Shens Last Gift doesnt appear

[Izzy]

So I have a couple lost campaigns already and in every single one the Last Gift mission appeared really early as the first or second (after the alien hunter weapons) POI on the geoscape. Now I am running a 1.1 campaign into late May and still didnt get the mission. I got lots of other POIs though so I am afraid that I missed the mission somehow. So should I be concerned and can I fix this somehow? Really wanted to test the 1.1 Sparks

[DougS2K]

Experiencing the same thing here. Mission popped on 1.0 but not on 1.1. Very strange.

[Sines]

1.1 has the SPARK mission appearing much later in the game. It's fitting, as the SPARK is actually very powerful (I had gotten my SPARK in 1.0 and then waited for 1.1 to come out, and it's dominating). Most likely, you haven't gotten to it yet. From what little I understand, you need to be 4 or 5 months into the game for them to start appearing. Though I could be very wrong on that. It's tied to the same clock that powers up the aliens.

On the plus side, I don't think they changed the actual Lost Towers missions. Which means that by the time you can actually do it, it should be a relative cakewalk.

[The Boz]

SPARKs are only dominating if they arrive early, as in, the first 2 or 3 months tops. After that, taking them on Moderate+ enemy activity missions is near suicide, as their armor/ablation melts rather quickly without smoke/Aid.
They remain "good", but I wouldn't call it "dominating".

[nightwyrm]

Moving SLG later pretty much also trivializes the mission. Once you get lasers and some AP rounds, the whole thing is a cakewalk.

[DougS2K]

1.1 has the SPARK mission appearing much later in the game. It's fitting, as the SPARK is actually very powerful (I had gotten my SPARK in 1.0 and then waited for 1.1 to come out, and it's dominating). Most likely, you haven't gotten to it yet. From what little I understand, you need to be 4 or 5 months into the game for them to start appearing. Though I could be very wrong on that. It's tied to the same clock that powers up the aliens.

On the plus side, I don't think they changed the actual Lost Towers missions. Which means that by the time you can actually do it, it should be a relative cakewalk.

Thanks for the info. This would make sense since I agree the SPARK is very powerful early on. Only in May right now so I'll have to keep grinding through and see if and when it pops up.

[Manifest]

I don't understand do you guys actually like Sparks that much? They don't seem that great to me (except you know, their main gun is strong as hell now.)

[Sines]

I don't understand do you guys actually like Sparks that much? They don't seem that great to me (except you know, their main gun is strong as hell now.)

Base 1 armor (3 armor by rank 3, if you pick the right perks), 5 ablative health, 30 innate defense, resistance to criticals, immunity to fire and poison and no dependency on cover. Lots of health, and a high damage gun. And the ability to leave him out in the open and Overdrive allow you for perfect positioning for Shredstorm Cannon.

What's not to love?

[Goumindong]

I don't understand do you guys actually like Sparks that much? They don't seem that great to me (except you know, their main gun is strong as hell now.)

Resistance to crits + 30 base defense + Aid protocol(minimum 20 defense) means that you have an up armored unit with effective heavy cover (or better) which you can place anywhere. Additionally even with these features enemies like to shoot at them a lot.

[lordshotgun]

If this is the case then it seems the missions apear much too late. I got magnetic weapons and exo suits but neither mission is showing up. By the time I do the missions I plan to just stun lock the viper king with freeze bombs and arc throwers.

[Devon_v]

There's a tech requirement for SPARKs even if you disable the narrative mission. It's one of the robotics ones, you probably need it researched now before Julian gives you a ring.

[Sines]

SPARKs are only dominating if they arrive early, as in, the first 2 or 3 months tops. After that, taking them on Moderate+ enemy activity missions is near suicide, as their armor/ablation melts rather quickly without smoke/Aid.
They remain "good", but I wouldn't call it "dominating".

I dunno. Even then, they can learn Repair Protocol, which can earn them back another 12 HP (or more, not sure how it levels up with better BITS). And enemies seem to have preferential targetting for them, despite their high defenses. I'm modestly into the game, and they're still quite a standup unit.

Oh, and on the list of cool things they can do, you can use them as emergency cover. Need to move someone out in the open to do something? Stick the SPARK right in front of them, and now they've got full cover. Sure, it tempts grenades, but Blast Padding reduces the effect of grenades on SPARKs, and a soldier taking a grenade is better than them taking a flank shot.

[UzielTD]

For those of you having problems getting SLG or the Alien Hunters missions (weapons and Nest) I believe that you need to get an intel package as a mission reward for those to even appear (in addition to meeting whatever requirement LW2 has imposed on them so they can be eligible to appear). So, if you are 6 months in and still no POI of those missions, it might be because you haven't gotten an intel package as a reward.

[SpiriT]

Do you need to research the package or just receive it?

[Zyrrashijn]

I am relatively sure, said Intel package is not an item, like datapads and such. Thus gaining an IP as mission reward will get you the chance of a POI or mission without further ado.

[DougS2K]

Just an update. Shen's mission finally popped up for me in mid June. That's a few months further then it was in 1.0