I found this on reddit today, some good advice if you’re looking to start doing the challenging missions any time soon. This was post by esoterickk
Hey all,
Have spent quite a bit of time in the various Challenge missions and have got a pretty good understanding of them all. Recorded all the clears for each one so that they can be used as reference. In terms of difficulty, from easiest to hardest Lexington Event Center << Lincoln Tunnel Checkpoint <<< WarrenGate Power Plant << Russian Consulate. The Russian Consulate definitely being the hardest, WarrenGate is behind it but up there mainly due to the timed area. The other two don’t really compare, but have their own kind of difficult sections if you don’t have the best strategy in certain locations.
Some general overall tips that apply to all Challenging difficultly missions:
Ideally you want ~60-80k+ health. Below that is definitely workable too, but this helps while learning. DPS-wise around the same, if not higher – but it’s less punishing for DPS. Running lower will obviously be ok for many, but I’ve found these as safe-points to not get instagibbed by everything while learning the place.
Weapon setup having a Marksmen Rifle makes it a LOT easier for everything. Any type of weapon + Marksmen work out well. Ideally 10 or 5 round I’ve found is nice, any higher and the damage from them tends to suffer.
High Stability/Accuracy on your weapons helps a lot.
Get used to not using a scope on your Marksmen Rifle to zoom in. Using the basic aim-down-sight is much safer, and once you get used to it you can consistently hit headshots while having a better sense of surroundings. If you’re aiming down with a zoomed in scope, it leaves you too vulnerable and hard to chain shots. Stability/Accuracy again helping with the chain shots.
Shotgun rushers should always be priority to kill – these enemies have a lightning icon to indicate their type. They’re by far the most dangerous and easy to wipe from. Chaining headshots from Marksmen Rifles, team focus firing or stunning the enemies will be needed to deal with them.
Protection from Elites / Extra Elite Damage / Enemy Armor Damage are all great stats that help immensely and should not be overlooked on gear.
Goes without saying, but having a mix of Tank/DPS/Healing ultimate abilities works great. Having one or two with pulse + increased damage, and others with healing station makes things a lot better for everyone. You can double up on those abilities, I’ve found those are the biggest help personally. Other than that it’s personal preference and how your group likes to run – I REALLY dislike the big seeker bomb that drops fire – shakes your screen too much and causes you to miss.
Mobile Cover to block off main paths and crowd control abilities works wonders inside Challenge Modes too. Particularly well for dealing with Shotgun rushers.
A lot of these are with a focus on being able to get it done safely while learning, not for speed purposes. Once you’ve learned the place you can optimize from there if you like and pick up the pace. To note also, I’m not claiming to be the best player at these, nor the 100% best strategies – these are tips that I’ve found helpful for dealing with randoms, and shared with a group of other players too to help them. All of these were done with PUGs/matchmaking except for 1 friend, and this is on PS4 so the aiming will be lacking compared to PC; less precise.
With all that said, here is each mission:
Lexington Event Center
The easiest of the lot. Once you’ve entered the building and have the first encounter inside, stay inside the stairwell. Start the area by having people focus down the two shotgun rushers (lightning icon) and take it slower from inside stairwell. Repeat for every wave.
Next will be the hardest part of the mission, the point where you take the elevator up stairs. Focus on burning the two big tanks down ASAP as they will come around the side, and use the elevator as cover. Enemies don’t seem to come into that room and they can’t cover the whole elevator with grenades either. After that take your time clearing them out and you should be fine. Careful of the snipers far.
Once you go downstairs, stay in the section near the restock and don’t push too far up. Shotgun rushers again will come through, use Marksmen Rifles to burn them down as they run and chain headshots – or focus fire and stun them. Big tanks will come through as well, just fire from the safety of the doorway near the restock.
Boss fight area stay up the top section, start the fight by killing the two snipers and stay up the top middle and work everything down. Watch for grenades and the fight is easy.
Lincoln Tunnel Checkpoint
This mission is all about taking it slow, playing safe and firing from range. Doing so makes the mission a lot easier, the biggest danger being snipers, firebombs and the defending NPC section. With the defend section, have people use their ultimate abilities and take down the melee rushers with bats. They can be surprisingly overwhelming. Other than that, focus fire the enemies that are firing at your NPC and you should be ok. The hardest part being the melee rushers really, they can become overwhelming fast. For the rest just play safe and fire off Marksmen shots, try not to let enemies flank you and be aware of your positions/grenades. It’s a little hard to go into detail with this mission, it’s really just about taking it slowly, firing from a range and watching your flanks.
From /u/Bald_and_beardy also: “Lincoln tunnel. You can cheese this challenge mission.
You can run past a few groups of the enemies and then in the tunnel when youre protecting the EOD soldier kill all but one of the first wave and wait till it times out. No one else will spawn whilst that last guy is still alive making that defence much easier.”
WarrenGate Power Plant
Unfortunately didn’t get the whole place in this video, however these is a full length VOD in the description (we slowly 2manned the first half) – but the hardest part by far is the timed section where this video starts. People have also mentioned difficultly at the first gate entering the mission, just run back super far and take them down slowly if you need to. Progressing towards the timed room, just play back far and safe again, using cover to your advantage. Deal with shotgun rushers ASAP and you will be ok.
Once you enter the timed section is where it can become difficult. There will be a point where it tells you to activate the 3 valves – depending on which you hit will have enemies spawn from a different location, however the waves are always the same it’s just the order in which you do it. The hardest wave by far is the one that is started by the valve on the lower level to the right of where you enter the room, having several shotgun rushers and tanky enemies. You want to start with this wave so you can deal with it at first, and not as the last wave after already clearing the previous two. Have everyone focus fire the shotgun rushers ASAP, the stairwell where you enter the room with the restock can be a good point to do so. It is worth popping ultimate abilities to deal with them, and then kite the tanky guys and kill them.
Time is key here though, so you’re not able to play too safe. You need to try and pump out as much damage as possible while also not dying – it can be pretty difficult but if you all focus fire it should be ok. Boss fight you can kite everyone around endlessly (as we did here), just play it safe and take your time – they will eventually wittle down.
Russian Consulate
The hardest and most annoying of the lot. This place is filled with shotgun rushers, tank enemies with giant shields and barely any room to shoot them, seeker mines, grenade spammers, turrets everywhere… and healers too. It’s probably the most annoying enemy types in the game. Awareness is key here, and as always focusing the shotgun rushers too.
The first area play it back behind the metal detectors, have people focus fire each shotgun rusher and take your time killing the rest of the enemies. Watch for seeker mines and turrets, and enjoy slowly widdling down the tank dude. Repeat for all 3 waves.
Next you go upstairs and this area isn’t too bad really. Use cover to your advantage and take enemies out one-by-one. I think there was rushers again, focus those down of course and work the rest. Proceed through the rooms, take down snipers and rushers again. After you clear through there and to a restock, the next room will be the computer server room.
Have everyone stay back in the room prior, one person get a shot off on the shotgun rusher and then rush back to the group. This gives you a good distance between the enemies and lets you focus them down. Keep playing from far back in this room, being inside the server room can be risky and prone to death – repeat for every wave.
You’ll next have the stairs with shotgunners, they’re not too bad to deal with when focus firing. But the room below that can take quite a long time and be very annoying. Try and kill the medics otherwise it will last forever, there’s several tank enemies with shields, turrets and grenades… all I can say again is to enjoy widdling them down slowly.
Once you’ve cleared that, the hardest part of the mission is up. The room where you go downstairs and Vitaly is there, the upper level and lower level. We found it best to first rush to the right side and set up camp there. If you stay where you enter the room you can’t get anything done and get spammed by grenades. Kill the shotgunners ASAP and clear the rest slowly. Be aware for when enemies spawn however and the warning you get, because as soon as that happens the enemies will spawn on the stairs behind you. Run back up to where you entered the room and deal with the shotgunners – the rest with spread out and work your way back to the area on the right again.
You’ll then head up to the boss area, and be greeted yet again by shotgunners. Use the stairs to kite them down if you have to, there’s no real safe place up there with all the snipers that fire at you. Once you’ve dealt with the shotgunners, the rest is just playing it safe and killing the enemies slowly and the boss. Rejoice once you’ve completed this ridiculously long and annoying mission!
And that’s all of the Challenging Difficulty missions currently available. If you have any questions feel free to ask – always happy to help!
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