Fortaleza da Luz

This is a guide and turnin cheat sheet for the level 50 epic avcom mission Fortaleza da Luz (FdL), or as it's affectionately known to the initiated, "FortZilla".

Getting to Fortaleza
To unlock the Fortaleza exchange and turn in the drop items for the special swords (and to get the title of Regulator), you must accept the mission itself. To do so you must complete the prologue mission chain which begins with There Goes the Neighborhood offered by the deputy magistrate standing outside the Magistrate's Office in Puerto del Principe. All three missions are AvCom only, take place in the port and can be completed alone. The second and third missions, however, are much easier if attempted by two players.

The epic mission "Fortaleza da Luz" and the Fortaleza exchange are both offered by the priest in the church in Puerto del Principe. The first time you attempt Fortaleza you will also be offered the mission "Hazel's Trail" which is completed within Fortaleza itself. "Fortaleza da Luz" is repeatable, "Hazel's Trail" is not.

The mission itself is located on an island which does not appear on the map until you have accepted the mission. The island is not hard to find; if you draw an imaginary line between the ports of Havana and Turtling Bay, the Fortaleza island is roughly on the midpoint of that line.

There's a bug that makes the entrance to the island a little difficult to locate on the open sea. To enter the island, find the round turret that extends out of the visible fort. Park your ship on the open sea about five miles offshore from that point and you should be able to enter.

Game mechanics require a minimum of four group members to complete the mission, but you should only attempt it with a full group. Only a very strong group will be able to finish it with just five members. Double-check your supplies of Smelling Salts and Bandages! You should have at the very least 20 Smelling Salts and 30 Bandages each per run, and the group leader should easily carry twice as many Smelling Salts per run. An even higher supply is strongly recommended.

Important Notes
Each captain attending should come prepared with at least 20 smelling salts and 30 bandages, more being highly recommended. In addition to these supplies everyone should have completed the medical skills mission chain that starts in the tavern in Port Royal. These skills are Master Surgeon, an area of effect heal, Combat Medicine, an in combat heal, and Resuscitate, a supplementary revive that boosts initiative of the recipient. Without these the team becomes less flexible and therefore less capable.

Boss fights occur in locked areas of the map, so should a captain fall in battle they will need to be revived by another member of the party. Should the fallen member select "Give Up" they will be deposited outside of Fortaleza and will need to reenter the instance and run back to the arena. However, they will be unable to rejoin the fight, so this method is highly inadvisable.

Fighting Kan-Bahlum
Once you kill Kan-Bahlum, his totems disappear and he drops some pretty good loot. His Enormous Bludgeon appears as a Dirty Fighting sword. Among the personal equipment items he drops are Scott Hazel's Trodders, Kan-Bahlum's Fang and Crusader's Sash. These items are not tradeable and he will only drop two random ones of them.

IMPORTANT: You should not revive yourself while fighting Kan-Bahlum or any other boss you encounter. When you respawn you will be trapped by a gate and you will not be able to help your group fight the boss. All group members should be ready to revive or resuscitate their fallen comrades at all times during this mission and especially in boss fights.

Vassals and Minions
As you continue through the corridors, you will encounter more vassals, attacking in pairs. Some of them will come from behind so stay together and watch your backs! Vassals are zombie-like enemies with strong health and powerful attacks. The Savage Vassals are the most dangerous variety and should be killed first. Roaring Vassals have very good damage reduction and take the longest to kill, so save them for last. Vassals will randomly drop tradeable turnin items needed for the Dirty Fighting and Fencing swords.

There is one point where you will fight on a landing near a large cog wheel labeled "Strange Machinery". Here, vassals will come at you from the front and behind. If you self-revive here, you will spawn in the courtyard where you fought Kan-Bahlum and possibly be barred by a gate.

Once you reach the fortress ramparts, you leave the vassals behind and start fighting swarms of minions. Minions are weaker than vassals but they attack in large packs. Fortunately they will go down to just a few area-of-effect pistol shots and attacks. The minions randomly drop the tradeable turnin itmes needed for the Dirty Fighting and Florentine swords.

Pacal and Friends
After fighting the minions on the ramparts, you cross a bridge and reach the doors of the cathedral at the heart of the fortress. The Regulators you met in the prologue missions are there waiting for you. (How they got past Kan-Bahlum and the hordes of killer zombies is never explained.) Speak to Deirdre O'Malley to close the "Hazel's Trail" sub-mission. You will get another objective (a new sub-mission for first-timers) to kill someone called Pacal. Acan will give you an antidote to Pacal's venom, found in your personal inventory under Consumable Items. Add that to your hotbar and head downstairs.

You have a couple more hordes of minions to hack through before you reach the beach. Once you leave the tunnel and reach the beach, most of the team should turn right and back into the corner at the water's edge. You will be safe from attack there. The group leader gets to turn left and provoke Mr. Pacal.

Pacal does not have that much health, but he can replenish his guard very quickly by eating his pet war scorpions. Concentrate on Pacal, using as many attacks that directly affect health as possible (like the Bleeding effect). Use Acan's Antidote when you get a warning about being poisened.

Once Pacal dies, he might drop his Florentine weapon called Pacal's Blood Fetish. He may also instead drop a Dirty Fighting sword called the Instrument of Sacrifice, which looks like and is a huge scimitar covered in sharks' teeth. He will also drop one of several personal equipment items including the Clasp of Pacal or Chitinous Handguards.

Watch out for three more war scorpions that will come after you to avenge their fallen master.

Again: Do not self-revive if you are killed while fighting Pacal. You will spawn in the tunnel and will be unable to reach Pacal.

The Cathedral
Return to the front of the cathedral and report to the regulators for your next objective. Before entering the cathedral, make sure you get a Spirit Trap from Otieno Marquez (a Useable Item) and make sure you know where it is on your hotbar. A bug occasionally presents where not all players receive a Spirit Trap. This is usually caused by someone attempting to talk to O'Malley or Marquez while the group leader is in the dialogue. To fix this, either the group leader or the player who interrupted can simply leave Fortaleza, then re-enter and return to the rest of the group at the cathedral.

Start the dialogue inside the cathedral, but don't click your line that says "(finish)" until the team is in position. This is a good point to explain to your group members how you intend to fight. There are four unholy demons in here and they are one of the hardest group of enemies you will fight anywhere else in the game.

The best way to deal with them is for two group members to be the team medics, and remain on the floor where the cathedral is entered. The others will go up to the raised platforms to the left and right of there (two fighters each), all the way round to the very edges near the entrance of the cathedral. If the fighters remain stationary at this position, the medics will be able to revive the team members as soon as they fall. The medics can be kept out of combat for most of the time if the fighters immediate shoot and grenade any demons attacking the medics.

The demons are Chac Pak the Lizard (Green), Chac Kuk the Eel (Purple), Chak Ix the Kestrel (Orange) and Chac Muan the Shaman (White). Before you start the fight, you can plan ahead which one you want to defeat last. You will only get loot drops from the last one you defeat, and Pak, Kuk or Ix each drop unique items needed to complete the turnin set you need for the swords at the Fortaleza Exchange back in Puerto del Principe. Pak is a Dirty Fighter, Kuk is a Fencer, and Ix is a Florentine. Their turnin drops complete the appropriate set for the turnin sword (or can be turned in for a facepaint). So if for instance you want to dice on Chac Kuk's Spine to complete the set for the turnin to get one of the Fencing swords from the exchange, you must defeat Chac Kuk last. Muan will drop his own ashes (which can be turned in at the exchange for a facepaint) and two of several unique and powerful personal equipment items or swords, among them a Fencing sword called Maximiniano's Legacy. Pak, Kuk or Ix only drop one of these items in addition to their own unique turnin drop.

When the fight begins, the demons will search for a body to posses. Fortunately for them, there are plenty of dead corpses lying around. And so you will be fighting not the demons themselves, but rather their "instruments". You fight the Instrument of Chac Pak and the Instrument of Chak Ix and so on. When the instrument is dead, the demon possesing it will flee - hindering its attackers with a short range stun - and will then be vulnerable to capture until he finds another body to posses. You must deploy a Spirit Trap to capture him before he finds himself a new instrument! Get close to the flying demon, which has the form of a mask, and activate your trap. Once a trap has caught a demon, that group member can't use his trap anymore. When each demon is defeated, he will grant bonuses to the others still fighting you.

Once again: Do not self-revive during this fight! You will respawn outside the cathedral and will not be able to re-enter it. The exception to this rule is the not-unlikely case that everyone gets killed before they can revive each other. Then everyone should self-revive. Do not click Give Up! You will be able to re-enter the mission and catch up, but you might lose your Spirit Trap and you won't be able to get it back. Make sure you have enough Smelling Salts to revive yourself before entering the cathedral.

If you intend to run the mission again to farm it for drops, then everyone should leave the mission immediately after getting the loot drops from the final boss. Do not talk to the regulators as the objective indicates, or you will have to go all the way back to Puerto del Principe to accept the mission again.

Exchange
Once you have unlocked the mission "Fortaleza da Luz", the priest in Puerto del Principe will offer you an exchange for the drop items you collect in Fortaleza. There are two swords for each fighting style:

The Dirty Fighting turnin swords Obsidian Claw or Obsidian Fang need:
 * Chac Pak's Fang (dropped by Chac Pak if defeated last),
 * Garra da Pacal (tradeable random drop),
 * Macahuitl Blade (tradeable random drop).

The Fencing turnin swords Spinesplitter or Spinecrusher need:
 * Chac Kuk's Spine (dropped by Chac Kuk if defeated last),
 * Cruz de Cazador (tradeable random drop),
 * Remnant of Coban (tradeable random drop).

The Florentine turnin swords Sightless Corseca or Sightless Watchman need:
 * Chac Ix's Talon (dropped by Chac Ix if defeated last),
 * Minion's Chitin (tradeable random drop),
 * War Scorpion's Stinger (tradeable random drop).

Or instead, all of the unique elements dropped by the boss demons (including Chac Muan) can be turned in to unlock different face accents (facepaints) for your outfit.

All of the tradeable items can be "cleansed" and used to unlock a jewelry item (necklace) for your outfit.