The Origins of Madness: Achievement Guide

Hello again everyone. Looks like living story has started again. This month’s current living story, the Origins of Madness involves two new world boss events that start every two hours on the hour, alternatingly. That means the Great Jungle Wurm world event in Bloodtide Coast starts every odd hour while the Twisted Marionette in Lornar’s Pass starts every even hour. These two world boss events are on par with the new Tequatl the Sunless in terms of difficulty, therefore most of the achievements will not be completable during the duration of this living story. So, we’ll have to make use of daily living story achievements to make up the remainder  of the 11 achievements needed for the meta achievement.

I will not be covering the new Great Jungle Wurm because it is permanent content and there will be plenty of time for future guides and strategies to come up.

First, go to the False River waypoint in Lornar’s Pass at the start of any even hour (12 AM, 2 AM, 4 AM, etc.). If you are in a highly populated world, it is recommended to be there one hour early to avoid getting thrown into overflow. Take part in the Twisted Marionette world boss event. It does not matter if you fail or succeed. You should do this everyday for the Boss Thumper daily living Story achievement.

Next, go to the story instance near Sanctum Harbour waypoint in Lion’s Arch. After that, go to the Durmand Priory waypoint in Lornar’s Pass. Follow this map to Scarlet’s Secret Lair for an achievement and a bag of 10 power core pieces.

 

Immediately after jumping down from the Durmand Priory onto the snow turn right and enter the cave (it is the same one used for guild rush). Run past the bats and wurms (dodge and use stability) straight to the star which is past a false wall which you can pass through. Now you need to gather 40 more power core peices to make a power core to enter the lair.

In every map except Eternal Battlegrounds, Orr, Southsun Cove and the starter maps, there are energy probes all over the map. The locations of these probes are static so you can camp one if you want; the respawn time after being destoryed is 10 minutes. There will be a set of five to six defenders guarding these probes. Defeat them and the probe will become vulnerable.  Destroy the probe and you can collect one to three power core pieces from it. You should attempt to do this in a party as the defenders are quite strong, being a random set of Scarlet’s minions or alliances. Gather 40 more power core pieces this way and try to destory probes in five different maps (the WvW borderlands maps have probes as well if you are having trouble finding more maps with probes to destroy). Along the way, you will most likely have defeated 50 probe defenders for another achievement.

Once you have 50 power core pieces, use them to make a power core and enter the secret lair. In the lair are 5 chests with LOTS of loot. Also, you have to open each chest at least once to obtain a fragment of Scarlet’s journal to combine into this living story’s souvenir item.Each chest can be opened with the appropriate cypher which is made from 25 fragments of the specific type (Aetherblade, Toxic, Molten, Watchwork, Scarlet). All the fragments except Scarlet’s are uncommon drops from the corresponding alliance type during the Twisted Watchwork portal invasion events. Scarlet’s fragments are rare drops from any alliance type and are very difficult to obtain through the portal invasion events. But by opening each of the other four chests, you will obtain three to six of Scarlet’s fragments so open the other chests multiple times.

Do not expect to succeed at the Twisted Watchwork event if you are in overflow. Just focus on tagging as many mobs as possible for more fragments. A high damage AoE profession is recommended. High armor and health is not necessary as most of the enemies have low health and are killed quickly. You should participate in each lane’s portal invasion at least once for an achievement.

The last easy achievement to get is escorting each of the three Vigil Crusaders to their respective destinations in the pre-event to the Great Jungle Wurm in Bloodtide Coast which occurs every odd hour (1 AM, 3 AM, 5 AM, etc.). Just follow the zerg as they escort the Vigil Crusader  while tagging eggs and mobs. Be careful as the enemies in this pre-event have extremely high damage, armor and health, and cause many conditions including stuns, dazes, knockbacks, launches.  You have to escort all three different paths at least once for the achievements.

Then just make up the remainder of the 11 required achievements with daily Boss Thumper achievements by participating in either the Twisted Marionette or Great Jungle Wurm fight. I recommend the Twisted Marionette because you will have a very low chance of dying and you get lots of fragments for cyphers to open chests (each containing at least two rares and eight masterworks in addition to more fragments and Scarlet’s fragments). However, when the event fails, everyone in Lornar’s Pass at that time will be instantly killed.