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Game Mechanics

There are three types of lairs:

• Mission Lairs
• Wild Lairs
• Invisible Lairs

There is a maximum number that the lair spawns, this set of critters is called a "wave". I will define the "wave amount" as this maximum number.

The parts of a lair

• Creature Type
• Spawn Size
• Condition

Part I: Lair Science There are 3 types of lairs, and 2 types of behavior... but first I need to define the "wave".

In the 2 types of behavior there is a maximum number that the lair spawns, this set of critters is called a "wave". I will define the "wave amount" as this maximum number. Usually, if nothing has killed off a critter or 2 or they wandered off a far distance, the number of critters you see when you first encounter the lair is this "wave amount". This set of critters is the initial wave.

The 2 types of behavior is Active and Passive. Most are aquanted with Active behavior. If you hit a Mission lair, critters will pop out. Creatures emerge from a lair

The Passive behavior is seen in the "invisible" lair. Shoot and kill a critter, another critter will pop up to replace it about one minute later. The initial wave, plus 3 more waves will show up unless the server triggers a spawn replacement. Now for the lairs...

Lair types are Mission, Invisible and Natural lairs. Mission lairs can be determined by the name of the lair containing the name of the defender. For example, "a Tattared Torton lair" or "a Wrix Pack lair". These type can be "generated" by the mission terminals. The other 2 can be found just roaming the wilderness. The visible ones will be named things like "a Nest" or "a Warren" or "a pile of rocks".

The Mission lair exibits only Active behavior. All lairs have the initial wave but in a mission lair you can stand all day and not get another critter to show after you kill the initial wave. Hit the lair, however, and you get another wave. When the lair crosses just under half of its hit points in damage another wave comes out. Invisible lairs exibit only passive behavior, there is no lair to defend. You have to wait for the respawn on those. Natural lairs are the fusion of both behaviors. Kill the initial wave and another pops up. Hit the lair and the initial wave will come after you AND spawn defenders to heal the lair... and come after you. It is possible to be fighting 2 full waves at once in a visible, natural lair. This is not a bug or a server "hiccup", this is working as intended.

If after this "server hiccup" you find the lair fully healed you know that someone in your party hit the lair that should not have. .

Part II: Hunting Techniques I had to insert this postumously, as it was the end of the day at work hense the edited/reposted state.

We will go over the 3 kinds of lairs, worked by 2 kinds of hunters: Solo hunters and hunter parties. First we knock off the invisible lairs. Nothing new here other then the skills you learn hunting a particular spieces. Techniques for hunting particular spieces is beyond the scope of this post and there are guides out there for who is BAF and who is not and also require knowledge of the professions, toughness of the creature, etc. What is in the scope of this treatise is the relationship to the wave and the lair and order of battle.

Therefore (with all that out of the way) invisible lairs, those exibiting only Passive behavior, you simply kill the initial wave and lay in ambush for the rest of the spawn (EQ/UO called this "camping", but there the spawn system facilitated this far more readily and had a different flavor).

An aside: Corpse Rot It has been often bemoaned that the bodies from a kill vanish too fast. This is not quite true. You have to develop a technique for this in groups. Solo hunters will not have this problem unless you manually loot, then harvest, such that you allow a problem. How it works is while a dead critter is on the ground, untouched, the body is available for about 3 to 5 munites (I never really timed this). However, if a body has been looted and/or harvested, by ANYONE, you have 30 seconds before *poof*.

When hunting in a group, what you should probably do is assign your leader as the most knowledged about the wave amounts for a creature an let him signal when the wave has been killed. Then AND ONLY THEN should anyone harvest the critters. This way 30 seconds is just about enough time for all to get a share and ultimately maximized your total production. My euphimizm for this is "Ninja Harvest" .

In the aformentioned invisible lair you can probably get away with kill the wave, harvest, then kill and harvest the rest as they respawn. If the server spawns them in a group it would be best to wait for the whole wave to show but I have not seen regular behavior here, so you can play that one by ear. With mission lairs it's a pretty easy sequence:

1. kill initial wave 2. harvest 3. TAP the lair and wait for full wave to show then kill it (or ambush kill, but don't harvest yet till the wave is dead) 4. harvest 5. shoot the lair until JUST BEFORE you have damaged it to half of the lairs hitpoints. Whatever you do STOP SHOOTING IF YOU SEE A CRITTER COME OUT 6. wait for full wave (as in step 3) 7. harvest 8. Crazy go nuts. The lair is empty at that point, but some have "bosses" at the end of the lairs HP so be mindfull of that.

Definition: Tap the lair; shoot or otherwise hit the lair ONCE then peace.

Now we come to the part that is more art then science: visible, natural lairs. Remember: both behaviors are in play. You probably can do the Mission lair sequence, and then pop off the Passive waves as you go. However, if you are not an experienced group or the critter is particurly powerful I'd go for first applying the Invisiable lair technique (kill the Passive waves first) then finish the lair with the rest of the Mission lair technique. If you are solo hunting low level you can tap the lair and use AoE specials (Area of Effect) to get the passive and active waves going at once and save you time. I use this technique to get all 30 bunnies from a Crazed Durni lair in a matter of 10 minutes.

Part III: Summary If you do it right, you should see the following yields: Mission Lair: Initial wave + 2 Active waves = 3 x wave amount. Invisible Lair: Initial wave + 3 Passive waves = 4 x wave amount. Natural Lair: Initial wave + 2 Active waves + 3 passive = 6 x wave amount.

Wave amounts I can verify:

6: Have seen them but cannot verify

5: Durni, Crazed Durni, Paralope, Murra, Tabbage, Krahbu, Violent Krahbu, Slice Hounds, Dire Cats (yes, I have hunted on Corellia a LOT)

4: There are some, but none I can say for certain. I think regular Rancors... but those might also come in wave amounts of 5.

3: Tortons and Ravinous Tortons. Maaaaaaybe Mutant Rancors... or was that another type? Waves amounts of 2 and 1 exist, I cannot be certain which, however.

Conclusion on wave amounts: they seem to be a function of difficulty level.

Safe hunting out there and remember n00bs: DON'T HIT THE LAIR IF CRITTERS ARE OUT

Source References