Gyala Hatchery (mission)

Objectives
Escort the young turtles to the leviathan pits. At least one young turtle must survive

Point defense strategy
Most enemies will go directly for your Young Turtles, so make sure to try to stop the incoming enemies before they are even in range of the turtles.

Petras will give you up to three Smoke Canisters. Siege Turtles will aim their siege fire at the location where you drop the canisters. Make sure to position the canisters slightly ahead of the enemies' path, as the siege weapons have a firing delay on the order of 10 to 15 seconds. The knockdown area of the siege attack is huge, so your enemies will spend lots of time on the ground. Bringing skills that profit from knockdown will have a big advantage. If you want to be safe, you want to put the canisters where the young turtles are (it won't hurt them).

Be especially careful about the Kurzick Juggernauts. If they get within melee range, they will toss the turtles on their back using their special ability Juggernaut Toss. Turtles on their backs have no firepower and are easy kills for the Juggernauts. Use the siege power of the turtles on the Juggernauts as much as possible. Needless to say, if your Siege Turtles die, completing the mission will become next to impossible.

You will often get attacked from multiple sides, so coordinating the defense will be key. Decide who will carry the smoke canisters before starting the mission.

After you reach the gates of the Leviathan Pits with the turtle caravan a cutscene will trigger. The mission doesn't end here. After the cutscene you will have to fight and defeat a group of afflicted to complete mission.

This mission requires the smoke canisters to be moved all the time. Completing it with fewer than 3 human players can be difficult.

Tips:
 * Slow the Juggernauts down with Ward Against Foes, Water Magic hexes, the crippled condition, and so on.
 * Prot Monks should bring Aegis, Guardian and other counters to physical damage sources, as most of the Kurzick you will encounter will be warriors or rangers.
 * Curses necromancers should bring Spiteful Spirit and Reckless Haste for use on the Kurzick rangers, who will often be clumped. Another alternative is to use the minions of 2 minion masters as shields for the incoming attacks. Using Enfeebling Blood on Kurzick warriors attacking the young turtles is also very effective.
 * Bringing a Ritualist with Shelter, Union and Displacement will prove to be quite helpful, as the Young Turtles are also affected by the positive effects of these spirits.

Careful pulling strategy
An alternative strategy for completing the mission is to leave the turtles in their starting position and clear the path ahead using a different route. This method takes more time but lets you pull mobs at your leisure. The map to the right does not show the optimal path, but is there for reference to the numbered points.

At the start of the mission, don’t walk to the NPCs standing in front of you. Run to the right of the map as fast as you can towards the western wall of the mission area until the face of Petras no longer appears in the dialogue. Make sure no one stays at the start of the mission or walks to the NPCs. The AI for the turtle caravan will not trigger and they will stay in their place. This allows you to clear the path ahead and return afterwards.

Run to the end of the mission until just before the Leviathan Pits area (use the map to the right). You will not encounter any Kurzicks until the group right in front of the gates of the Leviathan Pits. Killing Kurzick groups will often spawn more groups that run to your location. When this happens, it is vital that you get out of the way, or else you will be overwhelmed. The easiest way to pull such groups apart is often to intercept one as it runs to your location, while avoiding the rest.

Start by killing the group with the two Kurzick Juggernauts near point 1. When this group is finished off, two groups of Kurzicks will run to point 2, one from the northwest and one from the southwest. Run southwest to intercept one group and kill it, then return to point 2 to kill the other group. This makes two more groups spawn, again one from the southwest and one from the northwest. As before, intercept the one from the southwest, then return to point 2 to kill the group from the northwest.

Once point 2 is clear, you can head to point 3 to clear the Kurzicks there. After this, backtrack and approach point 5 from the west. Clear a group, then head back to the west and approach point 6 from the west. Pull the groups apart as best you can, and pull the mobs quite a ways so that you have time to clear most of the Kurzicks before their slower juggernauts arrive.

Head east to point 4 and clear the small group there, then circle around clockwise to get back to point 5. Kurzicks will invade from the southwest and northwest. Go intercept the group coming from the southwest, then return to pull apart and clear the groups at point 5.

Clear a group at point 7 and then many Kurzicks will run to that point. Most come from the north, but a small group comes from the southwest. Head to the southwest to intercept that group. It can take a while to pull the various groups apart at point 7.

Finally, return to the caravan at point 8. Drop a smoke canister in the middle of the turtles, and then target and kill the juggernauts immediately. They come from the south and are the main threat to your caravan. Most of the Kurzicks will rush the Young Turtles and be slaughtered by the Siege Turtles. That leaves only a few Kurzick Monks to mop up.

The rest of the route will be clear except that you will be attacked by a group of four Kurzicks from the north a little before the caravan reaches point 6.

The Afflicted
After arriving at the Pits, a cinematic will play. The mission is not yet over at this point. Small waves of afflicted will attack through one of the gates. Players may either let them close in, allowing use of the siege turtles, or fight the battle outside the gates, keeping the afflicted far from the turtles. Any Luxon or Kurzick NPCs that survived the cinematic will join in the fight as the afflicted approach them.

Master's reward
Master's reward is to keep all of the young turtles alive, not just one of them. This doesn't require different tactics, but merely better execution.

Hard mode
The back way is the easy way. Kurzick Monks are quite powerful healers, while Kurzick Elementalists do heavy area damage with Unsteady Ground. These are your top priority targets while clearing the back route. Kurzick Warriors and Rangers aren't that dangerous individually, but seven of them focusing fire on the same target can be a big problem.

The key here is a curse necro with Enfeebling Blood, Shadow of Fear, and whatever else might harass groups of warriors and rangers to keep your party alive. An earth elementalist can provide some good countermeasures to groups of warriors and rangers, too, with area blinding, weakness, knockdown, and blocking skills. An interrupter can help with monks and elementalists, and Daeman does well at this if you're using only henchmen and heroes.

Note that Kurzick Juggernauts are never linked to other Kurzicks. Any potentially difficult group that includes juggernauts can be made easier by pulling the juggernauts first. Shoot something and run, and juggernauts will chase longer than other mobs. You may have to shoot and run several times to get the juggernauts far enough away from other Kurzicks that they come alone, but they will do so eventually. The rangers have Pin Down, so your puller may need to dodge some while running, or have another character who can clear conditions nearby while pulling.

For the first big battle with the Siege Turtles, the juggernauts spawn significantly before the other Kurzicks. Run to Petras, get a Smoke Canister, and drop it in front of the approaching juggernauts, and let them take one round of siege turtle fire. This won't kill the juggernauts, but it will take a majority of their lifeline off. After one round of siege fire, move the smoke canister to the middle of the young turtles. While one player handles the smoke canister, the rest of the party ought to attack the juggernauts as soon as they spawn to the south of the caravan. The juggernauts can flip siege turtles, robbing the group of their essential fire support, so killing the juggernauts is your top priority.

When the juggernauts reach the caravan, flag your party on the smoke canister at the center of the young turtles. Because NPC allies are much stronger in hard mode, the warriors that come flooding in will mostly target your party and leave the young turtles alone. Your main priority is thus merely staying alive, and your damage output doesn't matter. While four Kurzick monks come to heal the warriors, one round of siege turtle fire will kill most warriors attacking you even over the monks' healing. Don't go chase the monks, but just stay in the center in whatever wards you have for defense. Once all of the warriors are dead, then you can go kill the monks.

Allies

 * 20 Pet - Elder Crab
 * 15 Young Turtle
 * 20 Endre
 * 24 Siege Turtle
 * 20 Argo

Foes
Afflicted Kurzicks
 * 28 Kurzick Juggernaut
 * 24 Afflicted Warrior
 * 24 Afflicted Monk
 * 24 Afflicted Necromancer
 * 24 Afflicted Mesmer
 * 24 Afflicted Elementalist
 * 24 Afflicted Assassin
 * 24 Afflicted Ritualist
 * 20 Kurzick Warrior
 * 20 Kurzick Ranger
 * 20 Kurzick Necromancer
 * 20 Kurzick Mesmer
 * 20 Kurzick Elementalist
 * 20 Kurzick Monk

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in: Leviathan Pits
 * To continue the storyline, take on the following Primary Quest: Journey to the Whirlpool