Safeguard/Mayhem Missions
Last Modified: April 4, 2009
When you get one of these, your goal is to either rob or protect the bank in an instanced outdoor city zone. How they work varies on which side of the law you're on:
Mayhems
Most every detail about the rewards and such for Mayhems can be found at Paragonwiki so I won't repeat that here. Instead, here are some gameplay tips:
Be careful since you have a timer immediately from entering the mission and have only 15 minutes to complete the robbery. However, you can earn time by destroying everything in sight (which is way fun by the way) which also eventually earns you a badge.
As you approach the bank and move around in the zone, every now and then, you'll see some NPC chat that says something like "Freeze Villains!". That's a signal that a Longbow ambush is heading your way. Generally it's best to hold up and wait for them because if you keep moving, several more ambushes could spawn quickly overwhelming you and your team.
One fun, but dangerous way to complete mayhems is to run straight to the bank first thing. If you do, be aware that several Longbow ambushes will be coming for you and will follow you into the bank. Generally, you want to enter the bank immediately then wait at the door. Clear all the Longbow as they enter and when they stop, continue the robbery.
To complete the mission, you have to fight all the way to the vault, destroy the door, grab the money, then defeat the random hero who spawns to stop you. After completion, you will earn a Mayhem reward (if you're in the right level range and haven't had it before) and can exit. However, there are a few reasons to stick around.
First, there is an exploration badge hidden in every Mayhem zone. If you get each badge for each mayhem, you get an accolade power. Second, you get more badges for destroying stuff and for doing Arson side missions. These badges are needed for a second accolade power.
Safeguards
These are very similar in function to the Mayhems, but aren't as fun. Still, it's highly worth doing them if you like badges and especially for the temporary powers.
When you enter, you're not on a timer yet. You just go around clearing out the enemies you see though you can ignore them and go straight for the bank if you want. When you get close to the bank, an alert sounds that the bank is being robbed. When that happens you better get in there fast.
A random villain will be busy breaking into the vault and you can chase them into the bank and fight them, but it's usually far easier to just wait and let them come to you at the entrance. As soon as you see them, defeat them and whoever's with them and you win!
After completion a timer starts which gives you 15 minutes to finish up any side missions or try to get the explore badge if you haven't done those already. Waves of vandals show up destroying items (which subtracts from your time), but you can gain time by defeating them and completing side missions.
