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Kalki 2898 AD blends Star Wars with Hindu myth, plus a dash of RRR

Posted on June 29, 2024 by faz_business

Actor Amitabh Bachchan is a metaphorical giant of Indian cinema, a superstar of proportions that dwarf even A-list American celebrities. In the Indian sci-fi epic Kalki 2898 AD, his stature becomes literal: In his role as the 7-foot-tall immortal warrior Ashwatthama, the 81-year-old towers over his younger co-stars, all of whom are draws in their own right. (A handy way for the uninitiated to measure the relative fame of an Indian actor is to note the length of their introduction in a movie — the bigger the name, the more elaborate the entrance.) The sheer amount of star power in this film is overwhelming, but that isn’t even the most ambitious thing about it.

Writer-director Nag Ashwin means for Kalki 2898 AD to be nothing less than the ultimate sci-fi epic. Its scope is huge, covering 6,000 years of mythological history. Its run time is long, telling the first part of a two-part story over three jam-packed hours. (To be fair, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies aren’t much shorter.) And its production was expensive — reportedly around $72 million, one of the biggest budgets ever for an Indian movie. The filmmakers hope it will be a crossover event akin to S.S. Rajamouli’s record-breaking hit RRR, not only within India’s disparate film industries (Bachchan is known as a Bollywood actor, while co-stars Prabhas and Kamal Haasan work in Telugu and Tamil films, respectively) but internationally as well.

The film’s look, rendered almost entirely through CGI, will certainly feel familiar to Western audiences, with elements that recall the beloved sci-fi franchises Blade Runner, Star Wars, The Matrix, Dune, and especially Mad Max: Fury Road. The story is more specifically Indian, taking the Hindu myth of Kalki — the 10th and final incarnation of the god Vishnu, who will come to lead humanity into a new era of peace and justice — and transporting it to a dystopian sci-fi setting. But while references to magical weapons and folkloric heroes may go over the heads of all but the best-informed foreign viewers, the story’s arc follows the familiar beats of a Chosen One narrative.

A promo image for the Indian sci-fi blockbuster Kalki 2989 AD composites a young man and woman facing away from each other, with an older, white-bearded man in robes and holding a staff superimposed over both of them. In the background behind the man is a desert wasteland full of shattered, rusty wreckage. In the background behind the woman is a verdant mountain and lake, dotted with buildings.

This first chapter of the Kalki 2898 AD saga spends much of its run time setting up its characters and world, beginning with a caravan of refugees arriving in the futuristic city of Kasi, the last outpost of civilization after droughts and pollution have rendered most of the planet uninhabitable. Life is cheap in Kasi, where a single chicken egg fetches the same price as a human being on the black market. The one exception is fertile women, who have become extremely valuable in this dystopian future world: Whenever one is discovered, she’s sold and shipped off to the Complex, a floating pyramid above the city, where a wealthy minority hoard the few natural resources that are left.

SUM-80 (Deepika Padukone) is one of these women, and one of hundreds who live as lab rats at the pleasure of Supreme Yaskin (Haasan), a 200-year-old tyrant who extends his life by extracting a serum from the wombs of impregnated female captives. The women die in the process, but no matter; their corpses are thrown into an incinerator, and new girls take their place. SUM-80, understandably, wants to live, so she’s hiding her pregnancy from everyone around her. But it’s been five months, and the sadistic doctors who run this so-called Project K will notice soon.

Things are grim in a different way outside of the Complex, though affable bounty hunter Bhairava (Prabhas) does his best to keep the mood light. Indian films typically blend genres, and although Kalki 2898 AD is more serious-minded than most Bollywood fare — there are no true musical numbers, sadly, though characters do lip-sync to Santhosh Narayanan’s original songs — Bhairava and his wisecracking AI companion Bujji (Keerthy Suresh) bring much-needed, Star Wars-esque comedic banter to the film. Bhairava is a Han Solo type, motivated by self-interest and the pursuit of cash, or “units.” Like Han, he’s also a ladykiller, as we learn when the similarly roguish Roxie (Disha Patani) enters the narrative.

In a promo image for the Indian sci-fi blockbuster Kalki 2989 AD, a man in black clothing and a long black cape stands in a dark, V-shaped object that looks like a single-person spaceship with a crimson-lined interior and closing crimson highlights. Behind him in the darkness, a group of similar-looking ships glow against dark mountains.

At first, it isn’t clear how SUM-80, Bhairava, and 6,000-year-old badass Ashwatthama, who spends much of the movie hiding out in a cave, are connected. It’s never in doubt that they’ll meet up eventually, though, or that each of them will play their role in fulfilling the prophecy preached by a rebel group living in a hidden utopia known as Shambhala. Eventually, the action moves to the rebels’ sacred retreat. But first, SUM-80 must race across the wastelands, pursued by both Supreme Yaskin’s flunkies and Bhairava, who plans to exchange this precious hostage for admission to the Complex.

Some of the digital backgrounds VFX supervisor Praveen Kilaru and his team created for Kalki 2898 AD are absolutely stunning, and sci-fi fans who like nerding out on cool ships and badass vehicles will find a lot to get into here. (The design for Bujji, who can transform from a cool car to a cooler battle robot, is especially compelling.)

But the fact that this is just the first part of a two-part story creates some serious structural issues. The first two hours of the film pass at a lively but unhurried clip, but the final hour tries to cram too much into an already overstimulating epic battle scene. It feels panicky and confused as it rushes through crucial plot developments and exposition.

in a promo still for the Indian sci-fi blockbuster Kalki 2898 AD, a humanoid figure in metal armor and mask sits in a dark space, surrounded by metal spars

Comparisons between Kalki and RRR are inevitable, if only because the former is nakedly trying to replicate the success of the latter. But Nag Ashwin’s film is missing a few of the elements that made RRR so charming: There’s no central bromance, no exhilarating dance sequences, and no sense of surprise. There is comedy, but it’s isolated in certain sections of the film, and there’s much less romance and music than audiences might expect. It’s still an entertaining ride, with some cool imagery and exciting chase scenes. But by channeling the gravitas of Western sci-fi movies, Kalki 2898 AD loses some of the range that makes Indian movies special. Its ambition is to be applauded. Its self-seriousness, not so much.

Kalki 2898 AD is in theaters worldwide now.

Netflix’s Trigger Warning, The Beast, and every new movie this week

Posted on June 22, 2024 by faz_business

Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

This week, Trigger Warning, the new action thriller starring Jessica Alba as a hardened Special Forces commando, premieres on Netflix. That’s not all, as plenty of other exciting new releases make their streaming debuts this week, including a documentary on tennis legend Roger Federer on Prime Video, Kung Fu Panda 4 on Peacock, Sometimes I Think About Dying on MUBI, and more. There’s also several highly anticipated releases on VOD this week, including animated sci-fi noir mystery Mars Express and dystopian sci-fi romance The Beast starring Léa Seydoux.

Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!

New on Netflix

Trigger Warning

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 46m
Director: Mouly Surya
Cast: Jessica Alba, Anthony Michael Hall, Mark Webber

The Alba-naissance is here. Five years after her last film role (crime thriller Killers Anonymous), the onetime Sue Storm is teaming up with Indonesian director Mouly Surya in an action-packed movie inspired by the John Wick franchise (and produced by John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk). Trigger Warning is Surya’s English-language debut and was filmed three years ago, but is finally dropping on Netflix this week.

Black Barbie

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 40m
Director: Lagueria Davis

This doc from Shondaland digs into the first Black Barbie and three Black women at Mattel who made it happen: Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins, and Stacey McBride-Irby.

New on Prime Video

Federer: Twelve Final Days

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 40m
Directors: Asif Kapadia, Joe Sabia
Cast: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic

Arguably the greatest men’s tennis player to ever live, Roger Federer finally hung up his racket for good in 2022. This documentary, co-directed by Senna and Amy director Asif Kapadia, focuses on the final 12 days of the Swiss legend’s illustrious career.

New on Peacock

Kung Fu Panda 4

Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

An anthropomorphic panda holding a green scepter and a red panda in his arms while smiling.

Genre: Martial arts comedy
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Mike Mitchell
Cast: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Bryan Cranston

The fourth entry in the Kung Fu Panda saga sees Po taking on a new apprentice to succeed him as the Dragon Warrior. When a mysterious sorceress plots to resurrect Po’s past adversaries, he’ll need to call upon all his strength and allies to save the day.

From our review:

While the individual scenes and moments in Kung Fu Panda 4 are entertaining (and sometimes even great), it never quite gels as an enjoyable movie on its own. The message of change tying it together is flimsy, and the plot feels strung along, trying to get the characters in the right place to launch a few seconds of cool action. After four movies, it isn’t really a surprise that the Kung Fu Panda machine is running out of steam — thankfully, though, it has just enough power left to churn out some genuine laughs at the end.

New on MUBI

Sometimes I Think About Dying

Where to watch: Available to stream on MUBI

A close-up of Daisy Ridley as Fran, as she looks at the camera, her face serious

Genre: Romantic drama
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Rachel Lambert
Cast: Daisy Ridley, Dave Merheje, Parvesh Cheena

Star Wars icon Daisy Ridley takes a dramatic turn in this new existential drama, playing the role of a socially awkward office worker who tentatively attempts to come out of her shell. It’s dark, funny, awkward, and achingly human.

From our review:

Not much happens in Sometimes I Think About Dying, but that’s the point of the movie. Even the smallest thing, like Fran mustering up the courage to say goodbye to someone after work, is given huge weight. The movie lingers on the mundane, using it to paint a thorough portrait of who she is, without having her say or act much. The steps she takes to help overcome her social anxiety might seem small, but they’re all hurdles to her. It’s a movie made up of quiet moments: pauses in conversation, lingering glances, and outstretched hands. Lambert emphasizes the importance of these small interactions, and the ways they build up to connections. It’s a quiet story that aches in the best sort of way.

New on Metrograph at Home

Last Night I Saw You Smiling

Where to watch: Available to stream on Metrograph at Home

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 18m
Director: Kavich Neang

In the final days of a condemned, iconic building, director Kavich Neang follows three families who live there (including his own). This is the streaming premiere of the movie, which first came out in 2019 and won awards on the international festival circuit, and is a part of Metrograph’s “Davy Chou Selects” series.

New to rent

Handling the Undead

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Genre: Horror drama
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Thea Hvistendahl
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bahar Pars

There’s tons of horror movies about the dead coming back to life. None of them are quite like Handling the Undead, though. Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2005 novel, the film follows the story of three families living in Oslo whose loved ones all mysteriously rise from the dead as semi-sentient corpses. How will they handle this new phenomenon, and is it a second chance to say goodbye… or a curse?

I Used to Be Funny

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Genre: Comedy drama
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Ally Pankiw
Cast: Rachel Sennott, Olga Petsa, Jason Jones

Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies) stars as Sam, a stand-up comedian living in Toronto who takes on a nannying job in order to earn some cash. After the young girl she was caring for goes missing, Sam is stricken with PTSD and no longer performs comedy, haunted by the loss of her charge and her own helplessness.

IF

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

A bearded man seated at a desk with a small girl with her arms crossed with colorful CG-animated characters in the background in IF.

Genre: Fantasy comedy
Run time: 1h 44m
Director: John Krasinski
Cast: Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski

Remember Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends? Well, imagine that, but set in New York and starring Ryan Reynolds and not so imaginative. IF follows Bea (Cailey Fleming), a young girl who works alongside her neighbor to help imaginary friends whose real-life friends have grown up. It’s ostensibly a kids’ movie, but with a message that’s slightly… off.

Mars Express

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

A robot with a holographic head and a red arm points to a screen next to a blonde haired woman in a trenchcoat in a futuristic vehicle in Mars Express.

Genre: Sci-fi action
Run time: 1h 25m
Director: Jérémie Périn
Cast: Léa Drucker, Mathieu Amalric, Daniel Njo Lobé

This sci-fi noir thriller follows a private detective and her android partner who are hired by a wealthy businessman to track down an elusive hacker. Their investigation dovetails into a search for a missing woman before inadvertently spiralling into a vast conspiracy that threatens to unravel the fabric of human civilization.

From our review:

Mars Express is the rare example of an animated feature that warrants an almost immediate rewatch upon completion, if only to appreciate the craftsmanship of its presentation. It’s a densely layered sci-fi story that’s light on proper nouns, but heavy on subtext. It’s set in a world that doesn’t tell so much as it shows the depth of its narrative and worldbuilding, by trusting its audience to pay close attention and connect the dots alongside the film’s characters. In short, it’s a rare example of “adult” animation that treats its audience like adults, and its execution elevates its premise until it stands confidently as one of the year’s best animated features.

The Beast

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Genre: Sci-fi romance
Run time: 2h 26m
Director: Bertrand Bonello
Cast: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda

Imagine Cloud Atlas meets The Age of Innocence meets Mulholland Drive. That’s about the simplest way of describing The Beast, Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi romance drama. Léa Seydoux (Spectre) stars as Gabrielle, a woman living in the near-future who undergoes a process to “purify” her DNA of strong emotions by reliving her past lives. Her procedure becomes more complicated after crossing paths with Louis (George MacKay), a man whom — in a past life — she may or may not have loved.

From our review:

The Beast’s three timelines play with seemingly unmixable genres: a classic period romance, a gripping horror-thriller, and dystopian sci-fi. That places them at a logistical disconnect, but Bonello binds them aesthetically and emotionally. Through his lengthy, thought-provoking close-ups of Gabrielle and Louis in each section, he creates a sense of longing and isolation across time, binding together human experiences of the past, present, and future, and putting them into sharp and chilling context.

We Grown Now

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Minhal Baig
Cast: Blake Cameron James, Gian Knight Ramirez, S. Epatha Merkerson

Set in Chicago in the early ’90s, We Grown Now centers on the story of Malik and Eric, two young boys growing up in a housing complex who survive the mundanity of school life and the perils of their environment through the strength of their friendship. When a sudden tragedy threatens to strain their bond, Malik and Eric will have to grow up fast and make a choice between what to hold on to and what to let go of.

NewJeans’ PUBG collab has already captured the attention of fans online

Posted on June 14, 2024 by faz_business

It seems like no world — physical nor digital — is immune to the girly pop flair of NewJeans. The globally famous K-pop group made its debut in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds as part of the 30.1 update on Wednesday. The collaboration adds each member of the group as a playable character, adorable accessories to dress up your characters, emotes for popular dances set to songs like “OMG,” and more. Equal parts bizarre and wonderful, the PUBG update has already captured the fascination of fans online.

Krafton released the NewJeans x PUBG: Battlegrounds collaboration on Wednesday to Windows PC users and will release it to console users on June 20. The PC patch has introduced some environmental changes as well. For example, the Taego School has been transformed into a sparkly rainbow wonderland and there’s now a pink and purple truck stage on the starting island of every 8 km map. You can play as any member of NewJeans — Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, or Hyein — and dress your character up in adorable pastel accessories. You can view all the details on the PUBG site.

The collaboration brings a vibrant pop of color to the gritty world of PUBG. Just like other live-service games, PUBG is no stranger to surprising collaborations. PUBG has featured collaborations with the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion and other games like Angry Birds. Despite that, the NewJeans collab manages to stick out from previous events and now people online are sharing videos showing the girls emoting in the game. The dances just look that good. Here is a video of Minji from NewJeans doing several dances from songs like “Super Shy” and “OMG.”

It’s only been a day, but people have already started to make memes of the girl group in the game. This video features several moments, including one where Haerin dances on a knocked out played and then shoots them at point blank range.

I personally can’t get this video of several characters joining in on dancing the choreo for “Hype Boy” out of my head.

There’s a lot to check out, so if a ton of Bunnies suddenly found themselves interested in trying out PUBG, I wouldn’t blame them.

Disney’s first Donald Duck short in 60 years shouldn’t be the last

Posted on June 10, 2024 by faz_business

Donald Duck, arguably tied with Goofy as the second most recognizable Disney character after Mickey Mouse, starred in over 150 short films throughout the 1930, ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. 2024 marks the 90th anniversary of the pantsless Pekin, who persisted through the second half of the 20th century thanks to Disney Channel replays of his shorts, appearances in DuckTales, and the Kingdom Hearts games.

Disney is celebrating the duck’s birthday with the usual merch drops and theme park shenanigans, but its best gift to fans is a brand-new short: DIY Duck, Donald’s first solo short outing since 1961’s The Litterbug. Directed by veteran Mark Henn, who has remained on Disney’s hand-drawn animation team throughout the quarter-century pivot to 3D CG, DIY Duck checks all the boxes of a classic Donald short, starting with a mundane day-in-the-life problem that puts the character through the cartoon wringer.

Donald was always my favorite cartoon character: Landing between the more wholesome Disney gang and Tex Avery and Chuck Jones’ elastic, ecstatic WB cast, Donald was just… some dude… trying to learn how the world works and get by. His temper could run hot, but he was solutions-oriented. He wanted to make a buck, but wasn’t anything like Scrooge McDuck. His curiosity and zest for life meant Disney could drop him into a PSA every now and then — Donald wanted to learn, and we wanted to learn with him. I will dig up what might be his greatest adventure, Donald in Mathmagic Land, once a year just to remind myself that, yeah, math rules.

These days, Donald’s mostly a relic, playing second fiddle to Mickey in the rare instances when Disney approves its mascot character for media use. That’s a bummer, and DIY Duck is a great reminder. Today’s more sophisticated toons are often fantastical and larger than life even when speaking to nuanced human experiences. So it’s kinda nice to have a modern short, simple yet stylish in its cartooning, that is about fixing a crack in a wall — something that I, like Donald, would be absolutely terrible at. In a neat throwback, DIY Duck also pays tribute to Donald’s classic rage voice by using archive clips of Clarence “Ducky” Nash, who voiced the character for 50 years.

While Disney maintains a hand-drawn department, the company mostly deploys it for stunts (like DIY Disney and last year’s Once Upon a Studio short) and skeletal work on 3D CG features. During a visit to Walt Disney Animation for 2014’s Big Hero 6, I was fortunate to watch Henn in action, cartooning by hand for a scene that would later be painted over and rendered with the finished CG art. Whether Disney will ever make a new hand-drawn feature — or, heck, a steady stream of Donald shorts! — is unclear, but by keeping Henn and the team on board, the studio implicitly understands the soul of the medium, whether it’s breathing life into 3D characters or reviving a legacy for an act of tribute. I’m just hoping this isn’t the last time we see Donald in this form over the next 60 years.

Where to unlock all custom deliveries in FFXIV

Posted on June 6, 2024 by faz_business

If you’re looking to level up your crafters and gatherers in Final Fantasy 14, completing weekly custom deliveries to eager clients is a great way to amass both EXP and scrips (the crafting/gathering currency).

Below, we explain how custom deliveries work in FFXIV and how to unlock them all.

Custom deliveries in FFXIV, explained

Custom deliveries are weekly quests you can complete to earn lots of crafting and gathering EXP and scrips. You’ll also gain satisfaction for each character you do deliveries for and their satisfaction levels will rise, teaching you more about the character. You can only complete a total of 12 custom deliveries per week and six per specific NPC. Deliveries reset every Tuesday morning.

Every week the clients will ask for a list of items that you can either craft or gather. You can check what items they want without even talking to them via opening the “duty” menu, selecting “timers,” and then selecting “custom deliveries.” (It’ll only show you the clients if you have them unlocked, though.)

The custom delivery menu in-game, showing what Ameliance wants this week in FFXIV

You can buy all the materials needed for crafting from nearby merchants. For example, Zhloe and Adkiragh’s materials are bought from the Scrap Salvager in Idyllshire and Kurenai’s materials can be purchased from the Blue Merchant across from her in Tamamizu.

For gathering, you can check where the gathering nodes are by opening the custom delivery menu for that client, selecting the fish or gatherable, and selecting “display location” or “search for item by gathering method” respectively.

The higher collectability your crafted or gathered turn-in has, the more EXP and scrips you’ll get in return. Scrips can be used to purchase important crafting materials, materia, décor, and other useful loot from Scrip Exchange NPCs. Notably, you can use scrips to get some of the materials you need for your Heavensward Anima relic weapon.

Also, once you max out the client’s satisfaction, you can glamour them, dressing them up in whatever outfit you want. You can do this for all the clients except M’naago and Ehll Tou.

Rewards from custom deliveries

While EXP and scrips is a bountiful enough reward, some of the custom deliveries give out special rewards that are worth grabbing:

To get the above rewards, you’ll need to reach max satisfaction with these clients and complete a quest (given by the client) after doing so.

You’ll also get two titles from each client after reaching max satisfaction with them and after delivering 150 collectables to them.

Where to unlock all custom deliveries in FFXIV

Before you unlock custom deliveries, you need to unlock collectables, if you haven’t already. You can do this by completing the quest “Inscrutable Tastes” from Morgayne in the Foundation (Ishgard). You will also need to be at least level 50 in a crafting or gathering job to unlock collectables, but the first custom delivery client is available starting at level 55.

You will also have to complete these short conversation quests to unlock scrip exchanges and vendors for each expansion:

Heavensward: “Go West, Craftsman” from Lydirlona in Mor Dhona
Stormblood: “Reach Long and Prosper” from Galiena in Rhalgr’s Reach
Shadowbringers: “The Boutique Always Wins” from Mowen in Eulmore
Endwalker: “Expanding House of Splendors” from Ofpilona in Radz-at-Han

Two of the clients require you to unlock The Firmament, the hub for Ishgard Restoration. You can do this by completing the quest “Towards the Firmament” via the Recruitment Notice flyer near the Ishgard Aetheryte. You’ll need to complete most of this questline to unlock Ehll Tou and you’ll actually need all of it to unlock Charlemend, so you might as well do it all (unless you hate Charlemend for some reason).

a blue quest marker on a “Recruitment Notice” NPC flyer on a wall in FFXIV

As usual, these quests (and the ones to unlock the actual deliveries) are marked with a blue quest marker with a plus sign, so you should be able to find it just by opening your map and seeking out that icon.

Below, you can see where to unlock all of the custom deliveries in FFXIV.

FFXIV custom delivery quests and requirements

NPC name	NPC location	Level	Unlock quest	Quest NPC	Quest location	Other requirements
NPC name	NPC location	Level	Unlock quest	Quest NPC	Quest location	Other requirements
Zhloe Aliapoh	Idyllshire	55	Arms Wide Open	Geimlona	Idyllshire (5.7, 6.9)	Requires Heavensward expansion
M’naago	Rhalgr’s Reach	60	None Forgotten, None Forsaken	Galiena	Rhalgr’s Reach (9.8, 12.5)	Requires Stormblood expansion, “Return of the Bull” MSQ completed
Kurenai	The Ruby Sea	62	The Seaweed is Always Greener	Kojin Hireling	Kugane (10.1, 9.9)	Requires Stormblood expansion, M’naago’s deliveries unlocked, side quest line for “The Palace of Lost Souls” completed
Adkiragh	Idyllshire	66	Between a Rock and the Hard Place	Geimlona	Idyllshire (5.7, 6.9)	Requires Stormblood expansion, Zhloe’s deliveries unlocked, “Stormblood” MSQ completed, “Purbol Rain” side quest completed
Kai-Shirr	Eulmore	70	Oh, Beehive Yourself	Kai-Shirr	Eulmore (11.7, 11.7)	Requires Shadowbringers expansion, “Moving Forward” MSQ completed
Ehll Tou	The Firmament	70	O Crafter, My Crafter	Ehll Tou	The Firmament (13.5, 11.2)	Requires Stormblood expansion, The Firmament unlocked via “Towards the Firmament” side quest, side quest line for Ishgard Restoration completed up until at least Ehll Tou appears, Ehll Tou side quest “If Songs had Wings” completed
Charlemend	The Firmament	70	You Can Count on It	Francel	The Firmament (11, 14.5)	Requires Stormblood expansion, side quest line for Ishgard Restoration completed, Charlemend side quest “The Brume Lifts” completed
Ameliance	Old Sharlayan	80	Of Mothers and Merchants	Well-dressed Attendant	Old Sharlayan (12.6, 9.7)	Requires Endwalker expansion, “Endwalker” MSQ completed
Anden	Il Mheg	80	That’s So Anden	Supplicant Sheep	The Crystarium (9.3, 11.3)	Requires Endwalker expansion, “Endwalker” MSQ completed
Margrat	Labryinthos	80	A Request of One’s Own	Theopauldin	Old Sharlayan (13.8, 15)	Requires Endwalker expansion, “Going Haam” MSQ completed

If you’re just starting out in the massive world of Final Fantasy 14, we have tons of guides to help you. We have a beginner’s guide to get you started, along with guides detailing when you’ll get your mount and which Grand Company you should join.

If you’re starting but are feeling overwhelmed, we have guides to help with picking a job and a guide that explains how long it may take to catch up to current content in FFXIV.

We also have guides on side content, like ocean fishing, relic weapons, and Island Sanctuary, for those who want to take a break from it all.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’s smartest move is sidelining Immortan Joe

Posted on June 3, 2024 by faz_business

George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga complements and enhances the impact of his 2015 blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road in a lot of ways, but there’s only one I can’t stop thinking about: How little the new movie has to say about Immortan Joe, the original movie’s iconic arch-villain.

Sure, Joe’s lack of interaction with Anya Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa could be simply because Hugh Keays-Byrne, the actor who first put Immortan Joe on the screen, died in 2020. Lachy Hulme assumes the role for Furiosa, but perhaps George Miller reduced it out of respect for Keays-Byrne, who he worked with for many years.

But I’m skeptical. Joe’s consistent secondary status in Furiosa’s origin story fits the overall themes of Furiosa too well to be a coincidence: Immortan Joe, the demon of Imperator Furiosa’s last stand, wasn’t her nemesis at all. In fact, he wasn’t her anything.

Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), forehead smeared with greasepaint, drives the war rig in George Miller’s Furiosa

This is in great contrast to Fury Road, where their beef seems deeply personal. Max Rockatansky wanders into somebody else’s narrative in Fury Road, as his stories usually go. This time, those somebodies are Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and Immortan Joe.

While Fury Road only subtly hints that Furiosa was once one of Joe’s captive harem of wives and incubators — the white wrappings of Furiosa’s top evoke the Wives’ impractical shifts — Theron confirmed that piece of her backstory in interviews. So Furiosa seems to have really personal reasons to hate Joe. And his response to her betrayal is presented as a towering rage, cresting mushroom cloud-like out of all proportion to her ability to withstand him.

Not to diminish the agency of the Five Wives in their own escape, but Joe considers them property that’s been stolen from him, not allies who betrayed him. Furiosa, however, he considers a traitor, worthy of his personal anger. And in the end, she’s the one who gets the honor of finally taking him down, underscoring her place on the same narrative level he occupies as Fury Road’s primary villain.

Which is why it’s so wild that Furiosa says, quietly and implacably throughout its entire run time, that Joe actually isn’t even a main character in her story. Sure, he buys her, but then he forgets she even existed. He didn’t take anything from her that hadn’t already been taken, didn’t teach her anything she hadn’t already learned from someone else, didn’t give her anything she hadn’t already taken for herself. When they do share scenes, and even trade dialogue, there’s no interpersonal ire or affection in either direction. In spite of their characters’ intensity, Hulme and Taylor-Joy keep a neutral distance of emotion.

It turns out, in Furiosa, that Furiosa’s life was actually framed by the completely different, utterly pathetic figure of Dementus, the Wasteland warlord who tortured her mother to death, sold Furiosa into slavery, killed her closest friend, and cost her her right arm. And just as emphatically, Furiosa says, Furiosa moved beyond revenge years before she ever stood against Joe.

What you saw in Fury Road, Furiosa says, was the furthest thing from personal to Furiosa. Immortan Joe was never The Guy. He was just the guy in the way. And the “guy” part might be the most important one.

l-r: Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus and Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe stand surrounded by War Boys and huge vehicles in Mad Max: Fury Road.

The conversation that immediately surrounded Fury Road was about Immortan Joe as a Wasteland illustration of the death cult of capitalism and toxic masculinity. His very recognizable philosophy reduces all non-elites to things — women to Wives (sex slaves, forcibly impregnated) or Mothers (enslaved to produce breast milk for food), and men to War Boys (emphasis on boys), interchangeable cannon fodder addicted to the lie that they can only find purpose in violence for the True Leader.

This was all emphasized by the emasculating nature of Furiosa’s rebellion. After all, by the language of a country-and-Western song, she’s wounded him in the most devastating way a man can be wounded, by stealing his wife (Wives), his money (water), his car (the War Rig), and maybe even his dog (Nicholas Hoult’s hapless character Nux, if we want to stretch the metaphor a little bit).

Immortan Joe is an electrifying villain, and Furiosa doesn’t exactly skimp on him! A scene contrasting Dementus’ shaky appeal to the self-interest of the masses with the unshakable belief created by Joe’s death-cult propaganda is among the film’s most chilling. But there is an eternal risk in presenting such an operatic villain who also represents such a wide-ranging theme. If you’re not careful, making them powerful and capable enough to claim villain status also risks making them look aspirational. You can swing right around to making them seem cool.

Which is why it’s so damn smart of Furiosa to put this final nail in the coffin of Joe’s emasculation, by establishing that Fury Road’s sense of personal beef was all on Joe — on his fear, and his vulnerability, not on Furiosa’s. He isn’t even important to the woman who’s unmanning him.

In a cliche reversal for the cinematic ages, Immortan Joe was, for Furiosa, just Tuesday.

Wildermyth will conclude with its final expansion, Omenroad

Posted on May 30, 2024 by faz_business

Wildermyth is an incredible procedurally generated RPG that leads players through a series of narrative quests. As you build bases, battle foes, and learn more about the world, you’re able to build up your cast with new decisions and sacrifices. A hero might die, marry another party member and have children, or turn into an increasingly feral beast. It’s a tremendously cozy, satisfying RPG experience.

Wildermyth has a core campaign, and additional adventurers that introduce new stories and new enemy factions. The game’s first DLC pack was focused around new cosmetic skins and armors for heroes, whereas the upcoming Omenroad expansion includes a roguelike-style challenge mode and a new story campaign called Walk in the Unlight. While Omenroad brings lots of new bosses and challenging fights, it also represents an end to development for Wildermyth. Worldwalker Games announced the conclusion on May 29 on the game’s official X account.

“We will continue to support the game and fix critical bugs, but don’t expect new content going forward,” co-owner Nate Austin wrote. “We will be saying farewell to many of our team members. Worldwalker Games is going into hibernation for now.”

Austin clarifies that the team still intends to port Wildermyth to other platforms, and the hibernation does not affect that “in any way.” He also commits to continuing a Kickstarter that will record the game’s music live and integrate it into the game, French and Spanish translations for Omenroad, and to maintain the game’s Discord, wiki, support email, merch store, and social media.

“Wildermyth has been wonderful, but nothing goes on forever,” wrote Austin. “We wanted to ship Omenroad, and having done that, we’re ready to move on. This was the plan, and it doesn’t have anything to do with how well Omenroad is doing. (It’s doing well! We’re extremely proud of it.)”

He added, “I’m pretty sure we’ll eventually find something else to pour our passion into, and we’ll let you know about it when the time comes.”

It’s sad to see an end to Wildermyth, which has become one of my staples when I want to play a narrative RPG adventure. But it’s also a tremendous game, and it’s good to see the studio end on a high note and walk away from the project of their own choice. While we may never see another title from the Worldwalker team, I’ll treasure Wildermyth and the stories it effortlessly spins for years to come.

Karyn Kusama reveals how she knew Michelle Rodriguez would be a star

Posted on May 26, 2024 by faz_business

Not every filmmaker gets their debut feature enshrined in the Criterion Collection. But not every filmmaker’s debut feature packs the punch Girlfight does.

Decades after release, Karyn Kusama’s debut movie, Girlfight, still holds up — it’s no surprise that it launched her career as a director of subversive horror drama (Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation) and memorable television (Yellowjackets, Halt and Catch Fire, The Man in the High Castle), along with launching Michelle Rodriguez as a star. Girlfight is coming to the Criterion Collection on May 28, with a brand-new 4K digital restoration supervised by Kusama, new interviews and commentary from the director, and a slick new cover by Jillian Adel.

Girlfight, the story of a troubled high schooler who takes up boxing in secret as an outlet for her frustrations, aches with high school emotions in and out of the boxing ring. At the same time, it subverts boxing-movie tropes. Rodriguez plays Diana Guzman, a teenager who’s frequently in trouble for fighting at school and alienated from her father (Paul Calderón) at home. When she tries boxing in secret to get some of that tension off her chest, she shows a real talent for the sweet science. At the gym, she meets a boy (named Adrian, making Diana the Rocky in this equation) and a new father figure in her trainer (Jaime Tirelli).

Jaime Tirelli coaches Michelle Rodriguez in the boxing ring in Girlfight

Making Girlfight was a long process for Kusama, who wrote the movie after taking up boxing herself in 1992. Production companies begged her to cast a white woman in the lead role, but she stood her ground, insisting on a Latina lead and finding Rodriguez in an extensive audition process focusing largely on non-professional actors. After financiers backed out two days before pre-production in 1999, legendary filmmaker (and Kusama’s former mentor) John Sayles and his creative partner and producer Maggie Renzi stepped in and helped fund the film.

Polygon spoke to Kusama on a video call ahead of the movie’s Criterion release. We spoke about revisiting her first movie for the restoration, when she knew she had a star in Rodriguez, and whether Girlfight could be made the same way now.

Polygon: Congratulations on Girlfight being added to the Criterion Collection. When did you find out, and what was your reaction?

Karyn Kusama: This must have been last year, Criterion reached out to me and said, “We’d really like to remaster Girlfight and release an edition of the film.” I was floored and so excited. I am such a Criterion nerd, as you might imagine, so it was literally a dream come true. For me, this just felt like the ultimate stamp of approval.

Does it mean more to you because it was this one?

I think what I appreciate is that it’s my first movie. And as someone now who’s got more than 20 years of time and experience to look back at the film, there’s so many things I might do differently — I might improve, I might cut, or change or refine. And so the idea that it can still work for anyone, despite the fact that I would love to get back in there and completely retool it, that’s gratifying.

A black-and-white image of Karyn Kusama directing Michelle Rodriguez on the set of Girlfight

Watching it now, I was struck by the balance between the boxing elements, the family drama, the character study, Michelle Rodriguez’s amazing performance, and the high school romance. How do you think back on the balance of all those elements?

I never felt like I would want to make a purely boxing-oriented movie. In some ways, the true story is about this character entering a new world, and finding a place for herself within it. And in doing so, opening herself up to a kind of vulnerability that she doesn’t feel capable of exposing at home. It is so much about this tension between the closed emotional world of her family life and the more expansive emotional world of, paradoxically, a boxing ring. So that was something I knew I wanted to do. But I don’t know at the time if I was really weighing the balance of it all.

In somewhat ham-fisted terms, I was trying to tell a story about a young woman for whom traditional expressions of femininity didn’t quite feel true to her. And so it was so much about trying to find a path toward self-acceptance, toward some kind of openness, to whatever kind of weirdo she ultimately was going to be.

When you look at the movie now, what would you want to tweak?

I think I would probably lift some scenes and tighten some scenes. I think I would know a little bit more how to evoke the same emotional impact with fewer cuts or fewer shots. I would just get to the heart of the matter faster. But that being said, I think some of what I wrestle with in the movie is also inherent to it, you know, which is a lot of non-actors, a lot of young, raw performances. And in some respects, that’s part of the charm, I hope, of the movie.

And it helps that the central three of her family are so strong.

Oh, good. Yeah, I think so. Obviously, Paul Calderón [who played Marie’s father] was a wonderful and well-known actor at the time, and still, and so he could kind of anchor the rest of the cast. But you know, it’s funny, I always find with movies, for me, it’s a process of making the thing, hoping that I made the truest thing I could make, and then moving on and not looking back. And so what’s really weird about doing the Criterion edition is — the process of looking back is both wonderful and painful. I was looking at the movie a lot. So it gave me a lot of time to think about, Oh, I could have done that. I should have done that. A lot of woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Michelle Rodriguez delivers a punch to another boxer in Girlfight

Do you think things have changed in the industry over the past two decades? Would making Girlfight now be the same, easier, or more difficult?

That’s something I have to chew on. Because in some ways, obviously we all want the answer to be “Things are better now.” I think the hard reality is that we are still almost even more entrenched in a star-driven system. So it would be even harder now, I think, to make a movie with a completely fresh face as the center of the film.

And luckily for me, when I made Girlfight, Michelle ended up having a true electric, charismatic star power that allowed her to continue to make movies. But now I find it’s still really, really hard. In terms of the questions around representation? I think the conversations are more deliberately coded around what is permissible. But I think ultimately, there is still a lot of resistance to a complicated or complex depiction of the world as we actually live in it.

Working with Michelle Rodriguez on the movie, what did you learn about what makes a movie star and how to showcase that?

Oh, that’s such a good question. I mean, first of all, she has a funny un-self-consciousness as an actor. In the initial auditioning process, and initially working with her, I had to kind of remind her of staying in character and staying on book and all of the basics around being an actor. What she didn’t have was shame. There was a quality to her of just like, I’m here. The world can start now. And that quality of guileless confidence is really important. She demanded attention.

And that simple kind of intensity is something that I’ve really learned is actually not common across the board. It’s not like every actor I work with has that same intensity, though I’ve certainly worked with actors who had more training and more experience and more discipline. Michelle has a kind of ineffable charisma.

Was there a specific moment with her where you were like, Oh, she’s different, or is that just something that you learned over the course of filming?

It’s really funny, because I have such a vivid memory of doing all those initial auditions and having hundreds of people in front of us for interviews and short auditions. And we taped them all. And because I’m kind of obsessed with thoroughness, I decided to just go through the process of looking at all the tapes.

And it was in that moment of looking at her tape, even though she was untrained, completely inexperienced, completely unprepared, kind of every negative you could imagine, she held the screen with such totality that I felt like, Huh, that’s interesting. I have to keep looking at her, I have to keep engaging with this presence. And so it just meant we kept bringing her back. But that initial feeling about her was definitely something that now I look at and I realize, Oh, that was her. That was her star power.

Michelle Rodriguez and Santiago Douglas embrace in a scene in Girlfight

Would you have predicted her going on to star in major franchises like the Fast and the Furious?

At the time, I couldn’t, but she called it for herself way earlier than I could have. Because she always knew what she liked. Immediately when she read The Fast and the Furious, she was like, I know I have to do this, and I know it will be a global franchise. She understood that part of entertainment a lot better than I did.

Have there been opportunities for you to work with her on projects of that scale? Is that something you’re interested in?

You mean like the giant franchises?

Yeah. Doesn’t strike me as totally your vibe, but you never know.

No, it’s not really my vibe. And a lot of that just has to do with the idea that you need to be making something that is of a piece of a very large entity with a lot of history, and a lot of relationships that people are already bringing to the characters, into the worlds. For that reason, I’m not sure I’d be the best candidate for that kind of work, but never say never, I guess.

You’re in this really interesting space with both TV and movie opportunities. Where’s your focus next, and what do you see yourself moving toward?

I need to be making personal movies again. That’s where I really learn and flex and experiment and fail and try and all of it, you know. So that’s what’s next for me, is just figuring out what the next feature is going to be.

Should you play Hellblade 1 before playing Hellblade 2?

Posted on May 22, 2024 by faz_business

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is here to continue, well, Senua’s saga. Hellblade 2 picks up an indeterminate amount of time after 2017’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.

The events of Hellblade 1 have a definite effect on Hellblade 2 — specifically on Senua — but do you have to have played Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice to enjoy Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2? Let’s break it down.

Should you play Hellblade 1 before playing Hellblade 2?

The short answer is: You don’t have to play Hellblade 1 before playing Hellblade 2.

There’s a handy (skippable) recap movie when you start a new game of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. What’s more, the events of the Senua’s Sacrifice are more backdrop than foundational to the events of Senua’s Saga — they’re good to know and they flesh out the world, but they’re not strictly necessary.

Regardless, when you start a new game, you’ll get a five-minute video with carved megalith visuals that covers all of the events of Hellblade 1. It’s thorough enough to get you up to speed for Hellblade 2 without too many questions.

If you missed anything in the video, though, here’s the crash course to get you ready for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2: Senua hears voices (the Furies). Her mother heard voices too. Senua’s father was a bad man and killed her mother because he thought the voices were evil. Senua fell in love, but it didn’t go well. People died. Senua continued to hear voices, and now had another voice in her head — her father’s (The Darkness and, later, the Shadow). Senua went to Hel(l) to retrieve her lost love and kill a god. She was half-successful, finally learning to accept loss as part of life (but still stabbing a god). She learned to live with the voices as a part of her.

That last part is why the voices you’ll hear throughout Hellblade 2 are kind of neither encouraging or discouraging — they’ve taken on a role more as observers or commenters (or a Greek chorus) than as antagonists.

For more Hellblade 2 guides, check out our guides on the Freyslaug rune puzzle solutions, Hiddenfolk puzzle solutions, and Bardarvik sea giant rune puzzle solutions.

‘Zero Hour’ quest walkthrough in Destiny 2 to get Outbreak Perfected

Posted on May 15, 2024 by faz_business

“Zero Hour” is the second secret mission to ever come to Destiny 2, and it’s finally back in the game as part of the Into the Light update and the May 14 reset. Much like the reprised “The Whisper” mission and its Whisper of the Worm reward, the updated version of “Zero Hour” rewards a fully craftable version of the Exotic pulse rifle Outbreak Perfected.

In this Destiny 2 guide, I’ll walk you through how to complete “Zero Hour” and get the pattern for Outbreak Perfected. Whether this is your first time experiencing “Zero Hour” or it’s just been too many years for you to remember the path, I’ve got you covered.

How to start ‘Zero Hour’ in Destiny 2

The Guardian in Destiny 2 makes their way to Ada-1 in the Tower

To start “Zero Hour,” all you need to do now is talk to Ada-1.

Head to the Tower Annex — the landing point over by the Drifter — and head up to Ada-1, the vendor who normally just handles transmog. She’ll give you the “Asset Protection” quest. With the quest in hand, all you need to do is open up the “Into the Light” submenu in the Director and select “Zero Hour.”

Completing the Exotic mission and finishing the quest at Ada-1 will reward you with the pattern for Outbreak Perfected.

‘Zero Hour’ walkthrough in Destiny 2

You have 40 minutes to beat this mission on the Normal difficulty.

Navigating the Destiny 1 Tower in ‘Zero Hour’

“Zero Hour” starts out with a lot of combat as you first adventure through the Destiny 1 Tower. You’ll be dealing with some powerful Fallen here, so make sure to put on your best gear and an assortment of ad-clearing weapons. As with all dense Fallen encounters, the Riskrunner Exotic submachine gun will serve you well if you’re having trouble.

Make your way through the bazaar and into the small vent. On the other side, you’ll be where the Speaker’s chambers once were. Clear the enemies, and move through the sweeper bot hallway.

You’ll find yourself in the courtyard, which is filled with enemies of varying type and power. There’s even a Brig here now, an enemy type that didn’t exist when the original mission came out. Take them all down to unlock the rest of the path.

Continue through the old tower until you reach the flaming scaffolding where the original opening mission of Destiny 2 takes place. Slide under the big door next to the M and drop down the elevator shaft. Climb in the vent and follow it.

You’ll emerge in a giant shipyard. Turn immediately left, and you’ll see a ship sitting below you. Run up to it and crouch under its nose. Follow the path and take a right into the vent. Follow the hallway you drop into and take the other vent above you. Take a left and enter another vent behind the toolbox.

Follow the vent and take your first right. There are a few doorways below, but you only need to take the one directly under you. If you’re the first player to arrive, you’ll have a handy metal lip to stand on. If you’re following a teammate, it’ll have broken off by now. Step off the ledge, turn around, and push forward against the wall as you fall. Climb into the ledge and follow the vent.

Jump onto the first piece of yellow scaffolding and then onto the next. Look toward the tower. There are two drain openings and a platform to your left. Depending on your class, you can either jump straight to the landing or hop your way to the landing through the drain openings.

On the landing, look off and down toward the tower. You’ll see a small protrusion. This is your target. Jump off the landing and move toward the wall. Land on the antenna.

Look out toward where the city and turn left. Jump on the pipes until you reach the next landing. You can pull a switch here to help your friends catch up.

Jump onto the scaffolding above you and run up to the open vent. Jump in and follow the path. You’ll be in a big elevator shaft. Start climbing up a few flights until you’re at the second from the top. Shoot open the vent on the right and climb through.

Now you’ll be surrounded by spinning fans, each of which have an Explosive Shank in the middle. Look for the red lights and jump into them. If you hold against the wall, you’ll save yourself from the fans. When you land, be careful — don’t hit the ground too hard and skid off into another fan. Repeat this process, carefully taking out or maneuvering around the Shanks, until you’re at the bottom of the shaft. Climb in another vent.

You’ll now find yourself in a long hallway that looks completely blank. Jump off the ledge and onto the silver vents hanging off the wall. These are tricky to stand on, so limit your movement. Jump to the next one and finally into the open door on the far side. Once again, there is a switch here to help your friends through the puzzle if they’re lagging behind.

How to navigate the ‘Zero Hour’ maze

Follow the vents until you get to Ventilation. Walk forward and take a look at the map, which you can see clearly in the image above.

This is the maze section of “Zero Hour,” and it looks much scarier than it actually is. The white lines represent hallways you can walk through, with the red arrows denoting switches you need to hit. You start the map in the center of the bottom-most rectangle’s southern white line. When you’ve had a good look at the map, turn around and drop down two floors of vents.

You’re in the maze now, just like in the picture. We recommend sending one player right and another left, just to speed the process up. The instructions below are for the right-side player, so left-side players should just mirror my instructions.

Run forward and take a left. Keep running until you find a split in the hall.
Turn right and into another rectangle.
Follow the path and hit the first switch.
Keep running until you reach the original hallway.

Here, you’ll likely have to wait for a wall of electricity to pass. If the electricity is just starting to arc, you can run through. Otherwise, you’ll have to sit and brood — Darth Maul style.

When the electricity drops, take a right turn. You should start hearing an unsettling sound about now. An electric shredder is also running the maze with you, named TR3-VR by Bungie and the Destiny community. There are some alcoves to hide in so it can pass, but just to your left you should see a giant cavern with pipes in it.

Jump on the pipes and wait for the machine to pass. You can tell if the shredder is chasing you by its sound or giant red light.

With the machine gone, jump back over to your hallway and take a left. Follow the path until a hallway opens on the right. Go hit the switch like last time and return to your normal hallway.

Take a right and follow the path until you can take another right. This is the exit. If you’ve hit all four switches, the doors will be open.

Run into the new room and hop on one of the elevators to your right or left. Hit the button and wait for them to slowly lift you into the rafters.

Jump onto the platform and shoot out the vent. Head down the chute and stay in the center of the slide. Jump to slow your momentum, or risk death by splattering against a wall. When you come out of the chute, turn left and then immediately right. Crawl through the vent on the floor.

How to navigate the vault maze in ‘Zero Hour’

You’ll be in the old Cryptarch Vault now, and the mission is nearly done.

On the opposite side of the Vault’s door, you’ll see some pipes on the wall. Next to the pipe, you’ll see the Cryptarch symbol. Go stand by it and the secret door will open. Run forward until you reach the section with white floor panels. You’ll need to step on these in the correct order or you’ll get incinerated.

There are six rows of panels, each are five panels across. We’ve numbered the panels below in order, so R1 – 1 is the farthest left panel on the first row, R1 – 2 is the farthest left panel in the second row, R3 – 5 is the farthest right of the third row, and so on.

You’ll start on the second tile from the right on the first row. From there, here’s the order you should follow, with the direction you need to head in in parentheses:

R1 – 4 (Start)
R2 – 4 (Forward)
R2 – 3 (Left)
R2 – 2 (Left)
R2 – 1 (Left)
R3 – 1 (Forward)
R4 – 1 (Forward)
R5 – 1 (Forward)
R5 – 2 (Right)
R5 – 3 (Right)
R4 – 3 (Back)
R4 – 4 (Right)
R4 – 5 (Right)
R5 – 5 (Forward)
R6 – 5 (Forward)

Once you’re through the panels, head to the end of the vault.

At the broken case, take a right and you’ll see a burned hole in the ground. Drop through it. Run forward and hop into another vent. It’s time to fight.

How to defeat Siriks in ‘Zero Hour’

When you drop down, you’ll find a Fallen Captain wielding a Scorch Cannon: Siriks. They’re surrounded by an army of Fallen.

Take out Siriks’ Fallen allies. They’ll summon turrets, big Servitors that grant immune shields to everything (these are very annoying, so kill them first) and a ton of Shanks. Just keep killing everything until Siriks’ health is about one-third full. You’ll get a message on your screen that says “Siriks retreats… for now” and the boss will disappear.

Two Fallen Walker tanks will appear on the raised platforms on your left and right, along with some additional Fallen. Take everything out and you’ll get another ominous message: “Siriks returns… heavily armed.”

Siriks will drop back into the area in a massive Brig mech. This thing has full health, so it’s going to take some time and work to take it out. Once you manage to blast off theshield on the Brig, the boss will start lobbing massive tank and constant airstrikes. Just keep moving to dodge these attacks and you’ll eventually take it down.

With Siriks dead, head up to the chest that spawns, say hi to Mithrax, and grab the Outbreak Perfected schematic. Head back to the Tower and talk to Ada-1. She’ll give you the Outbreak Perfected, complete with the pattern attached. Ada-1 will also give you the “Outbreak Refined 1” quest, which you can complete for some additional crafted perk options on your new Outbreak Perfected.

If you already have the Catalyst for Outbreak Perfected from the original version of “Zero Hour,” you’ll instantly be able to place it on your newly crafted gun. However, if this is your first time running the mission, you’ll need to hop back in on Heroic mode in order to pick up the Catalyst and improve your Outbreak Perfected.