Battling the Spina - Tips & Tricks!

We’ve asked Entropians on the Planet Calypso Forum what their tips and tricks are for handling the invasive species Spina!

At the end of 2023, pieces of a spaceship crashed into Planet Calypso, from which the Spina emerged. The various types of Spina have a threat level from mid to high, and their arrival to the planet offers missions and interesting loot for those who dare to face them! Check various helpful tips from the Entropian community below - You may find something to help you battle the Spina sooner rather than later!


► Tips for battling the Spina

Angela Draniie Cloud

“Don't go alone! These dangerous creatures have a new ability to ABSORB damage of certain types! Bring multiple weapons and don't forget your cute furry pets to help you tackle these ferocious creatures! Succeed, and you and your allies can earn new undiscovered treasures beyond your wildest Entropia dreams!”

h4mmer 4nd s1ckle

“For me, best place to hunt them would be near East Scylla Mt, that's where u find the low maturity. Melee weapons give you big lifesteal capabilities, you’d be surprised how well you'll heal yourself with armtrix sb -xx and lifesteal amp. Bring a tagger because spawns are little dense but not large, I’d suggest getting the smallest tagger since they regen quick and using less to tag you'll be losing less.. z12 with range enhancers would be great IMO. Bring a scanner with you so you can scan creature and see what type of protection it has. If you don’t have armor; bring a healer.”

Inherent Marxus Legends

“Here are my Spina Drone recommendations:

The Spina Drones have a resistance against incoming Impact damage, therefore, check your weapon's damage before heading out there. Most Laser guns, like ArMatrix LR/LP for example, are fine, as they usually do a combination of Burn & Penetration damage. Be sure to also check the damage type of the amplifier on your weapon; the crafted MindForce amps for example deal Impact damage, so that makes them useless against the Spina Drones. If you get a yellow number with a shield symbol appearing above the Spina Drone every time you hit it, that's a warning that some amount of the damage your dealing is being blocked by the Spina Drone.

Spina Drones do indeed inflict a combination of Stab, Penetration and Acid damage, however it seems that it does this in 2 seperate attacks; a ranged attack and a close combat attack. 

L50 Spina Drones deal a maximum of 111 points of damage. This damage is dealt as follows:

  1. Max 44 points of Stab damage (approx. 40% of total)
  2. Max 44 points of Acid damage (approx. 40% of total)
  3. Max 23 points of Penetration damage (approx. 20%)

Both the ranged attack and close combat attacks are the same in terms of max damage, damage types and proportions.

Total coverage is how much of the maximum amount of damage the armor setup is capable of absorbing (deflecting); example, if the total coverage is 80%, as is the case with the Polaris armor setup, then 20% of the incoming damage would get through the armor and hit you in the case of a full hit of 111 points of damage received by the Spina Drone. 20%*111 = 22 points (these values are rounded to nearest integer for simplicity).

Armor - Plate - Stab - Penetration - Acid - TOTAL COVERAGE

  • Vain (L) - AP-36 Acid - 50​ - 51 -​ 45​ - 100%
  • Rutuba (L) - Serpent Scales Adjusted - 43 -​ 49 -​ 44 -​ 99%​
  • Spartacus (L) - AP-42 Acid - 44​ - 48​ - 42​ - 98%​
  • Perseus (L) - AP-24 Acid - 43 -​ 18 -​ 48 -​ 94.5%​
  • Mayhem (L) - AP-30 Acid - 43.8 -​ 13.1 -​ 43.1 -​ 90%​
  • Eon (L) - ​ AP-36 Acid - 28 - 52 - 41 - 83%
  • Polaris (L) - AP-42 Acid - 24 -​ 52 -​ 42 -​ 80%​
  • Angel (L) - AP-42 Acid - 30 -​ 15 -​ 42 -​ 78%​
  • Cetus (L) - AP-30 Stab - 42 -​ 24 -​ 15 -​ 72%​
  • Ozpyn Beetle (L) - AP-30 Acid - 25 -​ 10 -​ 45 -​ 71%​

The cheapest option here would be the Polaris armor with the AP Acid plates.

Armor ​- Plate​ - Stab -​ Penetration -​ Acid​ - TOTAL COVERAGE​

  • POTE TWEN - AP-24 Acid - 43 -​ 25 -​ 44 -​ 99%​
  • Perfected Gorgon - AP-24 Penetration - 41​ - 24​ - 36 -​ 90%​
  • Mayhem AP-30 - Acid 43.8 -​ 13.1 -​ 43.1 -​ 90%​
  • Mod Shadow - AP-36 Acid - 30 -​ 30 -​ 44 -​ 87%​
  • Adjusted Jaguar - AP-42 Acid - 17 -​ 22 -​ 48 -​ 75%​
  • Improved Imperium - AP-24 Stab - 43 -​ 8 -​ 25 -​ 68.5%​
  • Mod Viceroy - AP-30 Stab - 45 -​ 0 -​ 19 -​ 57%​

The above are the best possible configurations for these armors in order to get the maximum amount of coverage for the Spina Drone's max damage. I included Mod Viceroy only because I know a lot of folks have that one and may like to know what the best plate would be to put on it. Unfortunately this is the best that can be done so far as the L50 Spina Drones are concerned. You have 2 options really, you can put an AP-24 Penetration, or an AP-30 Stab plate. The AP-30 Stab plate gives you a little over 5% more coverage over the Drone's max damage.”

 

►Tips for the Cave instance

Mini MiniM Mine

“The small cave is doable with a 2ppl team as it scales the BM according to number of players. It takes longer time to kill before the nest but it's doable.”

IMAGE ZZ MARSHALL

“Bring medi stims!!! and a big handful of antivenom for learning curve =) RDI EYE/KEY drops from broadmothers and nobles (as stated in the VU notes) Confirmed looted from a 10man broadmother cave run.”

Sulje

“Well, let's say I am giving advice to someone who has no UL gear, but wants to participate, here's how you can do it:

(Assume the team has 10-12 members)

  1. Come in numbers! Gather as many friends as possible, more the merrier. More people you bring, bigger the boss, and greater the chance for rare loot (RDI Eye)
  2. Gear up! Bring your strongest armor (Perseus + 5B's are fine), BC-80 TIER 2 limited should be ok.
  3. While going trough the instance, make sure to tag the creatures from the safe distance, it will give you leverage and less headache when the group of creatures respawn.
  4. In the boss room, make sure to organize properly, and focus on destroying eggs and larvas first, ideally you want them all destroyed, then you can die, regroup and kill one by one respawn
  5. Spina Soldier Stalker has a shared damage type, so make sure to group up when battling it !
  6. Have fun :)”

 

►Tips for the Mothership/Queen instance

IMAGE ZZ MARSHALL

“The regicide coat comes from completing the "god save the queen" quest. The RDI EYE/Key is used for entrance to the queens instance (only one is required for the 6man team, the leader of the team is the only one who requires a key, not the entire team, just like RDI-C1 keys)”

Pavol Svako Giertl

"Yesterday I finally managed to run the instance and become 30th avatar to own the coat, all thanks to the "Regicide coat service" offered by Hardcore (Regicide coat service), big respect guys :)

Run was pretty smooth and took around 30 minutes (cause we didn't get wiped at all), but now I fully understand what they meant by "the carried person will have to carry his own weight" :)

It was intense and truly not a content for "FFF people", you need to bring the best gear you can, really play and do your part in the boss fight correctly.

I won't go into more details, they will explain everything needed before the run and they will make sure you are bringing correct gear not to waste your key.

Here is the gear I used, hopefully it will help people to prepare for it:

  • Gun: Armatrix LR-105 (L) Tier 8
  • Armor: 7x perseus with ap-30 acid plates for first part and then 5x hazen with twen 5b plates + 2x perseus with ap-30 plates (WTB hazen helm and arms lol) for the boss fight
  • Rings: hallo22 + aug ares combo
  • Healing: adj resto + mod 2600 + medistims in some parts of boss fight
  • Pills: 15mg hyper, accu, deva, nutri

This combined with 303 base HP and tezla pet resulted in following stats: 343 HP, 9% crit chance, 94% crit dmg, 30% reload

Good luck to the next coat owners :)”


 

Thank you to everyone who participated, came with helpful information, and made it possible to create this article!

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