The Long Way Around

The Long Way Around

Type

Mini-dungeon

Area

Terzetto Bay
(Straits of Devastation)

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The Long Way Around is an Explorer achievement and mini-dungeon located in an underwater cavern in Terzetto Bay, directly west of Fort Trinity in Straits of Devastation. Explorer Camelia, found at the entrance of the large underwater cavern, is worried about Scholar Fryxx, who has locked himself up in a cave behind an asuran force-field gate he designed to keep Risen out. Camelia has been trying to get the gate open, but the numerous Risen Hands and dead fish keep on shooting goo at anyone who comes close to them, making her unable to deactivate the force field.

Achievement

The Long Way Around	Explorer	10
Find a way to reach Fryxx.Fryxx will know if you take the short way around.	Exploration Achievement	10

Getting there

The cavern entrance is located east of  Vesper Bell Waypoint — around the center of the triangle made up of three small islands in Terzetto Bay. The entrance can be seen by looking to the south-east at the bottom of the shallow bay.

Walkthrough

You will have 5 minutes to deactivate the six Asuran Data Pads (as the first pad will reset in 5 minutes), dispersed throughout the cavern, mostly around floor level, with the first two being high on the left wall of the entrance tunnel. Deactivating all six will open the gate and allow you to reach Scholar Fryxx and the Grand Chest next to him, earning the achievement. You will need to deactivate all of them while avoiding getting hit by the Risen Hands and dead fish. If you are hit by a hand or fish, you will have the effect  Covered in Corruption applied to you and you will not be able to activate any Data Pads, so you will need to go back to Explorer Camelia to have it removed. The cavern itself is roughly in the form of an L-shaped tunnel which turns left towards the Gate. The Risen Hands are located on the floors, walls and ceiling of the cavern; sometimes hidden behind columns, and both the hands and the fish are immune to damage and cannot be destroyed. The greenish substance shot by the Risen Hands explodes into an AoE on contact and could end up contaminating you even while hiding behind columns, so it is best to keep moving to avoid the slow-moving shots, as the damage is negligible and the shots can be blocked, such as with aegis. However the contamination from fish cannot be blocked so give them as wide a berth as possible. Tour the cavern to determine the location of each of the data pads before you attempt to trigger the data pads. All of the data pads do not have to be triggered between each cleansing. The most difficult data pad to access is the second one from the end that is surrounded by dead fish. If you get that one first then the others are reasonably easy to get within the 5 minute limit. Tips After interacting with each data pad, a dialogue menu opens. You must select Yes. and then Leave. for the pad to deactivate. You have to actually select the Leave. option after deactivating: just swimming away won't deactivate it. If it is properly deactivated, the Data Pad can't be interacted with any more, and stays inactive for 5 minutes. If you stand still to interact with a pad, you will probably get hit: so you must also manage to do the above interaction while moving. Mesmers can be used to quickly and safely get to difficult data pads: Have them put a   Portal Entre by the data pad, swim to you and place   Portal Exeunt, allowing you to teleport straight to the pad and avoid being tagged with the poison. Thieves'   Ink Shot followed by   Smoke Trail is good for Asuran Data Pads that are surrounded by dead fish corpses, as Smoke Trail lets you teleport past the corpses. Elementalists'   Air Pocket can be used to teleport past the corpses. Having some friends who will bait the hands into attacking them, before you safely advance to deactivate the pads, can be helpful. You can use a Prototype Position Rewinder to help with this: Go to each data pad in turn, leaving the one closest to the shield for last, and use   Mark Location. Swim back to Explorer Camelia to remove  Covered in Corruption, then use   Rewind to go back to the data pad and deactivate it. Repeat for all six data pads. Speed boons like  Swiftness and  Superspeed are helpful, but it's doable without them. Trick to skip to the end: A friend can complete the minidungeon first, then mount on their Siege Turtle. If they swim against the barrier that blocks you from reaching the end chest, you can mount as a passenger on their turtle and therefore be brought into the final room.

NPCs

Allies

Asura

• Scholar Fryxx

Human

• Explorer Camelia

Objects

• Asuran Data Pad
• Asuran Force Field
• Grand Chest
• Risen Hand

Related achievements

• Kamohoali'i Kotaki III: Carcharias: Fryxx's Souvenir — Take The Long Way Around to loot this from the Grand Chest near Fryxx in Straits of Devastation.
• Astralaria IV: The Cosmos: Tuning Instruments — Take the long way around to loot this from the Grand Chest near Fryxx in Straits of Devastation.
• Nicabar Steelweaver's Footsteps: Ancient Fish Bone — Found inside the chest at the end of The Long Way Around in Straits of Devastation.