Levelling Athena is so unforgivably long...

  • Kapitein Kater
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    After some advice on what is the fastest method to raise Athena, me and another person settled down to do 2x Athena run on Thieves Haven, get emissary flag, and sell all.

    This, though, was met with a very disappointing and irritable outcome... 2 Athena Runs are not enough to even get grade 5. We weren't even CLOSE, hardly past Grade 4. (Some people in the discord said that instances even exist where 3 Athena Runs even often aren't enough, but we got lucky since we got 3 Athena Kegs).

    Okay, so what are the alternatives? There's Athena Voyages... Which are complete trash. 8 clues, only of which 4 give Athena Items (+ a chest at the end). The cargo runs never give athena items, nor flag progress, and the pirate captain run has only a 1 in 32 chance to drop a Skull, meaning a 25% chance to drop ONE glorious skull in all 8 captains.

    So eventually, we settle for a grade 4 flag then, even though we had plenty of Athena items. I think about 15 chalices, 5 ornaments, 3 kegs, 4 skulls, and 6 crates. That, combined with a grade 4 flag drop, only raised me a little over ONE level (from 6 to 7). My partner who was Athena 13, only got HALF a level.

    The 2 thieves haven runs took us around 3 hours duo, where we fully committed to the "one digs, one clue-solves" strategy, the fastest method possible, and that didn't even bring us anywhere.

    Can I just swiftly mention how horribly slow Athena levels? 1 Thieves Haven run only gives you HALF a level while absorbing 1.5 hours of your time pre-10, and only a quarter past 10. And its alternative, being Athena Voyages, are even WORSE than while demanding just as much time - if not more.

    I know Athena is often memed of being slow, but holy heck, this isn't at all what looks like normal company level progression. 90 gameplay hours of dedicated Athena duo play for reaching Athena 20?

  • Login To Reply
    34
    Posts
    35.1k
    Views
  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    You should get Grade 5 from doing 2 runs but there is currently a bug with picking up some loot not counting towards your emissary grade (this is not Athena specific).

  • Kapitein Kater
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @d3adst1ck Fun to know... but that doesn't change the horrid Company XP ratio as well as the Voyages being utter trash.

  • iTz Majman
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    They have hinted on new Athena voyages, i wouldn't even bother leveling until the new one comes out.

  • JollyOlsteamed
    Captain
    Insider

    Athenas need a bit of a rework to encourage more people to do them and the time it takes to do them often isnt worth the time it takes to do them

  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    As it should be.

    If it were easy like Gold Hoarders, then after you max out you be back here complaining about nothing else to do.

  • ajm123
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    Athena is end game don't worry about it. One voyage at a time my friend

  • TidalFurball290
    Ship Mate

    A month ago i was working on gold hoarders for 45 mins, and by the time I had 15 chests, mostly captains, I had hardly got past grade two. this is not an athena specific emmissary grade issue. Anyway, the rep has to be slow, because athena only has 20 levels

  • Kapitein Kater
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @burnbacon Well I'm not saying it shouldn't be. But 90 hours of maxing time compared to 10 hours of maxing time compared to any other emmisary voyage company, is ridicillious. On top of that, Voyages were meant to be "the" way to get that rank up the best, yet that now is not the case.

  • Captain Coel
    Commander
    Insider

    @uri5718 only 90 hrs for lvl 20? Sounds great, when I got to level 10 it took us like 120-150 hours. Man this emissary stuff has made it easy.

  • Kapitein Kater
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @captain-coel I mean, that is 90 hours using the fastest method possible duo sloop.

  • Captain Coel
    Commander
    Insider

    @uri5718 when I did it, 120-150 was the fastest to get to level 10. Those damn animal deliveries really slowed it down.

  • SemelweisReflex
    Marauder

    @uri5718 I did a few Thieves Haven runs on my way to Lvl20, but my favorite was just to do Devils Roar athena voyages on a sloop duo. If you want to speed them up you don't have to deliver the cargo - just pick it up and drop it straight away.
    Every now and then they have a double XP weekend. Keep an eye out and take advantage of these times if you are trying to level up fast: Double XP on top of the grade 5 multiplier while delivering ashen chests of legends is pretty nice.

  • Johnhp1
    Captain
    Insider

    Ok pirate heroes...to increase your rep faster while doing thieves haven runs you will need to work side voyages.

    1. Sink any Skeleton sloop or galleon.
    2. Kill island Skelton captains and do the Missions.
    3. Pick up message in the bottles and complete the bottle missions.
    4. Kill Megs.

    By doing the above you should be level 4.5 with 1 thieves haven mission.
    Start your second thieves haven or a normal Athena mission and you will hit level 5.
    Start your emissary and if your running an Athena mission you will have 2 chests to turn in.

    A hate to say it but
    you have grind for it. Athena chests don’t float in the ocean for you to pick up.

  • Kapitein Kater
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @johnhp1 thieves haven runs only have a low chance of actually dropping a Chest of Legends.

  • GaliBestofSky
    Rogue
    Insider

    it is right that farm athena is difficult, because Athena is very exclusive and therefore the emmissary flag is difficult to do, otherwise everyone would be level 20. Besides, your loot didn't even look so good to me.

    Excuse me for any errors, I'm not a mother leanguage

  • Kapitein Kater
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @galibestofsky 3 barrels is pretty big for a double athena voyage.

  • GaliBestofSky
    Rogue
    Insider

    @uri5718 But you had only an Ahena Chest

  • Black Eye9800
    Sailor
    Insider

    I actually don't complain about it leveling up slowly, but iam completely annoyed by the fact, that 80% of the Athenas quests give you non Athenas items, where you have 0 multiplier on the gold. Athens should give more gold to all treasures found.
    Also i find it really boring, that there is not a single athenas specific quest so far.

  • Kapitein Kater
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @galibestofsky I didn't say anywhere I had an athena's chest.

  • Johnhp1
    Captain
    Insider

    @uri5718 said in Levelling Athena is so unforgivably long...:

    @johnhp1 thieves haven runs only have a low chance of actually dropping a Chest of Legends.

    If you get to 4.5 Athena Emissary level from 1 Thieves Haven and do all the things I listed to do along the way and if you have completed your Thieves Haven mission. I suggest dropping an Athena Mission and start it.

    Once you complete a couple of Athena mission locations and pick up some Athena items you become Athena emissary 5.
    Grab your Emissary level 5 bonus mission from an outpost and complete both the Emissary and the Athena mission.
    You should get 2 Athena chests to turn in at Level 5.

  • cooliocam
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    Considering it took my crew 25 minutes to hit grade 5 reaper off of a world event, yeah something new has to be implemented. Athena should always take the longest/hardest to complete, but 3-5 hours to hit grade 5 and do the emissary quest is craziness. I’m already maxed, but helping my crew level up is joyless compared to any other emissary. I’m out of ideas for a new quest system though. Anybody have any?

  • Kapitein Kater
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @johnhp1 those are the normal athena voyages, not the thieves haven run. And the final chest is the only worthwhile thing in it, the rest is utterly bad and takes SUPER long to complete.

  • Johnhp1
    Captain
    Insider

    @uri5718 you have noI idea what I’m typing about ...thank you for you kind misinformed reply’s.
    Good Luck to you and your future adventures.

  • MostExpendable
    Lord
    Insider

    My sincerest advice is to stop grinding athena. Wait until it gets updated with better content. Until then, just hunt other people doing thieves haven runs and fort of the damned’s. It’s more fun and far more satisfying.

  • Greengrimz
    Marauder

    @itz-majman said in Levelling Athena is so unforgivably long...:

    They have hinted on new Athena voyages, i wouldn't even bother leveling until the new one comes out.

    Intriguing. I didn't hear that. Can't wait.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    Whenever another crew gets wind of our Thieve's Haven Athena run, we just cancel and start a regular or DR Athena run to throw them through a loop. Waiting for us at TH? Bye! 👋😄

  • MastaFrag52
    Sailor

    I find the leveling less irritating than working toward commendations or the ghost livery set. The Pirate Lord voyages are trash! Completed one this morning and finished with one crate of legendary voyages and one gilded chalice. Why doe he have pirate legends doing his grunt work for foul skulls and seafarer chests. It's a joke. I understand this is supposed to be exclusive but I sail a sloop with a friend and after a year of completing a Thieve's Haven run almost every weekend, we only have 27 ancient black powder kegs and 30 or so villainous skulls of ancient fortune. Sure, we could have taken better advantage of Larinna's legendary powder quests during the festival of giving but it shouldn't be such a grind. And of course Thieve's Haven and Crook's Hollow are a damn magnet for Reaper's Bone's emmissairies so there's a number of weeks we surrendered our loot after being sunk. There should be some way, maybe buy a special pirate lord voyage for 100,000 gold or something that guarantees a few of the most rare skulls or powder kegs; maybe something more like a tall tale. Anything, please, so it's not a weekly grind.

  • PandaHat
    Seafarer

    I agree with @mastafrag52

    Five items for a PL voyage (incl the Chest of Legends) from the Pirate Lord is terrible. The sense of progress is gone. That would be my advice to a new player - If you like checking boxes and leveling up, don't bother with trying to get to Pirate Legend, there's really nothing waiting for you. If you just like the game for getting generic loot, then you'll be fine.

    The Thieves Haven run is fine, but it's the only run there is...

  • Johnhp1
    Captain
    Insider

    @pandahat

    Remember Original Athena missions where set up to help crew that where not pirate legends. To help them become pirate Legend.
    Now that you have to be level 75 the current Athena still helps you achieve that.
    Nothing wrong with it the way it is.
    I got to level 3 Athena emissary without running an Athena mission.
    3 Skeleton sloops, 2 megs and 1 island skeleton captain and his mission.
    Run 1 Thieves Haven and your pretty darn close to level 5 Athena emissary.

  • AribAlam
    Lord
    Insider

    Leveling Athena’s Fortune is supposed to be tough, it’s an endgame trading company. They probably will add a new voyage to the company since they’re doing it for the rest, so you could just wait a couple months. Just be glad you weren’t here when the game came out, you would need a microscope to see the rep go up,

  • Hockey Sniping
    Rogue

    Yeah if I wanna get my level up a little bit it takes like 12 hours. Really tedious and annoying. They should make voyages give you rep at the end or something to buff the rep gain.

  • GaliBestofSky
    Rogue
    Insider

    @kapitein-kater For me it's not a bug... then think about it however you want

  • Scorp2821
    Marauder
    Insider

    A. It’s not that hard
    B. It’s intention is to be a grind

Login To Reply
34
Posts
35.1k
Views
1 out of 34