The beta for Trion World's MMOFPS, Defiance was surprisingly good but one of the most memorable portions of the whole thing were the Arkfall Missions. Most of you avid MMO players out there might recognize them to be server-wide raids where you just show-up and join in the action. On a fine day when there's no one you know on or just want to take a break from normal mission grinding, this a is a fun way to pass the time.

How to find one

Anytime during your play time, you'll be alerted on your map through a distinct red indicator. They happen at complete random so be sure to keep checking your radar. As far as the beta goes, Arkfall missions can range anywhere from "Infestations" to "Mutant Revolts." Sometimes, the missions might be huge, covering several miles worth of combat as well as having multiple indicators to tell you there's more than one hotspot to show up to.

You don't have to accept any missions or anything, you show up and once your in-range, giant text fills your screen "You are now part of the control team" or something of the likes and you may commence global annihilation of your enemies with the help of the entire server. It's so fun watching all the trucks and ATVs park next to the hotspot...

What to expect

Expect a ton of chaos, especially during infestations which are structured similar to a tower-defense game, except on a much larger scale. You sit there, killing everything while perhaps either trying to defend or destroy something. Remember, you don't have to accept any missions nor do you have to be in a party so naturally, a lot of people will just show up to aid the effort.

Sometimes the missions are small. Everyone shows up only to clear one minor infestation and the mission is over. Sometimes, they cover a huge radius and you end up clearing one infestation and then convoying with the others to the next. Though rare, sometimes, you'll spawn in a mega boss, which in my play-through was a gigantic Hellbug the size of a city. Now that was fun.

Arkfall missions are hard, and definitely not something you can stop and do fully on your own. You may have to just wait for other people to arrive.

What's the point?

From what i've noticed, these missions give great shared experience as I was able to jump to EGO Lv.55 to 79 in one gigantic mission. Your rewards depend on how much you helped. I'm not sure if it's based on damage or kills and what not, but at the end of the Arkfall, if you did something, you get rewards ranging from money to extra experience to supposed rare minerals to use in crafting.

I'm sure despite being global, there's some sort of endgame implementation in these missions, Perhaps ultra good gear can be found here, or at the very least "rare minerals" that make said gear. Still, you're not forced to do them as you can stop by any time they're going on and really, they're meant to be fun and since they're global, a really low level can show up among higher tier players.

If you want to watch the action, then don't forget to check out the re-run of the Defiance Beta Day 2 live stream for all the footage!