Canada vs Desert

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Which zone did you find more fun gameplay/quest-wise, a better experience after the tutorial zone and environmentally superior?

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I find that I can go thru Canada faster after the tutorial then i can the desert. For some reason I feel like the desert is a bigger zone.

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I like the desert more, but you have to do both anyway

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I personally find the desert better.
It seems more fun because you change areas, so it doesn't look like you're always stuck in the same place.
Desert is also less chaotic in my opinion, in Canada there's just so much stuff lying around I keep running into mobs without knowing.

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I find the desert to have a better overall design. Geographically it presents a linear progression from area to area leading up to MC. Canada post-crisis has you flying all over the place in a radius relative to steelhead with some zones getting really close to high level zones.

Additionally, the fact that the PQ in crisis Canada is IN the base is bothersome to me. It's great for forcing people to get involved. It's annoying for people who don't want to be involved.

I also happen to really like the post-crisis desert PQ. It presents a strong difficulty in completion and feels really cool once you off the judge.

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For the Tutorial I always run Canada, it's just a bit better and you get more XP from it (I usually walk away just shy of L10)

Once I'm out of the Tutorials though I head to the Desert. Not because it's easier, but because there are less missions. If I go through Canada and do all it's content and then go to the Desert I will be roughly L14, with the Desert first, I'm just into L13, then I hit Canada and run all the missions up to around L15-16 and head to Millennium City. If I do it the other way around I'm a L14 fighting L8s and that's just not entertaining anymore.

Time wise I am up to L15 in about 4-5 hours give or take and then I can usually break L18 a couple-few hours after that. Then we get to the SLOW grind ;)


Additionally, the fact that the PQ in crisis Canada is IN the base is bothersome to me. It's great for forcing people to get involved. It's annoying for people who don't want to be involved.

I ALWAYS run this. The other day I got the tail end with my new character and scored a full bar of XP for 5 minutes of work. If you get a team together to run these a few times and do your missions in the respawn wait you can get up to L12 before leaving the starting zones. I don't think the Desert even has one of these...

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The desert is better for first-timers, as it is more progressive as someone above said. The canadian wilderness is much more chaotic, its a bit harder to get your bearings when you're just starting out, everything's just kinda happening all around you.

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I happen to like both for different reasons. I also kinda wish the desert crisis had an Open Mission like Canada crisis does. That does bring up a point though that you can get more experience and early levels starting in Canada crisis. I'll probably take the rest of my characters through Canada now.

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Canada is better because everyone is so polite. :p

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I have a hard time finding missions in Canada. I took my first 2 alts through the Desert and my third to Canada. At 11, I ran out of people to talk to in Canada so I had to send him to the Desert to move up in levels. I'm sure I'm just missing the Contacts, but I was looking all over the place in the frosty wilderness, and I just couldn't figure out what to do next.

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I think the OP is speaking more specifically about the crisis scenarios for each area since you can only go to one or the other of them.

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I think the OP is speaking more specifically about the crisis scenarios for each area since you can only go to one or the other of them.

Negative, you can do both. Just jump in the helicopter to the other zone.

Every alt I have done both crisis zones and both crisis ending instances.

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Negative, you can do both. Just jump in the helicopter to the other zone.

Every alt I have done both crisis zones and both crisis ending instances.

I just finished Canada and I went to go back to the Desert to finish the last Mission and it pushed me to the next phase of the Desert after it's crisis. It completed the Mission I had to take down Destroyers minion in there. Even though I never stepped into the vault on this character.
Were you supposed to complete only one crisis after the tutorial?

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You can level a lot more if you do the canadia one, because it's got a open mission right at the start and you won't find anything in CO that gives better exp. I was 10 leaving the tutorial, I love Open Bacons.

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I just finished Canada and I went to go back to the Desert to finish the last Mission and it pushed me to the next phase of the Desert after it's crisis. It completed the Mission I had to take down Destroyers minion in there. Even though I never stepped into the vault on this character.
Were you supposed to complete only one crisis after the tutorial?

You first do either crisis' missions, then when you get to the point of entering the final instance, you fly over to the other zone and do all of it's quests.

Then you do the desert instance (the vault) and rather than digging your way out, you keep going to the door and select "back to crisis", then go and do the canada instance normally.

Then back in the real world, you hand in the canada quest and then fly to the desert and hand in the desert quest. Both crisis' done.

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You first do either crisis' missions, then when you get to the point of entering the final instance, you fly over to the other zone and do all of it's quests.

Then you do the desert instance (the vault) and rather than digging your way out, you keep going to the door and select "back to crisis", then go and do the canada instance normally.

Then back in the real world, you hand in the canada quest and then fly to the desert and hand in the desert quest. Both crisis' done.

Ah Thanks!

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Trade-offs:

The desert, fortunately, does NOT have mid-20s Gadroon sitting just outside the 10th lvl quest area...

but you might serve as a landing cushion for Grond.