Cooperative Mission

A Cooperative Mission is a party-based mission in which human players must achieve the mission goal(s) while battling against computer-controlled foes. Cooperative Missions are all initiated from a mission outpost - these are differentiated from normal outposts by a special icon on the World Map (shown to the right). Completing Cooperative Missions (along with primary quests) is how a character progresses through the storyline.

Details
A party must be in the mission outpost to enter a Cooperative Mission; the party leader is the only party member able to do so. In Prophecies and Factions, this is done by clicking the "Enter Mission" button on the Party List; in Elona, by speaking with a specific "mission starter" NPC in the outpost (identified by a green "shield & swords" icon above the character's head).

Each mission has one or more goals which are listed in the Quest Log while in the mission, under the heading "Mission Objectives." All objectives except those marked as "BONUS" or "OPTIONAL" must be achieved in order to complete the mission. It is possible to outright fail some mission objectives, such as allowing a mission-critical NPC to die; if this happens, the party will be defeated and returned to the mission outpost.

As mentioned above, the party does not have to complete any bonus objectives to complete the mission. However, completing these objectives will gain additional rewards for the party; see the section on Mission Rewards below for details. In most cases, the bonus objectives will not be known to the party at the start of the mission - they must perform some action to "unlock" the bonus. Also note that not all missions have bonus objectives: most of the Prophecies and Nightfall missions do have a bonus, whereas most Factions missions do not.

Upon completing a mission, the party will be transported to a specific location, either an outpost or a town. In many cases, this will be a new location that the character will not yet have visited. Some areas in the game can only be accessed by completing the missions that lead to them.

Note: There are two exceptions to the "party-based" theme of Cooperative Missions: Augury Rock in Prophecies and Tihark Orchard in Nightfall only allow a party size of 1.

Mission Rewards
Characters earn rewards of experience points, skill points, and gold for completing missions, as well as additional rewards for completing bonus objectives. The rewards are per-character, meaning that every character in the party receives the full reward; the XP or gold is not shared among the party.

Reward systems
The three campaigns each have slightly different reward systems which are described below.

Prophecies rewards
In Prophecies, the bonus objectives can be completed independently of the main mission objectives; that is, the bonus can be completed at any time without ever having to complete the mission.
 * Exception: Augury Rock, in addition to the normal rewards, gives a reward of 50,000 XP if the character has not yet completed the Ascension-equivalent mission/quest in another campaign.

Factions rewards
The rewards for Factions missions are dependent on how quickly the party completes the mission. Completing a mission will always earn the Standard Reward; if the party completes the mission under a certain time limit, they will also earn the Expert's Reward; if they finish under a second, shorter time limit, they will earn the Master's Reward.
 * Exceptions: In both Gyala Hatchery and The Eternal Grove, the rewards are not based on time but on how many of a certain group of NPCs survive the mission.
 * These rewards are cumulative: if a party completes a mission for the first time under the Master's Reward limit, they will receive 4,500 XP, 450 gold, and 3 skill points.
 * The Expert's and Master's Rewards do not have to be achieved the first time through a mission &mdash; characters may attempt a mission as many times as needed to achieve the higher rewards.

Nightfall rewards
Nightfall mission rewards are the same as in Factions, except that only a few of them are time-based. Most Nightfall missions have Prophecies-like bonus objectives, although the objective is always numerical in some sense, and the rewards are based on cutoffs within that objective.


 * Exception: Because it is a tutorial mission, the XP and gold rewards for Chahbek Village in Normal Mode are much lower than normal; the skill point rewards, however, are not changed.

Rewards and Titles
The Protector and Guardian titles will be earned when a character has completed all missions at the highest level possible, Protector for completing them in Normal Mode and Guardian for completing them in Hard Mode. In Prophecies, both the primary and bonus objectives must be completed for all missions; in Factions and Nightfall, the character must earn the Master's Reward on all missions.

Rewards in foreign lands
When a character leaves their home continent to travel the world, an in-game timeline is enforced that prevents the character from earning rewards in missions prior to the point at which they arrive on the other continents. Upon entering one of these missions, the character will see the message, "You are about to relive events as they occurred in prior to your arrival in ." Note: This only applies to finishing the missions in Normal Mode; rewards can be earned for all missions in Hard Mode regardless of which continent a character is from.

The affected missions are: These missions must still be completed for the character to earn the Protector or Guardian titles, however.
 * Prophecies: 6 missions &mdash; The Great Northern Wall, Fort Ranik, Ruins of Surmia, Nolani Academy, Borlis Pass, The Frost Gate, and Gates of Kryta.
 * Factions: 2 missions &mdash; Minister Cho's Estate and Zen Daijun.
 * Nightfall: Because there is a two-year gap between the events of the first two campaigns and the events of Nightfall, foreign characters can earn the rewards for all missions in Nightfall.

Cooperative Missions vs Quests
Many players commonly confuse Cooperative Missions with quests and vice versa. Granted, at their most basic level missions are simply glorified quests, but there are some important differences.

Mandatory Missions
Not all missions are mandatory in order to complete a campaign's storyline or to reach all explorable areas, meaning that it is possible to finish a campaign or to complete the Cartographer title without finishing all missions.

Prophecies

 * Total missions: 25
 * Required to complete storyline: 4
 * All missions prior to Thunderhead Keep may be skipped (see Mission overviews (Prophecies)).
 * Required for Cartographer: 8
 * Sanctum Cay must be completed to reach the Crystal Desert
 * All four Crystal Desert missions (Dunes of Despair, Elona Reach, Thirsty River, and Augury Rock) must be completed to access the isolated Tomb of the Primeval Kings.
 * Thunderhead Keep must be completed to reach the Ring of Fire Island Chain.
 * Ring of Fire and Abaddon's Mouth must be completed to access all areas in the Ring of Fire.

Factions

 * Total missions: 13
 * Required to complete storyline: 12
 * Only one of Gyala Hatchery or The Eternal Grove must be completed.
 * Required for Cartographer: 13
 * Both of the above missions must be completed to access all areas of Echovald Forest and The Jade Sea.
 * Imperial Sanctum must be completed to access the Divine Path area.

Nightfall

 * Total missions: 17
 * Required to complete storyline: 14
 * There are three points in the storyline where only one of two missions must be completed. The pairs of missions involved are:
 * Pogahn Passage or Rilohn Refuge
 * Dasha Vestibule or Dzagonur Bastion
 * Jennur's Horde or Nundu Bay
 * Thus, three missions may be skipped, and the Nightfall storyline can still be completed.
 * Required for Cartographer: 11
 * In addition to the above, the three missions in the Realm of Torment (Gate of Pain, Gate of Madness, and Abaddon's Gate) are not required, as areas in the Realm of Torment do not count for the Cartographer title.