Nicholas The Traveler – Gold Doubloons

Week 37 of Nicholas The Traveler’s scavenger hunt brought me to Nightfall territory. It’s amazing how many forgotten corners there are in Tyria. If not for Nicholas, I might never have seen them. Oh sure… it’s the usual click… click… click… kill, just like anywhere else in the game; but there’s something about these weekly adventures that brings Guild Wars to a new level. There’s lore, there’s loot and there’s opportunity. I’m seeing new places and making new friends… in a game that I’ve been playing for almost six years. Anyway, I’m not here to get nostalgic. This article is about how to complete this week’s objective – Gold Doubloons in the Barbarous Shore.

Here’s the official text…

Corsair Lieutenant dropped the first Gold Doubloon. But unfortunately, I lost my Internet connection before I could pick it up. I suppose this is not as bad as it could have been. I’m farming coins with PHOTICS, not TANK. Losing one coin is annoying, but it would have been worse to lose the Legendary Survivor title. My recently restarted Ranger is only on the first tier of that title track.

Many of you might be unfamiliar with the Barbarous Shore. It’s in Nightfall, east of Pogahn Passage. That direction will send you to Camp Hojanu. It’s the outpost next to the Barbarous Shore. Previously, Camp Hojanu was nothing to me. But today, it was alive with player activity. The sky exploded with fireworks and the trade channel was riddled with spam. I was tempted to simply skip the Gold Doubloon farming. Depending on luck and the speed of your kills, it can take hours and hours to get the five coins. I could bypass the tedium and skip straight to the prize. Yet, I also knew that I risked disrespecting  this community if I didn’t choose to fight. For some reason, I catch a little flak for trying to take the easy route.

So there I was, killing Corsairs. Right away, a Corsair Lieutenant dropped the first Gold Doubloon. But unfortunately, I lost my Internet connection before I could pick it up. I suppose this is not as bad as it could have been. I’m farming coins with PHOTICS, not TANK. Losing one coin is annoying, but it would have been worse to lose the Legendary Survivor title. My recently restarted Ranger is only on the first tier of that title track.

You might run into some Blood Cowl Hekets. Their loot is immaterial to me. I’m just going to leave that Heket Tongue on the ground… yuck! I basically ran with my Mini-Zookeeper build from last time. It was my heroes, our pets and me. The seven of us were chewing it up… but the coins weren’t dropping fast enough. I eventually cut down my team size to one hero. Two pets and two fighters can easily overcome a group of three Corsairs. Even with this streamlined group, the coins weren’t dropping as fast as I would have liked. Although, I was impressed with the amount of crafting material that I was collecting.

• 19 Bolts of Cloth
• 67 Tanned Hide Squares
• 16 Bolts of Linen
• 50 Wood Planks from a highly salvageable  Shortbow

That’s what’s funny about the Nicholas missions. I don’t know if I’ll ever get a Gwen doll. But if I keep at this every week, I should be able to buy one from another player… eventually. But as far as this week’s reward from Nicholas, it was pitiful.

• 10 Sparklers
• 10 Hunter’s Ales
• 5 Mysterious Tonics
• 10 Honeycombs
• 5 Mysterious Summoning Stones

I trashed the Summoning Stones and I let TANK waste the Sparklers. But something surprising happened when I used the Mysterious Tonics. A few weeks back, I used the Mysterious Tonics to transform me into a Gwen Doll. It was adorable. To have some fun, I started following players around… just as Gwen would act in Pre-Searing. Surprisingly, most people seemed to ignore me. But this week, it was a little different. Beetle Metamorphosis might be a bit harder to ignore. I rolled around Gunnar’s Hold as a Roller Bettle. It quickly got attention. The Mysterious Tonics can be a lot of fun. I think I’ll combine it with Fruitcake (increased running speed in outposts) to see what happens. Usually, I would just waste the tonic… drink… port… drink… port… just to advance my party animal title. Yet, it really does add life to the party. An outpost can be an opportunity to socialize with fellow Guild Wars players.