This is the fourth and final part of a quest line that revolves around the ancient artifacts called Heartstones. These devices possess the power to completely terraform a lifeless world in seconds if they are placed in the lower strata of that world. In this final quest, you may choose to serve good, evil, nature or science. Part 1: The Garden of Eden (click here for more info) Part 2: The Power of Life (click here for more info) Part 3: The Power of Death (click here for more info) And now for Part 4... Story The Night Lord is defeated. His army of dark soldiers no longer pursues you. You have brought valuable alien data to Professor Jaime, who has translated it and discovered two vitally important locations. One of these is the facility where the Heartstones were manufactured, the other contains a massive device which can be used to fuse the Heartstones into something even more powerful: the Black Heart. The player's next goal is to investigate the two space stations described below and decide what to do with them. Note that this is a high-level quest and not suitable for low- or mid-level characters. The Golden Foundry This ancient facility was created to manufacture Heartstones after the technology was perfected. However, it has been abandoned for thousands of years. The Golden Foundry is self-maintaining and is still in good condition, despite its incredible age. Much of the Foundry's exterior and interior is covered with brass, kept polished by the maintainence drones, giving almost the whole station a shining, golden appearance. From the outside, the Foundry resembles an elaborate sun symbol. The station contains five generators to power the Heartstone creation process, multiple facilities for creating robotic drones and a large, central control chamber, near the assembly area for the Heartstones. The security drones and automated defenses are initially hostile when you arrive, but you can reduce the number of drone encounters by disabling or destroying the construction facilities. Disabling or destroying them all will prevent any more robots from spawning, however it is faster and easier to reach the control room and switch off security. Among the station defenses are hover drones, tank drones, laser turrets, mini-rocket launchers, flame traps and self-replicating plasma mines. Getting past all these defenses is very tough. One thing you also need to watch out for is the maintenance drones. They resemble cat-sized silver beetles and are frequently seen polishing brass surfaces with their circular, extendable buffing pads. They are not programmed for combat, but if you are wearing metal armour, one may climb onto your back and start polishing. Unless you shake them off, this gives you the "Shiny!" debuff, which causes you to sparkle and makes sneaking completely ineffective. The drone will then detach and continue its work. If you disable or destroy two or more generators, the Foundry loses the ability to manufacture Heartstones. However, doing this will make Professor Jaime very angry. He believes this station is a valuable scientific artifact and is determined to protect it. If you deactivate all five generators, the Foundry will initiate a self-destruct sequence, leaving you with a limited time to escape before the whole station is blown to pieces. The control room holds the controls for most of the Foundry's systems. From there, you can shut down the security systems, or bring them under your control, causing them to attack anyone not allied with you who enters the station. You may program the systems to ignore specific individuals if you wish. You may also activate the central assembly system and construct Heartstones, although you will need Professor Jaime to unlock it first. Heartstones manufactured in this way can either be retrieved from the assembly area, or loaded into the Foundry's main cannon, which can then fire the Heartstone into the core of any barren world you have previously visited. Constructing even a single Heartstone takes several ingame days, however, so you may want to leave the facility and return later once the process has begun. Irrepairable damage to some of the controls means you cannot activate the self-destruct sequence from the control room, so if you want to destroy the facility, you will have to find and shut down the generators. The Dark Star This space station resembles a violet, eight-pointed star from the outside. The Dark Star was built to process Heartstones into a powerful weapon and implant it into the body of its creator. The corrupt scientist who built this station has been dead for millenia, executed for the horrendous destruction his research caused. The station is mostly intact, but its central systems are close to burning out. Each of the eight points of the Dark Star contains an important system or facility. One of them holds the docking bay, where the player arrives, one holds the life support systems, which are deactivated but still intact, one holds the control room, which was sabotaged by the Dark Star's builder shortly before his death, and one holds a laboratory. Three other points hold constructors, which continually produce more defense drones as they are destroyed. Disabling or destroying the constructors is the only way to stop the defense drones from respawning, as the security systems were designed to respond solely to their creator. Lastly, one point holds the fusion chamber where the Heartstones can be fused. At the exact centre of the Dark Star is a huge reactor. Though relatively small, this ancient space station is heavily defended. The automated defenses consist of heavy turrets, lightning traps, robotic walking tanks, giant winged combat drones and fast-moving androids armed with dual blades. If the player enters the central chamber, where the reactor is located, the armoured doors close and four giant turrets at the corners of the room activate and target the player. Unless you have top-tier digging equipment, you cannot cut through the doors or walls and must destroy the turrets before the doors will open again. The turrets are the equivalent of a boss encounter. If you activate the console in the central chamber, you can open the impenetrable shield covering the reactor, but you must destroy the defending turrets first, as the console is locked down while they are active. Dealing enough damage to the reactor causes it to crack, after which it begins to go critical, leaving you with a limited time to escape before the entire facility is vapourized. If you reach the fusion chamber (which requires you to pass through the central chamber), you may use the great machine there to fuse together 10 Heartstones, creating the Black Heart, which is then implanted into your character's body. See Rewards below to learn the benefits of the Black Heart. Once the fusion and implantation is complete, the fusion chamber burns out and can never be used again. The machinery cannot be repaired. Professor Jaime is fascinated by this facility, but fears that people seeking its power will start travelling the galaxy, ripping the Heartstones out of terraformed planets. The Heartstones maintain the environments of these worlds, and their removal would result in the destruction of all life on their surface. If you choose to destroy this facility, Professor Jaime will actually help you. The Decision There are four main paths you can choose when deciding what to do with the ancient space stations, although some leave you the option to change your mind later. The four main paths are as follows: If science is your greatest priority, you must make the space stations safe for study. This means stopping the automated defenses. In the Golden Foundry, you have two options. You can either seek out and disable (or destroy) all of the construction facilities, or you can go to the control room and deactivate security, or take control of it. Once you have done so, Professor Jaime travels to the control room and works out how to repair the damaged construction system. He then tells you that, although the Heartstones could prove invaluable, it will be difficult to study the facility while the construction systems are online, since they are fully automated and will not stop once started. The professor says it is up to you to decide what to do. If you wish to serve the cause of science, you should choose to lock the contruction systems. On the Dark Star, you will need to destroy all three constructors and the turrets in the reactor chamber before Professor Jaime's armed science team can risk coming aboard. Once this is done, they will make their way to the control room. Once there, the professor will thank you for your help, but warn you of the evil people could do in search of the Dark Star's power. He will even suggest destroying it. If you wish to serve the cause of science, however, your best option would be to simply leave the station in Jaime's control. For those who resent tampering with the natural order, the only option is to destroy both space stations. The Golden Foundry has five reactors, which must all be disabled or destroyed before the Foundry's self-destruct sequence will activate. However, Professor Jaime is fiercely protective of this station and will become enraged if you bring down even one reactor. Doing this will cause an angry Jaime to turn up, equipped with all his most advanced gear and attack you. He is not very experienced in combat, so he is quite predictable. However, his powerful equipment makes him the equivalent of a boss encounter. Once he is dead, only the automated defenses will remain to obstruct you as you seek out and deactivate the remaining reactors. The Dark Star has only one reactor, but it is defended by four giant turrets. If you tell professor Jaime that you intend to destroy the Dark Star (assuming you haven't killed him yet), he offers to join you in your attempt. If you accept, he joins you and fights alongside you. If he dies during this part of the quest, this may save you trouble later. The shields protecting the reactor are invulnerable to harm and the console that controls them remains locked down while the turrets are active. Destroying the turrets unlocks the console and allows you to open the shields protecting the reactor. You may then destroy it at your leisure. The Golden Foundry holds the power to bring life to the farthest reaches of the Universe, firing Heartstones into the cores of dead worlds and bringing them to life. However, there are likely to be those seeking the power of the Dark Star, who will rip these Heartstones from those worlds with no care for the lives they will extinguish. Just controlling the Golden Foundry is not enough. For the greater good, you must also destroy the Dark Star. In the Golden Foundry, you have two options. You can either seek out and disable (or destroy) all of the construction facilities, or you can go to the control room and deactivate security, or take control of it. Once you have done so, Professor Jaime travels to the control room and works out how to repair the damaged construction system. He then tells you that, although the Heartstones could prove invaluable, it will be difficult to study the facility while the construction systems are online, since they are fully automated and will not stop once started. The professor says it is up to you to decide what to do. If you choose to lock the construction systems, Professor Jaime will take control of the Foundry for study. He is very responsible and it will be safe in his hands. If you choose to activate the construction systems, Jaime will respect your decision and you can start actively bringing life to the dead worlds of Starbound. The Dark Star has only one reactor, but it is defended by four giant turrets. If you tell professor Jaime that you intend to destroy the Dark Star, he offers to join you in your attempt. If you accept, he joins you and fights alongside you. The shields protecting the reactor are invulnerable to harm and the console that controls them remains locked down while the turrets are active. Destroying the turrets unlocks the console and allows you to open the shields protecting the reactor. You may then destroy it at your leisure. The Dark Star holds promises of great power. If you can control it, you may use the Heartstones to make you into an tremendously powerful being. This will come at the cost of many lives, but you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs... If you choose this path, what happens to the Golden Foundry isn't important. You may choose to destroy it (which will anger Professor Jaime and land you in a major fight with him) or take control of it and use it to manufacture Heartstones. However, the process of creating Heartstones is extremely slow, and it is actually quicker and easier to seek out Heartstones on terraformed worlds. By now, Jaime has already given you the coordinates to a large number of terraformed worlds containing Heartstones, so finding them won't be too hard. However, if at any point you have ruined a total of three or more worlds by removing their Heartstones, Professor Jaime will become enraged at the destruction you have caused and seek you out in an attempt to stop you once and for all. He is not very experienced in combat, so he is quite predictable. However, his powerful equipment makes him the equivalent of a boss encounter. Once he is dead, no-one will be left to stop you. All you need to do on the Dark Star is reach the fusion chamber. This is easier said than done, however, since without top-tier mining equipment, you will have to go through the central reactor chamber to reach it. The reactor chamber locks when you enter, requiring you to defeat the four giant turrets defending it before you can leave. You will only have to do this once, however, after which the reactor chamber will be left permanently unlocked. The fusion chamber requires 10 Heartstones to create the Black Heart. Once you have brought that many and put them in the machine, the Black Heart will be created. However, it cannot be used in the conventional way, so the facility fuses it with your character's body. The fusion chamber can only be used once, after which it burns out and can never be used again Such power as the Black Heart is too great to simply be wasted. But destroying inhabited worlds to claim it is too great a sacrifice. You will have to use the Golden Foundry to manufacture the Heartstones you need, and this will take a great deal of effort and patience. In the Golden Foundry, you have two options. You can either seek out and disable (or destroy) all of the construction facilities, or you can go to the control room and deactivate security, or take control of it. Once you have done so, Professor Jaime travels to the control room and works out how to repair the damaged construction system. He then tells you that, although the Heartstones could prove invaluable, it will be difficult to study the facility while the construction systems are online, since they are fully automated and will not stop once started. The professor says it is up to you to decide what to do. If you activate the construction systems, you can start churning out Hearstones right away, but if you lock the system and leave Jaime in charge, he will eventually finish his studies, unlock and start the construction sytems himself anyway. As for the Dark Star, you can choose to either sieze control of it, or simply travel to the fusion chamber when you have the 10 Heartstones you need. Either way, you will likely have to destroy the turrets in the reactor chamber sooner or later. Destroying these turrets and the three constructors is the only way to secure the station, after which Professor Jaime will arrive with an armed science team to take control. Manufacturing even one Heartstone takes several ingame days, so you will be waiting a VERY long time before you will have all 10 needed to fuse into the Black Heart. During this time, worlds containing Heartstones will come under attack (professor Jaime will contact you with a warning when this happens), and you will need to defend them or countless lives will be lost. Enemies may also attack the Golden Foundry, looking for an alternate source of Heartstones. Also, if 10 or more Heartstones are stolen, you run the risk of someone else aquiring the Black Heart. If this occurs, you may recieve a call from Jaime warning of an attack on the Dark Star. If you took control of the Golden Foundry without destroying its internal defenses, their might combined with Jaime's security force will be more than a match for even the most determined assault. If the defenses are offline, Jaime's team will send out a distress call and you will need to assist them or risk losing the station. If the station is lost, Jaime and his team will flee and you will need to attack and retake the facility, this time battling humanoid foes. If you kill their commander, they will retreat, allowing Jaime's team to move in and take control once more. Any Heartstones that were stolen or manufactured by the enemies will be dropped by the commander when he dies. If the enemies aquire a total of 10 Heartstones, they will then launch an all-out assault on the Dark Star, fighting either the station's defenses or Jaime's security team. To repel this assault, you will have to kill a total of five enemy commanders. All are carrying teleport beacons and if even one of them reaches the fusion chamber, they will place the beacon and their leader, called Infernal, will teleport in with the Heartstones and begin the fusion process, ending the quest in failure. If you kill all five commanders, Infernal lands on the station himself and attacks you with everything he has. He is a powerful boss enemy and if you are defeated in this battle, you fail the quest. If you defeat him, he drops 10 Heartstones, as well as his (high-level) gear. His forces will then flee, leaving you to claim the prize. If you fail this quest, either by ignoring an attack on the Dark Star for too long or by failing to defend it, Jaime will still give you some pixels as compensation, but you will now have a powerful nemesis who is eager to test the power of the Black Heart on you. If you aquire 10 Heartstones without destroying worlds to get them, you can then go to the Dark Star's fusion chamber and begin the fusion process, which earns you the "For Balance" ending. Rewards As this is a high-level quest, the rewards are great. To begin with, the drops are quite valuable: Ancient Alloy - Material. Dropped by ancient machines. Useful for making high-level equipment Fibreoptics - Material. Dropped by ancient drones. Useful in electronics Unobtanium - Rare material. Dropped by the Dark Star's turrets. Extremely valuable Antimatter - Material/ammunition. Dropped by large drones. Useful in making high-power weapons, or as ammunition for them Buffing Pad - Joke weapon. Rarely dropped by the Golden Foundry's maintainence drones. A fluffy, white disk on an extendable arm. Targets struck with this take no damage, but receive the "Shiny!" debuff, which causes the target to sparkle for a few minutes and makes sneaking completely ineffective Depending on your chosen path, you may have to fight against Professor Jaime. He may also die trying to help you if you choose to destroy the Dark Star. If Jaime dies, he drops the following items: Jaime's Ruined Armour - Material. Jaime's Gunslinger Armour is wrecked when he dies, but you can use certain rare materials to repair it. Unfortunately, the needed materials cannot be found on the ancient space stations Proton Multi-cannon - Two-handed weapon. A hefty-looking, rapid-fire rifle which fires dense clusters of glowing red shots. Extremely powerful and useful against tightly clustered groups or powerful individuals. Uses antimatter for ammunition Scrap Metal - Material. This is all that remains of Jaime's Charge Unit and Gunner Shield. They cannot be repaired, but the metal can be used as material in other creations Lots of pixels - Much of Jaime's wealth is destroyed when he dies. This is only a fraction of it. The rest of this mission's rewards are determined by your choice of path, so choose with care. For Learning At the end of this path, Jaime sets to work studying the ancient space stations. At first, you recieve a huge amount of pixels, but no items. Professor Jaime tells you to return a few days later for the real reward. If you do, you find that he has activated the Golden Foundry and has started producing Heartstones, which he is happy to give to you if you ask. He also gives you blueprints, which allow you to construct special items using Heartstones. The blueprints are for the following items: Harmonizer - Accessory. This belt-mounted crystal, when activated, causes all animals in the area to behave as if they were pets or allies for several seconds, attacking any hostiles in the area and actively aiding you with their abilities. This device has a long cooldown time, however Regenerator - Accessory. Resembles a bracelet with a multicoloured crystal set into it. Activating this allows you to consume energy to heal yourself. You recieve 1 point of healing for every 2 points of energy spent. You may also use this device to heal others Luminous Armour - Heavy Armour. Always glows with a white light. Increases your maximum health as long as it is worn, but makes sneaking impossible Radiant Blaster - Two-handed energy weapon. A rifle with a multicoloured crystal set into the side. Shoots energy of a random type with each shot. Energy Sheath - Accessory. A belt-mounted personal shield. It can be set to protect you from any one type of energy at a time, making you immune to it. Slowly consumes energy when active For Purity If you destroy both the Golden Foundry and the Dark Star, a female figure covered in plant growths seeks you out and thanks you for preserving the natural order. She offers you several symbiotes and some materials as a reward. Symbiotes can be used like normal equipment, but when equipped they meld with your character's body and cannot be forcibly removed. The rewards are as follows: Pulser - One-handed weapon. A symbiotic mass of vines with a large, blue eye at the end. Shoots pulses of force with moderate power and heavy knockback. Does not require ammunition Sapper - One-handed weapon. A symbiotic whip which appears to be formed from a mass of blue nerves. Has long reach, deals heavy damage and steals energy from enemies with every hit, adding it to your own reserve. Robots have a chance of being temporarily deactivated by this effect. The draining effect does not work on enemies that don't use energy Energy Leech - Accessory. This symbiote attaches to your back and resembles a cluster of tiny vines with a blue orb at the centre. Allows you to sacrifice health to rapidly regain energy. You gain 2 points of energy for every 1 point of health sacrificed Giant Nerves - Rare material. Useful in making animal symbiotes. Can be planted in a humid environment to grow more Writhing Vines - Rare material. Useful in making plant symbiotes. Can be planted in a humid environment to grow more NOTE: Although symbiotes fuse with the body when equipped, they can be unequipped and dropped like normal gear, detaching themselves from the wielder's body. However, when equipped, they cannot be stolen or removed by force. For the Cosmos Once the Golden Foundry is secure and the Dark Star is destroyed, Jaime thanks you and gives you all of his best gear: Gunslinger Suit - Powered armour. A bulky, silver armour suit. Provides impressive protection and increases your energy recovery rate Proton Multi-cannon - Two-handed weapon. A hefty-looking, rapid-fire rifle which fires dense clusters of glowing red shots. Extremely powerful and useful against tightly clustered groups or powerful individuals. Uses antimatter for ammunition Charge Unit - Accessory. A belt-mounted device with yellow arrow markings. Allows you to charge up a special attack. Once charged up, the attack can be used and propels you forward at high speed for a short distance, causing heavy impact damage to anything you hit. The device has a cooldown period of a few seconds between uses. Gunner Shield - Accessory. A personal shield generator fixed to a bracelet. When equipped, this shield halves all melee damage you recieve. Ranged attacks are unaffected In addition, if you chose to leave the Golden Foundry in Professor Jaime's care, he gives you a big sack of pixels as compensation. If not, you may retrieve Heartstones from the Foundry once every few ingame days, or use it to fire the Heartstones into the cores of barren worlds you have previously visited. However it gets there, if a Heartstone ends up in the lower strata of a barren world, the atmosphere becomes breathable and random natural biomes start to appear on the surface. Removing the Heartstones from these worlds turns them barren again. From this point forward, Jaime will no longer be watching your actions, so you may retrieve Heartstones without fear of reprisals from the professor. For ME!!! There is only one unique reward for this path, but it is arguably the most valuable one. The Black Heart - Special item. When it is created, the Black Heart is implanted in your character's body. It cannot be removed, and is not dropped or lost if your character dies. Once aquired, it remains with you forever. It gives you a selection of powers you can use at any time, but the device has a cooldown time of about five minutes every time one of these abilities is used. Furthermore, once the power you've used has expired, you lose half of your remaining health. This effect is immediate if you use Annihilation - contribution by Dorsidwarf Dark Surge - Your attack power, defense, speed and maximum health are greatly increased for about 1 minute. While this power is active, your character appears jet black, with glowing red eyes, a pulsing red outline and a shadowy trail whenever you move Rage Against the Void - Completely heals your character, triples maximum health and renders you immune to all debuffs for 30 seconds. You are also rendered immune to all damage for 5 seconds. While you are invulnerable, your character glows bright red and radiates a shadowy aura. When the invulnerability wears off, the glow and the aura disappear, but your character appears grey with glowing red eyes as long as the other effects remain Must Obey - All creatures and NPCs in the area begin to follow you and fight for you. They mindlessly defend you for 1 minute, during which time they appear grey. At the end of the effect, all affected creatures die. Does not effect players, their pets, or bosses Annihilation - Creates a huge, black fireball with a glowing red aura. You may shoot this fireball in any direction you choose. It moves slowly, but deals a huge amount of damage and vapourizes all blocks that get in its way. Blocks destroyed in this way cannot be retrieved However, there are serious consequences to aquiring the Black Heart this way. In order to obtain it this quickly, you will have to have ruined many worlds, destroying all life on their surface. You will gain a reputation as a truly despicable villain. The authorities on most civilised worlds will attack you on sight. Most NPCs will either run from you or attack, making it difficult to aquire side quests or information. Only evil NPCs will grant you side quests and only evil traders will deal with you. On the plus side, many evil creatures will cower at your feet rather than attacking, making it safe to enter certain evil strongholds (although looting them may still result in you coming under attack). This may even open up a few new side quests for you. - based on a suggestion by Kristopher For Balance This conclusion is by far the hardest to reach. As well as earning you the Black Heart, this conclusion also earns you the eternal loyalty of Professor Jaime, his science team, and his well-trained and well-equipped security force. But there are other consequences. To get the Black Heart this way, you will have to thwart the plans of the evil genius known only as Infernal. Calm, calculating and utterly heartless, this villain and his personal army will dog your steps from here onwards, turning up when you are most vulnerable. Infernal is no longer interested in the Black Heart. He only wants one thing: vengeance. And he will happily destroy a thousand worlds to get it. Worse still, by thwarting Infernal, you have earned a reputation as a warrior of legendary skill and power, and there will be countless villains and hired killers out to take you down and make a name for themselves. Phew! Finished. Hope you enjoyed this quest line. Let me know what you think.
As cool as it is The ME part seems WAYYYYYYY TO OP.But overall this side quest seems cool EDIT Now that your done you should Try thinking about you The Nemesis idea IMO its your best idea
The Black Heart is meant to be an incredibly powerful artifact. It's biggest drawback is its long cooldown time, so you must choose just one power to use, after which you must rely on your normal equipment until the Black Heart is ready for use again, by which time the battle will be over, whether you won, lost, or ran away. The reason it is so powerful is because it requires such a huge amount of effort to make. A clever player battling a wielder of the Black Heart would keep away until the power they have used wears off, then let loose with everything they've got. Lastly, a player who goes for the Black Heart will almost certainly aquire a Nemesis who is more than a match for them, even powered up... Don't worry. I haven't forgotten about The Nemesis.
Ah so the For ME choose makes you one of THEE biggest Villains around? I would go with the Best "good" choice but one that will at least give me SOME good weaponry/ items EDIT Maybe the FOR ME can also make it so any NPC will naturally dislike you unless you get good acquainted
Wow. Best quest chain Ive seen. Just to balance the Black Heart a little, maybe it hurts you for half-health when the effect finishes?
Youre welcome. Maybe if there are space-faring civilisations, they would try to take control of any of the installations that are left standing after you visited them, no matter your choice - a big penalty if you just gunned your way through, destroying all the defenses.
Possible. It would amake it doubly important to destroy the Dark Star if you want to keep it from the wrong hands. Assuming you want to serve good, that is.
Hmm, I like it, but the Black Heart is very op. You could have, like, people really mad that you didn't help others with your power and they could hire mercenaries to stop you an such to balance it out? I dunno though, something to slow the greedy folk down.
I think its nice i mean it actually make you think i can be OP but is it worth it? EDIT That Gunners Shield IS WAY TO OP -50% melee damage? make it have like a debuff that makes it take 50% MORE energy damage or something when equipped other than that this seems like a great idea. Question what do the last two things do in For Purity part?
These are all meant to be top-tier items, so they are meant to be very powerful. The Gunner's Shield provides no protection against ranged attacks, even if they are used at point-blank range, so a shotgun to the face will still hurt. As for Giant Nerves and Writhing Vines, these are used for crafting symbiotes (equipment that melds with your body when used). If you plant them in a humid enviroment, they will grow, allowing you to harvest more nerves and vines for crafting.
That is nice but i don't want my Character to be fused with stuff. But thats just Picky me so dont bother with me
AWESOME Four cookies of magic for you And likes I'm sad that its over... ...all I can do is hope it isnt What happens if you get the black heart but use the golden foundry instead of killing Professor Jaime? Or, after destroying a reactor, run away from Proffesor Jaime and destroy the remaining four?
Ohhhhhh. Lol, sorry about that. I have this bad habit of reading the OP and just skipping to typing my ideas and such haha.
Hm... What if i would acquire the black heart without destroying worlds? I mean i would fix the golden foundry, use it to make heartstones, THEN use those newly made heartstones to get the black heart. Would people still hate me?
