Overview
Welcome back to Secret World Legends! In light of the long-awaited release of Season 2 (April 4th, 2018) and the new zone of South Africa, I wrote this guide for returning players to help get back into the game. Whether you played for a month in June 2017 and never came back, or just took a break after the Christmas event, this guide will get you caught up on major changes in SWL since you last played.If you are just interested in some spoilers about Season 2 check [MJ Guthrie’s interview with Tilty here](http://massivelyop.com/2018/03/23/a-sneak-peek-of-south-africa-in-secret-world-legends-season-2/). If you are a brand new player please see [TSWDB](https://www.tswdb.com/miscellaneous/the-ultimate-beginner-guide/) or ^^ahem [my guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/SecretWorldLegends/comments/6qznp6/newbee_guide_for_steam_players/) for new players.
Introduction
Welcome back to SWL! In light of the long-awaited release of Season 2 (April 4th, 2018) and the new zone of South Africa, I wrote this guide for returning players to help get back into the game. Whether you played for a month in June 2017 and never came back, or just took a break after the Christmas event, this guide will get you caught up on major changes in SWL since you last played.
If you are just interested in some spoilers about Season 2 check MJ Guthrie’s interview with Tilty here[massivelyop.com]. If you are a brand new player please see the TSWDB guide[www.tswdb.com] or ahem
for new players.
The most updated version of this guide lives on Reddit, if it looks out of date please
What changed? A quick rundown of SWL updates for returning players from SecretWorldLegends
Haven’t played since relaunch
The NY raid was added[www.secretworldlegends.com]. 10 people square off vs. Chuthulu’s step-child in Times Square. If you’ve never been, queue up for Story mode and take a look. It has a week-long lockout timer and high-level distillate rewards, even at Story mode level. You can queue for the available modes from the activity finder window, however for anything of the Elite modes, it is recommended to try to form a group in Agartha instead of trying to blind queue.
Tokyo was released in 3 steps[massivelyop.com]. Because the AEGIS system was scrapped, some of the main missions have been reworked; a semi-new mission called *Bustin’* was added for Kurt (same cutscene, different content). Some side area missions were also moved from previous locations. At the time of release contained keys were a guarantee drop from side missions, and Tokyo containers dropped a lot of shards, so container farming was a big endgame activity for a while. Orochi Tower[www.secretworldlegends.com] was also revamped, and the random floor mechanics of TSW were changed to a linear climb up the tower.
Kantoku Temple, the Tokyo lair, was released. It has new enemy models with new mechanics, and is the only source of wrist signets drops.
Wrist signets were added, and only drop from the Tokyo lair chests. These signets improve the ultimate ability and are Signet of Condensed Anima (increases rate of ultimate ability recharge) and Overwhelming Power (increases damage and healing of ultimate ability).
The much-requested QoL feature of the Mission Inventory was added. Mission items, scenario items, and some random things like ofuda go into a separate inventory from the main inventory, freeing up bag space.
Haven’t played since Tokyo release
Anima allocation[www.secretworldlegends.com] was added to allow players to adjust their heal, damage and tank stats on the fly. At level 15 you can change your allocation to, say, have 70% damage, 23% mitigation and 7% healing for a solo build, and switch to 100% damage for a dungeon do build. Basically tanks and healers can do solo content without having to level multiple sets, and players in general can fine tune their health and damage to their build and situation.
Note only base talisman stats are affected, so glyphs, signets and extraordinary gear benefits stay the same. This means that if you want the best possible endgame healer or tank or damage set you still need to level up those other pieces of gear. If you don’t know what to do with it, just set your damage to 100%, play for a bit, and then add in some mitigation until you feel comfortable.
As a result of anima allocation, base talismans were standardize[www.secretworldlegends.com]. This means three types of talismans no longer drop for each slot, just one. In other words, there are no more [Faded Amulet] or [Faded Charm], just [Faded Medallion]. When you upgrade a talisman you only need to match the slot to get +250 xp. Again, extraordinary gear effects, signets and glyphs are unaffected by the change, so you still need to level seperate gear if you are going for the best stats possible in a role. Note that extraordinary gear still is +250 xp as long as the slot matches, even if its effect is a healing, tanking or dps effect.
Extraordinary waist talismans drop instead of caches sometimes now. See the Weapon Talismans sheet on this file[docs.google.com] for details.
New generalist signets added for weapon-agnostic damage boosts. They are Signet of the Neophyte (finger slot, boosts all basic attacks), Journeyman (neck, boosts all power attacks), Paragon (head, boosts all elite attacks) and Ascendant (head, reduces all elite cooldowns).
Tokyo container rewards were nerfed. Using a corrupted key no longer provides a guaranteed container key, instead it sometimes turns into 750 shards. Also shard rewards from container bosses were reduced, and instead spread out to the other endgame activities. Tron from the dev team explains the reasoning here[forums.funcom.com].
Haven’t played since around Christmas
The Agent system was added[www.secretworldlegends.com]. At faction rank 3 (level 15) players can “recruit” agents and send them on agent-only missions. Agents can be acquired from action and sabotage mission rewards, scenario chests, and last boss dungeon chests. The drop rate is estimated to be 1-2% from these activities. Players can buy and sell dropped agents on the AH. Finally, agents can come from agent bags purchased with Aurum, though the drop rate is not guaranteed, and the agents from bags cannot be sold on the AH. Essentially the agent system is like class hall missions in WoW or companion missions in SWTOR. You can see a spreadsheet filled with Agent information here[docs.google.com]. Also as always TSWDB has a stellar rundown[www.tswdb.com], detailing the system.
Agents level up, and at level 25 and 50 can add a boost to your character. Note which agent you have “equipped” can be saved in the gear manager along with your gear, loadout and anima allocation. At first all players got 1 free agent, the Faction Recruit. After player feedback about the agent system, Funcom added a second Agent, Lydia Darling[www.tswdb.com], which you receive after completing your first mission with the Faction Recruit.
The barber (changes hairstyle and makeup) and surgeon (changes body and face properties) became available[www.secretworldlegends.com]. Visit London for the barber and New York for the surgeon. Sadly, the surgeon’s old missions have not been added.
SWL started having “bonus” weekends[www.secretworldlegends.com] roughly once per month, with events like free PvE activity keys, bonus AP, and bonus Agent XP for a whole weekend.
For people who love forums and forum byproducts, the official Funcom forums[forums.funcom.com].
End
If I got something wrong or if I missed something the best way to get a hold of me is a DM on Reddit.
Hope the guide helped you get back up to speed!