Strike Mission: Cold War

Strike Mission: Cold War

Levels

80

Type

Strike Mission

Zone

Drizzlewood Coast
(Shiverpeak Mountains)

API

1374, 1376

Loading screen

Image(s)

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“

WARNING: Entering this Strike Mission will reveal key plot points of the "No Quarter" story. Gather your allies and relive the desperate stand against the Dominion and their newfound power.

— In-game description

Strike Mission: Cold War is the seventh Strike Mission introduced into the game.

Getting there

After selecting one of the modes, either Public or Squad, players will be put into a new instance with up to 10 players. If a Public mission engages the boss with fewer than 10 players, it will be locked down and no more players will be able to join.

• Portal in Umbral Grotto in Drizzlewood Coast.
• Strike Mission portal in Eye of the North.

Objectives

• Approach the Bridge
• Hold Out against the Dominion Forces
• Defeat enemies to unlock reward chests. 8:00
• Chests earned: x
• Points Until Next Chest
  • 
• Destroy charr copters before they escape so Smodur can calibrate the guns
• Artillery Calibration
  • 
• Repel the Dominion Assault

• Hold Out against the Dominion Forces
• Chests earned: x
• Defeat the Minister of Morale
• Varinia Stormsounder
  • 
• Defeat the Minister of Morale: 7:00

• Strike Mission complete!
• Mission closes in: 4:00

Rewards

• Final bouncy chest:
  • Cache Key (1-2)
  • Charr Salvage or Rare Charr Salvage
  • Charr Commendation (50)
  • Blue Prophet Shard (5-11)
  • 50 
  • Rare chance of the following:
    • Gilded Reliquary of the Bear
    • Reliquary of the Bear Ceremonial Hood

• Grand Frost Legion Chest
• Up to 9 Frost Legion Chests
  • If you miss looting any of these two types of chests before leaving the instance, the loot will be lost.

Walkthrough

Similar to the Forging Steel strike mission, players must complete a defense event that then culminates in a final boss encounter. Both strike missions are longer compared to the other The Icebrood Saga (IBS) ones.

Players with the respective essence manipulation mastery can attack the nearby pylon to collect orbs for either the  Power of Resilience,  Power of Valor, or  Power of Vigilance effect, depending on the week. This grants players either the   Spirit Nova,   Night Terror, or   Shattered Psyche special action key to deal significant damage to enemies and their defiance bar.

Players with the United Legions Waystation Synchronization mastery may interact with the United Legions Waystation at the strike mission entrance to purchase Electromagical Pulse or Remote Charge special action skills.

An invisible barrier prevents players from moving closer to the bridge until the encounter begins. A blue wall encircles the playing area shortly afterwards. Players may be stuck outside of this barrier if they were slow to enter the area before the wall appeared, or if they were  knocked back by an NPC through the wall (usually when fighting too close to the wall). In either case, players will eventually be teleported inside the arena after a short time delay.

Wave defense

Enrage Timer: 8 minutes

Enrage Effect: Enemies retreat and final boss arrives

Players must fend off against waves of Icebrood for 8 minutes, with each wave culminating in a champion. The timer pauses if the entire squad is defeated. It resumes without losing the progress upon returning to the arena.

Each enemy defeated adds points that progress the bar in obtaining a Frost Legion Chest at the end of the encounter. The progress bar for the Artillery Calibration advances over time, granting players with the one-use   Artillery Strike special action skill when full.

Veteran Frost Legion Cannoneers each drop a Charrzooka upon defeat. They can be interacted with to activate Action Camera Mode, allowing players to fire at Dominion Bombers. Destroying the bombers prevents them from launching airstrikes onto the arena. Each Charrzooka holds only 5 stacks of ammunition and cannot be reloaded. Furthermore, shots can be body-blocked by enemies and reflected by the  Frozen Barrier effect. Charrzookas can be dropped by weapon swapping.

#	Skill			Description
1	Fire	0.5½	0.25¼	Fire at your target. The projectile disintegrates after 1 second.

A champion spawns at the end of each wave, preventing other enemies from spawning except for Dominion's Bombers. One of the below champion will be randomly selected to spawn. Each subsequent champion will be a random one that has not been encountered yet.

• Champion Corrupted Kodan
• Champion Ice Giant
• Champion Icebrood Beast
• Champion Icebrood Goliath

Each champion gains Unstable Magic Abilities that vary based on the week. The first champion gains one ability, the second gains a new one in addition to the previous, and the third gains a new one in addition to the previous two. The sets of these effects are:

Week	Pylon	Unstable Magic Abilities Order
Red Whispers	Resilience	Frigid Vortex →  Frigid Footfalls →  Frozen Barrier
Green Priory	Valor	Icy Echoes →  Lethal Coalescence →  Flash Freeze
Blue Vigil	Vigilance	Icy Echoes →  Lethal Coalescence →  Flash Freeze

The effects of each Unstable Magic Ability are listed below:

Unstable Magic Ability	Notes
Flash Freeze	Three telegraph rings expand outwards prior to an expanding blue wave. Failure to jump over the wave will inflict  Chilled and  Slow and flash freeze hit players, preventing their actions for a brief moment.
Frigid Footfalls	Leaves behind a trail in its path that inflicts  Chilled and pulsing damage (roughly 200 radius). Encourages skills with larger ranges.
Frigid Vortex	Four ice tempests emerge then move outwards and spin around.
Frozen Barrier	Temporary barrier on the enemy that reflects projectiles.
Icy Echoes	Each player pulses low damage (at most every two seconds) to nearby players each time the enemy is hit. Discourages tight stacking.
Lethal Coalescence (Green)	Targets a random player with a green circle that inflicts massive damage to all players within the circle after a delay. Each player standing within greatly reduces the damage. Encourages group stacking.

Skills that convert conditions into boons, such as   Nefarious Favor, can mitigate the conditions from not only most of these abilities but also from other enemies.

When the wave defense timer expires, all enemies retreat and the final phase begins.

Varinia Stormsounder (Minister of Morale)

Health: 17,892,420

Enrage Timer: 7 minutes

Enrage Effect: Defeats all players

Fixation Mechanic: None

The second half of the encounter involves subduing the Minister of Morale within 7 minutes. She spawns in the middle of the arena and players should ideally keep her within the middle of the arena. She uses the following skills:

Skill	Notes
Balloon Drop	Drops down a Propaganda Balloon. The balloons follow players then explode after a delay, inflicting 5 Confusion. They can be destroyed either with damage or breaking their defiance bar.
Claws of Ice	Targets a random player with a red reticule then charges forward and sends forth a cascade of ice spikes. Inflicts  Daze to players directly in front of the attack.
Flurry of Ice	Multi-swing attack with ice shards falling in each cardinal direction.
Frostbite Aura	Pulses low damage every three seconds.
Thrust → Slash	Auto-attack chain.

In addition to these skills, Varinia also gains the three Unstable Magic Abilities for the week. Her defiance bar periodically unlocks and breaking it temporarily disables these abilities. The bar does not regenerate, however the unlocking condition is unknown.

She will also perform the following legion-themed skills, each indicated by a voice line:

Legion skill	Notes
Call Assassins	“Assassins! Strike Swiftly!” All players are targeted with an orange circle that inflicts damage after a delay. Players standing in overlapping circles take significant damage.
Charge! Detonate	“Engineers! Obliterate them!” Destructible mines spawn across the arena and de-spawn after a period of time. Two untargetable Charr Tanks eventually charge through the arena,  knocking down everyone in their path. The tanks can be stunned with  Shocking Aura.
Flame Wall	“Specialists! Incinerate them!” Two sets of four flamewalls are launched towards the center, with the first set forming a square and the second set positioned outside of each square edge. Pulses low damage and  Burning. The boss gains the  Boon of Flame effect only when charging through a flame wall during the Claws of Ice attack.
Torrent of Ice	“Frost Legion! Cut them down!” An untargetable Frost Legion shaman showers the arena with ice blocks, inflicting moderate damage and  Frozen on-hit. Players with this effect will be trapped in an Ice Shard and take periodic damage. Destroying this shard either with   Struggle to Escape or other allied skills will free the trapped player.
Mighty Spin	“Infantry! Attack!” Four untargetable Blood Legion Blademasters jump into the arena and alternate between a spinning attack and a charge, both of which inflict  Knockback.

These legion-themed skills are at first performed in a random order, but will repeat in the same order they first occurred in. A themed skill will not be repeated until all five skills have been performed.

The encounter continues until the Minister of Morale is defeated.

Achievements

Morale Breaker	No Quarter	2  25
Defeat the Minister of Morale 50 times in the Cold War Strike Mission. Rewards: Show all rewards Tier 1:   Mastery Point Tier 2:   Frozen Lockbox Tier 3:   Mastery Point Tier 4:   Frozen Lockbox Tier 5:   Gilded Reliquary of the Bear Tier 6:   Frozen Lockbox Tier 7:   Frozen Lockbox (2) Tier 8:   Gilded Reliquary of the Bear Tier 9:   Frozen Lockbox Tier 10:   Gilded Reliquary of the Bear ... Tier 11:   Gilded Reliquary of the Bear	Defeated the Minister of Morale 1 Time	5
	Defeated the Minister of Morale 5 Times	5
	Defeated the Minister of Morale 10 Times	5
	Defeated the Minister of Morale 15 Times	5
	Show more tiers Defeated the Minister of Morale 20 Times 5 Defeated the Minister of Morale 25 Times 0 Defeated the Minister of Morale 30 Times 0 Defeated the Minister of Morale 35 Times 0 Defeated the Minister of Morale 40 Times 0 Defeated the Minister of Morale 45 Times 0 Defeated the Minister of Morale 50 Times 0

• Complete the strike mission 50 times. The strike can be completed multiple times per day for credit.

Daily Cold War Strike	Daily Icebrood Saga	0
Complete the Cold War Strike Mission. Reward: Chest of the United Legions' Hero (3)	Completed the Cold War Strike Mission	0

Priority Strike: Cold War	Daily Strike Mission	0
Complete the Cold War Strike Mission. Reward: Chest of the Visionary Echoes	Completed the Cold War Strike Mission	0

NPCs

Allies

Charr

• Sentinel Centurion

Foes

Charr

• Dominion Axe Fiend
• Dominion Blademaster
• Dominion Bladestorm
• Dominion Bomber
• Dominion Duelist
• Dominion Engineer
• Dominion Fire Shaman
• Dominion Scout
• Dominion Sentinel
• Dominion Shadow
• Dominion Soldier
• Dominion Spy
• Dominion Stalker
• Elite Dominion Blademaster
• Elite Dominion Engineer
• Elite Dominion Fire Shaman
• Elite Dominion Soldier
• Elite Dominion Stalker
• Veteran Dominion Axe Fiend
• Veteran Dominion Blademaster
• Veteran Dominion Bladestorm
• Veteran Dominion Duelist
• Veteran Dominion Engineer
• Veteran Dominion Igniter
• Veteran Dominion Marksman
• Veteran Dominion Scout
• Veteran Dominion Smoke Shaman
• Veteran Dominion Soldier
• Veteran Dominion Spy
• Veteran Dominion Stalker

Constructs

• Propaganda Balloon
• Veteran Dominion Effigy

Icebrood

• Champion Corrupted Kodan
• Champion Ice Giant
• Champion Icebrood Beast
• Champion Icebrood Goliath
• Icebrood Claymore
• Icebrood Elemental
• Icebrood Goliath
• Icebrood Mauler
• Icebrood Quaggan
• Veteran Icebrood Elemental

Icebrood

• Varinia Stormsounder
• Veteran Frost Legion Cannoneer
• Veteran Frost Legion Crusher
• Veteran Frost Legion Musketeer

Imps

• Ice Imp
• Veteran Ice Imp

Skelks

• Alpine Skelk

Objects

• Anvil
• Charrzooka
• Pylon of Resilience
• Pylon of Valor
• Pylon of Vigilance
• United Legions Waystation

Dialogue

Speaking to the Sentinel Centurion

Thanks for the assistance, Commander. Is your squad ready to go?

Let's do this.

We're still waiting for more people to show up.

Interacting with the portal

Sentinel Centurion: Do you want to return to Drizzlewood Coast?

Yes.

I want to return to the Eye of the North.

Not right now.

During battle

Varinia Stormsounder: You cannot hope to defeat Bangar's forces.

Varinia Stormsounder: You haven't made a dent in our numbers.

Varinia Stormsounder: Look at what our imperator has achieved! You should have chosen his side.

Varinia Stormsounder: One by one, I'll raze your ranks!

Varinia Stormsounder: Infantry! Attack!

Varinia Stormsounder: Your minds are too weak to resist the coming storm!

Varinia Stormsounder: Engineers! Obliterate them!

Varinia Stormsounder: Assassins! Strike swiftly!

Varinia Stormsounder: Frost Legion! Cut them down!

Varinia Stormsounder: Specialists! Incinerate them!

Upon wipe

Varinia Stormsounder: United you fall! Frost Legion above all!

Version history

For a detailed location history, see here.

Patch	Changes
February 27, 2024	Post-victory achievements will now be rewarded much faster in Icebrood Saga strike missions to prevent the achievements from being missed if a player left the map too quickly after receiving their first rewards.
February 28, 2022	End of Dragons release: Icebrood Saga strike missions now reward Blue Prophet Shards and Blue Prophet Crystals. All Green and Red Prophet Shards and Green and Red Prophet Crystals have been converted to Blue Prophet Shards and Crystals, respectively.
April 27, 2021	Fixed an issue that caused the Eye of the North's prompt for daily strike achievements to be out of sync with the daily strike.
June 23, 2020	Updated the tooltip and description of   Artillery Strike to better communicate its damage, area of effect, and targets.
June 09, 2020	Fixed an issue in which some objects and enemy abilities were not removed after the event succeeded or reset. Fixed an issue that prevented Mastery points from the Morale Breaker achievement from properly unlocking inside the map. Any players who have previously earned the Mastery points but do not yet have them unlocked will acquire them on entering the Drizzlewood Coast or Cold War maps. Champions' defiance bars now properly react to defiance damage.
May 29, 2020	Fixed an issue that allowed players who were not present when the strike mission succeeded to loot reward chests.
May 28, 2020	Fixed an issue that allowed champions to exit the fighting area, causing them to lose aggression toward players. Fixed an issue that prevented the bonus chest counter from correctly updating.
May 27, 2020	Fixed an issue with players logging out.
May 26, 2020	Strike Mission: Cold War has been added to the game.

Trivia

• Prior to the February 28, 2022 game update, the strike mission rewarded shards depending on the weekly Emissary:
  • Blue Prophet Shard (5-11)
  • Green Prophet Shard (5-11)
  • Red Prophet Shard (5-11)

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Strike Missions

Living World Season 1	Old Lion's Court
The Icebrood Saga	Shiverpeaks Pass Voice of the Fallen and Claw of the Fallen Fraenir of Jormag Boneskinner Whisper of Jormag Forging Steel Cold War
End of Dragons	Aetherblade Hideout Xunlai Jade Junkyard Kaineng Overlook Harvest Temple
Secrets of the Obscure	Cosmic Observatory Temple of Febe
Wintersday	Secret Lair of the Snowmen (temporary)