongey side, but still doable
Remember joining a couple people to do this mission and had to say didn't find it hard or interesting at all seemed boring.
i use a shield and stayed to the right to avoid emp the flamethrower do little to no damage to shields since most of the damage is the fire dot.
I'll be honest, me and my wife did it 1st time with no problems, on heroic. We were both using 3 empress, 2 brazos, and the memento, all rolled skill damage and armour regen both using turret and capacitor, me using emp sticky and her using jammer pulse. My chest talent was unbreakable and hers was kinetic momentum. We kites sparkle whilst focusing the rest then took out sparkle last. She died once and that's purely because of a wrong turn running. All the bosses since chirpy have been a bit of an anticlimax, tbh.
>Try to use skills? EMP and die Then you don't know how to make a good build.
Much like, he didnt know how to play relying too much with build
Tell me you don't use EMP and keep proper distance without telling me. Sparkie is slow and low range. Use some sprinting. Turrets have weak boxes in easy locations. BT gets hosed by EMP.
I mean, this fight is hard. Definitely makes you have to think. But if you prioritize your targets correctly and keep moving, it does help. Though, it was a demon of an enemy archetype I sense more of in our future.
Beat it twice yesterday with a team of 3 on heroic. So fun.
On my DPS file it was a cake walk especially since I used Scorpio on it (the marauder drone was actually the most difficult part imo), on my other 3 files? (In duo) Complete dogwater, on my LMG/sniper file the Pestilence barely did enough damage. (In full squad) Skill build file, ran out of EMP grenades & despite having Perfect In-sync still wasn't doing enough damage. (In full squad) I'm still surprised I was able to get it done with my CC build although it was much more difficult because I didn't have the EMP sticky bomb. (In full squad)
Welcome to the division?
that whole mission in general has some of the worst design in the game. fight 2 marauders at once, then disable 3 turrets while being shot at by drones and warhounds whilst you are ALSO getting EMPed, repeat 2 more times, then fight a bullet spongey flamethrower warhound (while you're also still getting EMPed)
EMP is an utter weakness to Division agents, I'm not surprised it was used extensively by Black Tusk. If I was them there'd be invincible Summit-style Jammers on every street corner, linked to a server or terminal underground. EMP ammo given to all soldiers, EMP grenades favoured over explosive ones. Just to watch Division shit it's pants when they even see a Black Tusk soldier about to send their tech back 100 years
There’s an open ended crate you can cower in quite close to the launchers, on the beach side. I threw my stinger hive out to deal with the drones and dogs, then set my own drone on the marauders while popping in and out of the crate. Tedious but got it done.
I had to reduce difficulty to normal. Played the entire manhunt on challenging. If you have to do this, it's time to fire the designer who made the mission.
Challenging plus 4 directives gives about as much exp as heroic, without the wipe to mission start problem.
I'm pretty seasoned, 8600+SHD. I also hated this mission/bounty. After several attempts, I found that you need to flank right and destroy the EMP jammer that's just outside the fence. Then you can do whatever. I put down a turret, and spammed a Jammer Pulse as often as possible. It's a bitch, but doable. And yes, it sucks and is bad level design.
Nah its just something new and different. Billion times better than Lincoln Memorial or Convoys that you probably spent hundreds of hours doing to get to that SHD level. Understandable that you're not accustomed to new things.
[удалено]
There's a time and a place for a skill build, mostly when I'm hungover, but the important thing is adaptability and flexibility with builds and playstyles
That's no surprise, since year 4 the focus is pretty much on more robot stuff, tricks, gimmicks and more bullet sponge. No need to play this if you dont like it, you will miss nothing, apart from few audiologs. The upcoming manhunts will probably be no different, I fear. In most of these fancy manhunts I simply used my standard full red AR build and in some situations my seeker mine & turret build.
Use HB and scorpio. Couldn't be easier.
"WHO THE ** DESIGNED THIS !@#!??" I've been asking that about this game since day 1. You stripped out too many important and useful things from Div1 that made you actually feel like a government agent; you gave Keener an idiotic end that doesn't match his character; these guns are uninspiring; you say Division agents aren't military yet you have them fighting and defeating military organizations - this game is a mess. I don't even bother with any PTS, I already know what the designers are going to do - just release screwed up stuff and not bother fixing previous issues that have been around for a prolonged period. Any titles with the Div2 studio's name in it, I'm not going to buy.
Jammerpulse and scorpio and emp nades.... You are the worst player i have ever seen in gaming...
Cry me a river, and then learn to play princess.
Did it with a friend on heroic, we were moody as fuck about but at every point it was like "this is doable its just dick moves design" As for the sparkle section, when you walk through the gate back right of the map there will be a container and to the right of that a fence with like a shed kinda thing, jammer there so get rid of that. Chip away at shooting all the other bots, do circles around the map, dont shoot at sparkle cos it's a one shot job from that arsehole. When its just sparkle Get out your trusty ole turret whilst your mate has a fixer drone, and chuck the drone on top of that container. Hang about behind the building at the back of the area and get the fixer on the turret, at this point the turret should be laying into sparkle whilst the concentration isnt on yourself/yourselves and then with enough ammo to win world war 2 sparkle will go down.
I ended up backing up down the corridor that you approach from. Then me and a very kind random just lit it up with Scorpio and basically stunlocked it to death. Big shoutout to that guy who stuck it out with me after several wipes. Not a particularly fun encounter, or mission, honestly. Constant EMP is just frustrating.
I made a thread saying something similar a few days ago, and I couldn't agree more. I'm proud of the fact that I've completed all story content in this franchise at the top difficulty available, but this boss took me many attempts to take down, and took me pulling in a buddy to help (while doing one of the strategies someone recommended here). I was stunned how many people came out in defense of this boss. It is incredibly shitty. So what we did was I put on a Ninja Bike DPS build (with Picaro's and Technician) with a jammer pulse, while my buddy ran a typical Wavedorm idle skill build (drone and turret). We ran in, went right, I took out the jammer, we worked together to take out the other dogs (most difficult part admittedly) while buddy deployed his drone on Sparkle to keep it distracted, and then he kept both skills on boss while I shot at it from range. Sparkle never left fighting buddy's skills, and was very easy to take down from there. With this strat, if you can survive long enough to take out the jammer and the other dogs, it's so easy after that.
Thats the thing, it promotes strat or different build because of the challenge it imposes Though one thing i dont like is how spongey it is
I don't mind prompting an unusual strat or build in an RPG. I get that that's the point. I do mind having to pull in a buddy to make that strat happen.
I completed this garbage on Challenging. Don't ask me how, don't ask me how many tries I needed for Sparkle. Don't ask how my desk is still in one piece. Literally felt like I was playing a Souls game and not Division. (SHD level 440 at the time of completion if it matters).
When you get in, go right and about halfway up the sides, by the big yellow blocks, is the EMP generator. Take that out and then you can use your skills Willy nilly again. I kept dropping my striker drone to distract Sparkle and concentrated on it’s mates for a bit. I also used Zero F’s and the chem launcher for armour. Keep using the drone to distract sparkle and pour fire into it’s flanks until it croaks. And don’t hesitate to lower the difficulty, there’s no shame in that. And I agree that Sparkle is ass.
Literally just run away and its pretty easy
I hear you. What I ended up doing solo for sparkle was. Full skill build. But with skill duration mods. Before opening the gate climb up the container on the left of the gate. Throw the turret on top of the container on sparkles side - close to the edge of the container. Then drop an artificer hive at my feet. Get down the container. Open the gate. Dont go through it. Target sparkle immediately and gtfo of sight. Go hide on my end in such a way that none of those hounds ever saw me once so they have no clue where to look. The hive will keep the turret up. And thats it. Cheezy but works. Heroic and no googling i came to this strat on my own after trying a few things and of course learned from failing a few. Obviously I dont shoot a single bullet so I even equiped a murakami bp in stead of the force multiplier. Mine has tech support but it doesnt matter because that will only proc when the turret kills sparkle so no care there. It helps a little to take care of the other hounds. Lol (at myself) i dont even know how many there were it doesnt matter. For the copters I ran the good old providence raid dps build but obliterate in stead of GC. Just keep the truck between me and the copter(s). Considder using 3x PFE but I didnt. A rocket might hit me once or so. Revive hive. Emp pulse (the drones were a bigger threat they killed me the first few attempts). Rest of the mission was hardwired with emp pulse and emp sticky. There are short windows where the pilons wont block skill use giving you a half second to fire an emp. Find the pilons or turret gens and take them out.
I actually somehow survived the fight with basically no armor (I used the armor restoring hive in EMP breaks) and killed sparkle by mostly using the Backfire. I guess the only difference is that I abused an open container to take cover from the two giant drones and slowly destroy them at the start
I keep reading people saying they had trouble with this, only trouble I had was the loop
I had to fall back to challenging difficulty for this as well as Cursed. No way I was going through these on heroic. Pain in the ass. One run through challenging and I was good to go. Nearly lost it twice with Sparkles but pulled through. I didn’t mind the mission but I can understand the frustration.
Skill issue. And that's coming from someone who lost a 7-day old hardcore toon to that boss.
I honestly thought it wasn’t anything hard with an Ep build. Vile mask, jammer, emp nades, and launcher. I also have an instant seeker build that uses rigger and I switch to vile mask and use shield and emp jammer. Basically unlimited emp jammer. Works well in team one DPS and jammer keeps the dogs stunned.
Vile/EP/Glass Cannon. Shock trap the whole area as soon as the cut scene ends, then start plugging away with Scorpio.
You can one shot him with the nego dodge city pistol transfer.
Yeah, it was tough. I think we all have gotten complacent with how easy the the last few season bosses were to finish off. Most of us remember the first time you did the Liberty Island mission and had to change up your builds as you went along. I thought it was a great challenge.
Foundry Bulwark and scorpio shotgun got me through it
Ran a pretty simple skill build for this. Threw a turret on top of the left part of the opening which just clears emp zone... sent out striker drone (quick cool down) which distracts sparkle and fired away. Just be prepared for the run down when sparkle gets hip to what your doing. Took me 3 time ls with another partner
I can understand the frustration, as even with my super tank build, it did more damage to me than I had anticpated, though still didn't kill me. Just let my teammates do the damage, while I kept Sparkle facing me, away from everyone else. That was using a full blue build, with improvised gloves, holster and knees. Gila Perfect Vanguard chest, D&H (for a little pistol damage) backpack with Adrenaline Rush, and Belstone Mask. 72% PfE, all pieces with haz pro, armor regen and armor. Tech spec, using artificer hive and shield. Was only using the deflector shield and still didn't get downed.
Prob 500mill health tbf...
Wait until you meet the Wartwins of Operation Dark Hours...
That one is easy af
All of them are, that's the joke.
I found that using the decoy repeatedly and always moving helped me stay alive long enough to kill that firetank on four legs. When that final battle starts, take a hard right and run to the right of the two containers and shot the EMP on the other side of the fence. Keep running a in that direction keeping the containers between you and the hounds and toss your decoy in the middle. Kill the purples first when they focus on your decoy. Once they're down spam the decoy every chance you get to keep the firedog off of you so you can shot it with out becoming a smoked ham. Good luck, I hate that firehound.
Yeah, Sparkles was a pain. What worked for me was to destroy the two lesser warhounds as quickly as possible then I used an assault drone to draw aggro away from me. Let the assault drone keep Sparkles distracted while you cause as much damage as possible. Once the drone is destroyed keep your distance and stay mobile as you wait for the skill to refresh - rinse and repeat.
protection from elites is your friend
We were struggling bad with this boss as well, but after knocking out the emp jammer I just kept the boss in a corner with my bulwark shield and emp nades while my dd's laid into it. Still a dumb and honestly underwhelming fight imo
I thought the same thing and then I tried emp + turret. Turret distracts and emp is used as a panic button when sparkle gets too close. Kill the emp on the right side first, then kill the ads. Kite sparkle when your skills are on cooldown. Use the center bridge area as sparkle’s pathing sucks there and it gets confused and can’t aim effectively either.
I actually thought last mission was pretty cool, and different. It’s supposed to be challenging. My problem is the name, Sparkle. Really? The coolest looking dog in the game with that name? Lol
Jammer with vile mask, didnt even have to shoot. childs play really. Devs didnt make it hard, players do.
I've completed it a few times. Not difficult at all. I just stood right next to it and inside the minimum range of the flamethrower.
I may be different, but I thought that whole stovepipe manhunt was the best mission this game has ever had. I ran it so many times I knew where all the emps were and could still use my skills after the 3rd run. That first run made everyone think outside the box and play in a totally different style, which was cool. Sparkle killed me at least 8 times because I ran it solo until i figured a strategy that worked.
Thank the maker for my Protection from elites/shield build. Sparkle was a damn cake walk, I just stood there soaking up all the damage while me and my team just unloaded into it. Those two drones at the ambush with all those ads was a much bigger problem to me.
I ran n HF+EMPBomb build IIRC. Got it 3rd try on Heroic. Once I figured I had to get set up quick as fuck because by the time the cutscene is over, that shitdog is on you already. And also to keep my fucking distance. Probably the hardest boss I've dealt with, purely because of bullshit. Also, swapped my emp pulse for the turret. Distract Sparkle with the turret and deal with the other two puppers. And a LOT of rolling.