Warnet Caverns

Overview
The Warnet caverns are a crystal-rich network of naturally occurring caves. The Cormans initially held these caves and used them for scientific research, but their electronic devices stirred up the Warnets. The Bane are unable to gain a foothold in the Warnet Caverns due to the aggressiveness of the Warnets themselves. Though Xanx infiltrated the caverns they have made little progress.

This counts as a Palisades operation towards the Palisades Targets of Opportunity. The instance takes a little over an hour to complete.

Bestiary

 * Level 17, 18 and 19 Irate Warnet Soldiers (the level 19s appear only in the final chamber)
 * Level 17 and 18 Miasmas
 * Level 19 Queen Warnet Matriarch

Contrary to the introduction there are no Xanx in the Warnet Caverns.

Map areas

 * Warnet Caverns - near the entrance
 * Upper Chambers - the initial cave area around the first Research Base Camp chamber up to the fork
 * Research Base Camp - the large chamber in the south west of the map
 * The Lower Passage - the right-hand path at the fork through a 'gate' where the mine walls are reinforced
 * Upper Passages - the left-hand path at the fork past some sandbags to the Bug City area
 * Bug City - the east-most area south of the second Research Base Camp chamber with several Hanging Hives
 * Research Base Camp - the second large chamber in the north east of the map

NPCs

 * Field Medic Grant - female, AFS, level 20, medical vendor at entrance
 * Information Spec. Brumley - male, AFS, level 20, mission giver
 * Information Spec. Gooding - male, AFS, level 20
 * Information Spec. Sides - male, AFS, level 20

Walkthrough
I soloed this instance successfully with a level 20 Commando in a little over an hour. Rup 00:46, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Proceed down the tunnel killing warnets as you go. You will shortly reach a sandbagged area where you'll meet the instance's four AFS NPS. One of the AFS Information Specialists (Brumley?) will give you the first mission of the instance: you must escort the them to the first Research Base Camp cavern, clear the cavern of Warnets and reboot the three computers in the cavern. (At this point I received the ToO operation credit - a bug?)

(Note that if you leave and return to the instance you'll find the three Information Specialists waiting at the entrance to the Research Base Camp cavern and you'll need to clean out the cavern again before you can get further missions from them.)

Next Brumley will ask you to escort him to a second cavern; return to the Upper Chambers area and proceed east, taking the right hand fork into The Lower Passage through the mine 'gate'. You'll now meet your first Miasma. Clear out the escort target cavern and talk to Brumley again for the third mission "Create the Queen Lure". Go to the back of the cave and find the metal box for the mission near a low wall. Also search the large crate at the back of the cave for some kit.

(If you complete the second escort mission then leave the instance then Brumley will remain in the first base camp for this and any future missions; you'll still need to collect the metal container from this cave, though.)

Proceed into the Bug City area. Explore the chamber to the south for some kit in a large crate. Kill enough bugs to collect the components Gooding requires and return to him in the Research Base Camp chamber for the final quest, "Kill the Queen".

Return to Bug City and proceed north into the second Research Base Camp chamber. Here you will encounter the first level 19 warnets. Wipe out the warnets near the entrance then place the Queen Lure at the marker; beware that, as Gooding warned you, you will be attacked by a large group of warnets as soon as you've placed the marker. Fight your way around the lake to find the Queen Warnet Matriarch in the north with a white halo; she is significantly tougher than the other warnets. Kill her and collect the Warnet goo from her corpse for Brumley. Beware that you will again be attacked by a large number of warnets as soon as you kill the Queen. Before you leave the cavern search the northern end (near where you found the queen) for another large crate with 2-3 items of kit.

Finally return to Brumley to complete the instance.

'Possible bug:' When I did this mission on 12/29/08, step 1 of Kill the Queen completed instantly. Only the Queen spawned, no other Warnets before I killed it or after. Mission completed normally when I turned in the item I looted from her to Brumley. Hickson 04:09, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Points of Interest
Crate at loc 286, 51, 16. Crate at loc 140, 36, 50. Crate at loc 280, 4.5, 394. Crate at loc 19, 97, -86. The Metal Container is NOT in a crate, it's by a pile of sandbags