Minister Cho's Estate (mission)

Objectives

 * Find Minister Cho
 * Master Togo must survive to reach the Minister's Estate.
 * Yijo Tahn must survive to reach the Minister's Estate.
 * ADDED Defeat the Afflicted Minister

Primary
This mission is designed to be a walkthrough for many of the basic features of the game. Throughout the mission, Master Togo will instruct the players on common tactics used in battle. Both Togo and Yijo Tahn are high enough level to be pretty durable, but Yijo can get killed if you let him run off on his own, and this will cause mission failure.

The first half of the mission consists entirely of small fights against groups of 2 or 3 Sickened Guards. As players progress through the mission, they are frequently stopped at locked gates by Togo, who will dispense advice in the form of small conversations with Yijo Tahn. When Togo stops to drag the guards, if you run ahead, the guards won't attack you until Togo comes. Because you have the help of both Yijo and Togo, and because all these monsters use Frenzy unwisely, these skirmishes are all very easy. However, concentrated attacks from enemies, especially Sickened Guardsman Tahnjo (who appears in a group with two other guards) can overwhelm a low level player.

The first boss encountered is the Afflicted Horror, which appears midway through the mission. This Warrior serves mainly as an introduction to the idea of boss enemies, and it is very easy for the players to concentrate fire, as it is the only enemy in the area.

Afterwards, the players will meet two Minister's Guards being ambushed by Sickened Guards. After saving these guards (the mission will not be failed if they die), the players must make their way through Minister Cho's Menagerie, which is full of several sickened animals, including bears, moa birds, wolves, and lynxes. Although they are only Level 5 and all use Frenzy just like the Sickened Guards, they can defeat some low level players if allowed to completely surround someone.

From this point on the players will fight groups of 3 sickened humans. All of these groups will contain 2 Sickened Guards and either a Sickened Scribe or a Sickened Servant. These fights are only marginally harder than earlier, although lower levels should take care to avoid the Sickened Servants' skill Breath of Fire.

After fighting a few of these groups, the players will find Minister Cho. Upon talking to him, a short cutscene will play during which Minister Cho transforms into the Diseased Minister.

This battle is a fairly simple one. The Diseased Minister will start out by using Animate Vampiric Horror and follow up by using melee attacks and Bitter Chill. As with all Afflicted, defeating him will result in an Afflicted Soul Explosion. Players should beware, as if this explosion kills the last remaining party member, the mission will be failed despite finishing the final objective.

After defeating the Diseased Minister, the final cutscene will play.

Master's Reward
Because Togo and Yijo run ahead, forcing you to keep up with them, it's pretty difficult not to get master's reward in this mission as long as you keep up.

Hard Mode
The 20 minutes alloted for master's reward is still ample time for a typical group, but you can take too long if you dawdle.

During Hard Mode for this mission, all enemies are level 23. Yijo is now level 20 and the Afflicted Horror is at level 27. All skill lists for all creatures have been upgraded, as per the Hard Mode update.

Nearly all mobs are melee, and even those that aren't are typically one caster paired with a couple melee. As such, anti-melee defensive skills such as blinding, weakness, or blocking skills are highly effective. Minions can also be pretty useful, as there are some spare corpses lying around, as well as many mobs that die reasonably quickly. Mobs hit hard enough that relying on only one character for healing is dangerous; you don't need two dedicated healers, but one character with a few healing skills other than your main healer can help.

Note that in the Emperor's zoo, the large amount of creatures are also all level 23, and shouldn't be allowed to swarm as they can in Easy Mode, or a party wipe is likely.

NPCs

 * 20 Master Togo
 * 10 Yijo Tahn
 * 10 Minister's Guard
 * Lost Boy

Monsters
Humans:
 * 8 Sickened Guard
 * 8 Sickened Guardsman Tahnjo
 * 8 Sickened Scribe
 * 8 Sickened Servant

Sickened animals:
 * 5 Sickened Bear
 * 5 Sickened Lynx
 * 5 Sickened Moa
 * 5 Sickened Stalker
 * 5 Sickened Wolf

Bosses

 * 9 Afflicted Horror
 * 11 Diseased Minister

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in: Ran Musu Gardens
 * To continue the storyline, take on the following Primary Quest: Warning the Tengu