Raisu Palace (mission)

Objectives
Get to the emperor before Shiro kills him!
 * &lt;Player name&gt;, you must choose two allies from these heroes to accompany the party.
 * Master Togo must survive.
 * Mhenlo must survive.

Allies
Before the fight begins, the party members should speak to Kuunavang, who will offer each player in the party a very powerful celestial skill to help them in this fight. This skill recharges only upon killing a boss, so ration it carefully, but don't be afraid to use it if you still have it when fighting a boss.

Henchmen get a celestial skill automatically, while heroes do not. As such, it is not automatic that heroes will be more effective than henchmen here. In particular, Lukas, Devona, and Kai Ying get Storm of Swords or Celestial Storm, extremely powerful skills that can quickly destroy a group of mobs. Note that your party will also be accompanied by Brother Mhenlo and Master Togo.

After equipping the new skills, the party leader will be asked to choose two allies to fight alongside the party. The choice is not simply a choice of henchmen but rather which parts of the mission you wish to skip. Each of the six available allies will (at one point in the mission or another) enable your party to skip a portion of the fight against the Shiro'ken. Sorted in order of the portion that they allow you to skip: For each ally, there is a brief cinematic of his sacrifice, and the party moves on without him. Note that each chosen ally will fight alongside your party until you reach the portion that he allows you to skip, and then leave. If a chosen ally dies before his part, he will not be able to skip monsters for you.
 * Argo: Lets the party skip the very first fight and head straight to the Warrior boss.
 * Talon Silverwing: Lets the party skip the fight after the Warrior boss and head straight to the Necromancer boss.
 * Nika: Lets party skip the Ranger boss.
 * Cynn: Lets the party skip the fighting before the bridges after the Elementalist boss.
 * Danika: Will close a gate on a large room full of Shiro'ken, allowing the party a faster trip to the corridor with the Ritualist boss.
 * Panaku: Disables the Acid Traps in the corridor that leads to the Ritualist boss.

It is recommended that you choose Danika and Cynn as your two allies, though some players prefer Talon rather than Cynn. As soon as the party leader chooses the two allies, the timer will begin and an indicator in the top left part of the screen will show Emperor Kisu's resistance warning which determines how much time the party has left.

Primary
There is a group on the north path and another group on the south path. You can clear either one and ignore the other. Most of the groups in this room will have a few Shiro'ken Elementalists, which have dangerously high damage outputs from Sliver Armor and Star Burst. As such, target these elementalists first in their groups. This is the arguably the hardest portion of the mission, but conveniently right at the start, where failure is inconsequential.

Where the paths rejoin is another similar group that can be dispatched in the same way. Up the ramp is a group with a boss, Sword Ancient Kai, and behind it another group wanders. You can take them all on at once, or wait for the group behind the boss to get out of the way and let the boss group be pulled separately.

If you brought Talon, as soon as you enter the next room, there will be a cutscene of Talon sealing off the portals to the north and south. If not, mobs will slowly stream in from two portals, in addition to a group that comes down the ramp to attack you. Keep your party back near the entrance to the room, only coming far enough into the room to pull the mobs that congregate at the center, and some of the mobs that come out of each portal will be content to stay at their portals. Once all of the mobs that come into the center of the room are cleared, you can move on to attack the boss and its few accompanying mobs. The boss itself, Doomed Ancient Kkraz, will be accompanied by only a few mobs, and is not much of a challenge, even without celestial skills.

Up ramp in the next room is another boss, Famished Ancient Brrne, accompanied by several warriors and rangers. Flag your party near the boss to crowd around and unleash your celestial skills which were just recharged to quickly destroy this group and recharge the skills again.

Beyond this, you must go around the center of the room either to the north or to the south. There are four small groups of 3-4 mobs, mostly Shiro'ken Rangers, that wander around the room. Ideally, you can clear all four groups before taking on the boss, most easily by following both paths. If you have cleared three groups and the fourth is far to the other side of the room, you can sometimes sneak in, kill the boss, and move on.

The boss of this room, Star Ancient Koosun, is the most dangerous boss in the mission. As soon as he aggros (whether you were ready for him or not), your whole party needs to drop whatever they were doing and throw everything they have at him. Fortunately, this boss is not linked to any other mobs, so you can fight him alone.

If you chose Cynn as an ally, as soon as you enter the next room, a cut scene will play, and you will skip the room. If not, an endless stream of mobs will attack you, and you must run through the room to stop them from coming. Don't stop until Danika's cut scene plays.

Unfortunately, if you try to run through as soon as you get to the room, sometimes Togo or Mhenlo will get stuck on some mobs and not come with you, and then die before the cut scene, causing mission failure. One way to avoid this is to pull the three mobs near the door and clear them before you enter the room. The extra mobs do not begin spawning until someone enters the room. Another solution is to flag your party by Mhenlo and Togo while you run through yourself to trigger the cut scene.

After Danika's cut scene, if you also had Cynn, the next room is pretty easy. Clear the rangers and necromancers and move on. If you did not have Cynn, and thus had to run across the bridge, then a flood of mobs will keep chasing you after the cut scene, though they take a bit of time to catch up to you. Clear mobs that aggro on you at the cut scene, but be careful not to pull anything else. Once the flood of mobs behind you catches up, clear them before moving on. This battle can be hard, so don't be afraid to use celestial skills.

The next room has four small groups of three mobs, mostly Shiro'ken Mesmers. Don't stand in the Acid Traps while fighting, and use flags as necessary to ensure that henchmen and heroes attack mobs, not walls. At the end of the room comes another boss, Defiant Ancient Sseer, which is unlinked to any other mobs.

If you want to disable all the acid traps, and have the self-healing to do it, go to the last room on the left closest to the boss and spin the vase inside. The acid traps will be disabled, but the funny looking rain will still be there even though it will do nothing.

The final room has three bosses, and a handful of other mobs. Charge in and use celestial skills to kill whatever comes quickly, usually taking down Silent Ancient Onata first. This recharges your celestial skills, so use them again to kill the other bosses, Arcane Ancient Phi and Untouched Ancient Ky.

Master's reward
Twenty minutes for master's reward is meaningful time pressure, though master's reward is quite doable for any class, even with only henchmen (not heroes). Note that the time you spend at the start getting celestial skills and choosing allies counts toward the cap for master's reward. Choose what you're going to do before entering the mission, so as not to waste time here.

A lot of time is saved by quickly dispatching mobs via Storm of Swords or Celestial Storm, so be sure to bring the henchmen that have those even at the expense of heroes, unless you have several players and thus no room for them. Mobs also group up quite a bit, leaving them vulnerable to other area attacks, which can save a lot of time.

If running short on time in the hallway with the ritualist boss, you can simply rush past the mobs and focus fire on the boss. (If playing with heroes/henchmen, flag them manually.) As soon as he dies, move into the next room to trigger the cutscene and move the party to safety.

Hard mode
Danika and Cynn are definitely the allies to choose. Mobs hit a lot harder in hard mode, but don't take much more damage to kill, as they only gain two levels. Your four allies (everything beyond Cynn's cut scene is quite easy) are far more durable in hard mode, however, making the mission scarcely harder than before. While the mission doesn't really take any longer, you do get an extra six minutes allowed for master's reward.

About the same tactics as above still work nicely, though you may take a couple deaths here and there when fighting elementalists. Death penalty gets worked off fast, so it isn't likely to be a problem unless you take enough to run out of rez signets. The first room is by far the hardest, and is conveniently right at the start.

With Danika and Mhenlo as quite powerful allied healers, a party needs no more than two additional healers. A protection monk with Shield of Absorption or Shielding Hands works well against the elementalists, and Extinguish can quickly clear the disease spread by the necromancers' Rotting Flesh.

NPCs

 * 30 Kuunavang

Allies

 * 20 Talon Silverwing
 * 20 Brother Mhenlo
 * 20 Danika
 * 20 Argo
 * 20 Cynn
 * 20 Nika
 * 20 Panaku
 * 20 Master Togo

Monsters

 * 28 Shiro'ken Warrior
 * 28 Shiro'ken Ranger
 * 28 Shiro'ken Monk
 * 28 Shiro'ken Necromancer
 * 28 Shiro'ken Mesmer
 * 28 Shiro'ken Elementalist
 * 28 Shiro'ken Assassin
 * 28 Shiro'ken Ritualist

Bosses - elite skill captures

 * 28 Sword Ancient Kai - Auspicious Parry
 * 28 Famished Ancient Brrne - Famine
 * 28 Untouched Ancient Ky - Spell Breaker
 * 28 Doomed Ancient Kkraz - Wail of Doom
 * 28 Arcane Ancient Phi - Arcane Languor
 * 28 Star Ancient Koosun - Star Burst
 * 28 Silent Ancient Onata - Shroud of Silence
 * 28 Defiant Ancient Sseer - Defiant Was Xinrae

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in: Imperial Sanctum (location)