It was now time to start exploring the region of the Iron River. True to its name it had lots of iron for me to farm. It also had some disturbing secrets going on. Including some vile-looking spiders that a giant newspaper was not going to be enough to smash one with.

I was supposed to be heading to the Greywater Camp. However, this region ended up kicking me behind. I can contribute a little bit to not staying behind in the last region and grinding things out a bit.

I wanted to upgrade or replace my current gear. The issue was I needed some raw materials I had yet to acquire. I also was not sure if I could take on a standard area that has lots of houses and crates to open.

There are thankfully a bunch of minor sites as well. Such as this little farm area with some other buildings. I even went around and looting some of the crops. This ended up getting me some seeds as well that I'd be using at some point back on my base.

What I was not expecting at such a site was an event to run. I was exploring the barn when I found a massive and odd-looking machine inside it. I went to interact with it and it appears I can use refinery permits to start the event.

Up till this point like many pieces of loot I had been acquiring. There is just a lot of stuff I know very little about. I had come across some areas in the past that required an access card to progress further.

Now at least a good time as any to work out how to use a refining permit card. I even have a few of these in my inventory. At some point, I might go on a massive farming spree of these things.

While I would say this should been one of the last things I should be doing. I also noticed the permit was only for level 15 creatures and four waves of them at that. It did not seem to be that bad.

I started the event. Then like an idiot I waited around for waves of things to come attack me. Then I realized I had three minutes left to set up my defense. Turns out I could not only move things around in the barn but also build things to help defend the location.

I had nothing with me to craft a defense with. So, I just hopped moving around some stuff to block doorways and give myself some points to duck under while reloading would be good enough.

Then the waves of creatures came in. They did manage to hit the device I was supposed to be defending. Thankfully they were not able to destroy it. It would seem I have some things to learn about this event and will come better prepared the next time I give one of these a try.

I then went back to hitting up smaller sites hoping to get what I needed to craft some upgrades. I kind of ended up pushing my luck a bit by trying to take on a larger spot as well.

I somehow even managed to take down an elite without getting killed. The place called Blackfell Junction ended up having quite a massive hospital in it loaded with goodies. I’d even end up coming back here a couple of times for questioning.

The place ended up being loaded with quite a lot of resources I needed to make some new gear. I even ended up leaving in the middle of clearing the town. Crafting a new weapon that did like two and a half times the damage. That upgrade alone made the rest of the region bearable.

After that and some other clearing along the way. I wanted to pick up some teleporting and anchoring points. I finally made it into Grewywater Camp. Where a lot of familiar faces were already there and got stranded or were looking to do business in this region.

Some even shared tall tales of their adventures getting to this location. I also found out some not-so-good stuff was going down in this region and my help was being asked yet once again.

While out and about working on the main quest I ended up running into T-Man again. I ended up being told of another bounty by someone seeking revenge for the death of their son. I’d later find out T-Man was being a bit dishonest with some of the details but I won’t spoil which ones those were.

I was getting an even worse vibe at this point about this dude. I however needed this silo dungeon clear for something or another. So I went through with it anyway. There was a fair bit of clearing before I made it to the final boss.

I’m just glad I had to upgrade my weapon and armor a bit for this one. I even got some loot that I could use to further calibrate everything to get a little more damage and defense out of my gear.

There was then just a lot of the usual. Me going around clearing out large sites while ignoring the main storyline for a while. It wanted me to go back to the hospital that I had already been to.

One thing I do need to spend some time messing around with and learning further is the blueprint system. Up till this point, I have been looting a few blueprint fragments. A lot of the higher-tier stuff I need requires something like 500 or more fragments. So, it’s clear I'm kind of still far away from unlocking any of these rarer items.

There are just so many little things going on in this game. I just need to stop at some point and try and work out a few different things. There are even events with points going on. Some stuff has already ended and new things are already starting. It's a shame I did not find this game a bit sooner to enjoy the holiday loot.

The missions in this game were just when you thought were wacky and wild enough. You would end up getting one that involved a gingerbread house and get these alpacas. The entire building was filled with sheep and alpacas. It’s almost enough to wonder if you or the game is slowly going insane.

I then went off to do some quests. One of them was about dolls. I even went back to the hospital and had to watch memories of things from the past. Along with finding just some strange things in there that I did not see the first couple of times around.

As it turns out someone was having a nightmare. Now why do I have to fight a giant spider in someone's dreams? Insanity at this point that is why. At least what looks like a tough fight was not so bad.

However, little did I know at the time this was kind of foreshadowing the monolith fight in a tiny way. At least by then I was already used to seeing a massive house-sized spider that was bent on killing me.

Before long I had activated all the rift anchors I needed to. I was heading towards yet another monolith. Like the other region, I had skipped over quite a lot of questing to get to this point so quickly. That would not be too much of a deal I'd quickly find out.

I was this time tasked with hitting up a major Rosetta compound. Their name was everywhere. It looks like they were doing some rather strange experiments inside. Some of those experiments might have even attempted to kill me.

Then I found out I was having to fight yet another giant spider. This one is even nastier and bigger than the last. It sends chills down my spine even thinking about it. I also was in the middle of their web.

This spider launched webs at me that would turn me into a cocoon. While I could break out of it after a short amount of time. It was not being able to avoid any attacks from the boss or any adds that were the concern.

It also had a phase where the entire battle arena would be filled with dense fog and it could no longer take any damage. I had to find eggs that were off on distance walls around the outer side of the arena and take them out.

I’m so thankful at this point of the game I had not only crafted a better sniper rifle but had been using it quite a bit. Some of those shots might been a bit more challenging without. As the eggs were quite a distance away. I’m so glad I'm not a full melee player this would have been a disaster.

This might be one I try and farm a few times over. I ended up looting some rare mods, got a gun, and a bunch of materials from killing the monolith.

I also found out I can’t advance much further until the next phase of the season starts. The good news is I still have lots of things to do to keep me busy. I have also been slacking a bit on things like mining ores.

I also wonder if other players join a season late on purpose. There are some benefits to joining them within the first week they start and completing some tasks. I’m just not quite sure yet if that is the smart play or the overall larger picture. Quite a few things are going on that I might not fully understand till the season I'm in ends.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Once Human.