Annihilator

Annihilator
Section	Festival Event Quests
Event	April Fools' Day
Given by	Corporal Bane in Embark Beach (The Battle Isles)
Type	Festival quest  (Solo Quest)

Annihilator is an April Fools' Day quest asking you to save Sarah in the past from a time-traveling golem.

Quest information

Objectives

• Travel back to the year 1059 AE.
• Make your way to Lakeside County before the Annihilator Golem kills Sarah.
• Destroy the Annihilator Golem before it kills Sarah.
• See Corporal Bane for your reward.

Reward

• 2,029 Experience
• 1,000 Gold
• 1,984 Vanguard reputation points

Walkthrough

You will be under the disguise Going Commando and separated from your party for the duration of this quest.

Follow the quest marker through to Lakeside County. You can choose to fight or evade any of the groups you find, as they will mainly be fighting each other. If you choose to fight, focus on using AoE damage to take out multiple enemies. One effective strategy is to stand in the middle of a group, use Riot Shield, and then use Land Mine, which will deal upwards of 300 damage to enemies nearby and usually won't be interrupted as you're immune to attacks. If Corporal Bane is killed, he will automatically revive the next time he would say a battle quote.

When you find the Annihilator Golem, it will be standing next to Sarah. Use a Stun Grenade as soon as you are in range to allow her the time to escape, then destroy the golem. It is difficult to kill, but it will usually focus on attacking Corporal Bane or the Ascalonian Warrior in the area. The skill Damage Assessment will shadow step it and remove all conditions, so focus on using your skills after it shadow steps to ensure the most effective use. You can try to push the Golem towards the barn by the lake to prevent it from shadow stepping as much as possible as the wall seems to prevent it at the right angle. Try to stay in the area where you found it with Sarah, as there are corpses nearby to fuel the skill "Tango Down!", which is the only healing skill you have available. If possible, try to let the Ascalonian Guard that helps you die next to a corpse so that your "Tango Down!" lasts longer. Also, if Corporal Bane is low on health, lead him to these corpse so that when he dies, he can be used to increase "Tango Down!"'s duration. If done properly, you can keep up "Tango Down!" indefinitely until Corporal Bane revives. Set Land Mines as often as possible and lure the golem through them. (If you move far enough away from Corporal Bane, approximately beyond earshot, he will follow you, so if the golem is targeting him, move away in the direction of your mine.) The golem is not resistant to knockdown, but only Stun Grenades and Bludgeon will inflict a condition for Club Strike to knock it down. It is possible to build up enough adrenaline for Bludgeon then use Land Mine for knockdown, then follow up with Bludgeon for Deep Wound. This will allow you to use Club Strike as a knockdown and interrupt. When the golem nears death, he will use "I'll Be Back!". When he does, back off for about 15 seconds and use this time to heal with "Tango Down!". If you try to kill him while "I'll Be Back!" is in effect, he will recover 500 health resulting in you having to do more work to bring him down.

If you are having trouble fighting the golem head on, try using a house or the ridge as a shield when low on health. Most of the golem's offensive skills require line of sight, so he will not be able to hit you with most of his attacks. There is a corpse near this house, so you can "Tango Down!" while hiding to recover health. You can run around the house planting Land Mines to knock him down and use grenades for addition damage. If Corporal Bane is alive, you can use the house to redirect some of its attacks by throwing grenades until he starts casting Plasma Shot and running behind it before it finishes, giving Corporal Bane some free hits.

Alternatively, you can take advantage of Corporal Bane's self-resurrection by using him to hold the Annihilator Golem's attention while the player attacks from afar or plants Land Mines next to it. As long as the player retreats out of the Golem's range when Bane is near death this provides a safe, if tedious, way to complete the quest.

When the Annihilator Golem is defeated, you will be returned to Embark Beach.

NPCs

Allies

Humans

• 20 Corporal Bane
• 5 Farmer Hamnet
• 1 Sarah
• 20 Ascalonian Warrior

Foes

Humans (Ascalon Army)

• 20 Ascalonian Warrior
• 20 Ascalonian Ranger
• 20 Ascalonian Monk
• 20 Ascalonian Necromancer
• 20 Ascalonian Mesmer
• 20 Ascalonian Elementalist

Humans (Krytan Army)

• 20 Krytan Warrior
• 20 Krytan Ranger
• 20 Krytan Monk
• 20 Krytan Necromancer
• 20 Krytan Mesmer
• 20 Krytan Elementalist

Bosses

• 30 Annihilator Golem

Dialogue

Initial dialogue

Corporal Bane

"What year is it? Never mind, there is no time. I'm clearly off course. The rest of my squad was lost when the Asuran time-gate malfunctioned. Only their gear made it through. You look like...something of a soldier yourself. You must come with me now; there is no time to explain. The very future depends on it!"

 Accept: "You had me at Asuran time-gate!"

 Decline: "Whoa buddy, Sardelac Sanatarium [sic] is that way!"

Intermediate dialogue

Corporal Bane

Let me know when you are ready to travel!

Let's do it. (sent to Regent Valley: 1059 AE)

Not now.

After arrival in Regent Valley: 1059 AE:

Ascalonian Warrior: "What sort of Krytan trickery is this?"

Krytan Elementalist: "You will not fool us that easily, Ascalonian! We know these strangely dressed soldiers serve you!"

Ascalonian Warrior: "Your false words will not cause my blade to hesitate. Kill them all, men!"

Corporal Bane: "We seem to have arrived during a battle of the Guild Wars. We cannot allow this to distract us from our mission. We must make our way to Ashford."

If you die or resign in the instance:

The future refused to change...

After passing the first group:

Corporal Bane: "Our ammunition didn't make it through the rift. We're going to have to rely on our riot gear and grenades."

After passing the second group:

<Character name>: "What is going on here? The Guild Wars have been over for almost 10 years. Where are we?"

Corporal Bane: "It's more a question of when. The year is 1059 AE."

<Character name>: "That can't be; time travel is impossible! No one has that technology yet, not even the Asura!"

Corporal Bane: "Not yet. Not for about 250 years."

Later:

<Character name>: "So you're saying you are from the future, and now we are in the past? What exactly are we doing here?"

Corporal Bane: "We are here to prevent the Charr from reshaping history. There is a great hero that is yet to be born. The Charr refer to her as "The Goremonger", but you likely know her as Gwen."

Corporal Bane: "They have sent a powerful Annihilator Golem to kill her mother, Sarah. They hope to prevent Gwen's legacy from ever coming to pass."

Corporal Bane: "I was sent back to prevent the Annihilator from completing it's[sic] mission. There were...complications along the way, and I had to improvise. That's where you come in."

Near portal to Lakeside County:

Corporal Bane: "We're nearing Lakeside county. Sarah should be in Ashford right now. We need to hurry before the Annihilator reaches her!"

Corporal Bane: "I hope you've gotten used to your new weapons. You will need them if we hope to defeat the Annihilator."

Southeast in Regent Valley:

<Character name>: "Wait, if we're back in time, before The Searing, couldn't we just prevent it from happening?"

Corporal Bane: "Searing Day is inevitable."

Southwest in Regent Valley:

<Character name>: "What's stopping the Charr from just sending back another, more advanced golem if we beat this one?"

Corporal Bane: "What? That's dumb. If they had a more advanced one, why wouldn't they just send that golem back to begin with? Or better yet, both at the same time?"

<Character name>: "Yeah, I guess. But hey, won't all these people we're killing affect the time line too?"

Corporal Bane: "Don't think too hard about time travel; it will melt your brain."

Lakeside County: 1059 AE:

Farmer Hamnet: "What is that metallic beast?"

Corporal Bane: "Where did you see it? We are here to destroy it!"

Ascalonian Warrior: "It's heading towards Ashford. I don't know who or what you are, but if you are truly here to destroy that monstrosity, follow me!"

Annihilator Golem: "SARAH?"

Sarah: "Yes?"

Corporal Bane: "There it is, and it has Sarah cornered! Hurry, use your Stun Grenade!"

After damaging the golem with a Stun Grenade:

Sarah: "How can I ever thank you?"

Corporal Bane: "You can survive. Now, get out of here! We'll finish this."

After Annihilator Golem falls:

<Character name>: "You're annihilated!"

Corporal Bane: "The golem's destruction has opened another time rift. Hurry, it's our only way home!"

The future is what you make!

Reward dialogue

Corporal Bane

"We've done it. The future is now safe, and I can return to my time. Thank you, <Character name>. You make a fine Commando!"

Notes

Southwest reveals bonus cartographer points via Cartography Made Easy.

• This quest is offered by the "Lvl 20 Corporal Bane" (to the east); the "W20 Corporal Bane" offers the sequel.
• Even though it is possible to enable Hard Mode in Embark Beach, it is disabled upon entering the areas for this quest.
• You can maximize your Ebon Vanguard title track by completing this quest 81 times.
  • This also allows characters without Eye of the North to earn this title.
  • To speed up reputation-point farming, make use of speed boosts (e.g. Birthday Cupcakes or Rock Candy).
• You can gain slightly less than 0.1% towards the Tyrian Cartographer title by scraping the southeastern and southwestern corners of what will become unreachable areas of Regent Valley.
  • If you go Northeast towards the devourer cave in Lakeside County instead of Northwest with the Ascalonian soldier, you'll be able to explore a completely empty map.
• At over 100 experience per kill and with the quest reward, this repeatable quest is an easy way to level up a low-level character.

Bug.The Quest Log says the quest is given in Lion's Arch, instead of Embark Beach.

Anomaly.If you die and Corporal Bane kills the Annihilator Golem before you are automatically returned to Embark Beach, the quest is completed and the reward can be collected.

Anomaly.If the Annihilator Golem drops an item and you do not pick it up before you are automatically returned to Embark Beach, the Unclaimed Items will not appear.

Trivia

• This quest was introduced during April Fools' Day 2011 and included as part of the April 1st, 2011 update.
• The rest of Corporal Bane's squad was thrown off course all the way to Jahai over 250 years later, presumably because of Kralkatorrik's actions in The Mists.
• The quest name, experience and Vanguard reputation points reward amounts, dialogue, and NPCs are all references to the movie The Terminator. 1984 is the year the Terminator arrives, while 2029 is the year from which the Terminator originates.
• The counter when returning to the outpost displays "Returning to the future in: <seconds>", which is likely a nod to Back to the Future.
• After beating the Golem, the message "Your future is what you make" appears; when failed, the message "The future refused to change..." appears.
  • "Your future is whatever you make it" is what Doc Brown says in Back to the Future Part III
  • "The future refused to change" is a reference to Chrono Trigger when the main character dies in key points of the story.