Kythera - Phase 2
NianticOfficial
Niantic › admin
During the Kythera Anomaly Series, we expect to see 100 Impact Zones destabilized each phase. Any given location may or may not be targeted in more than one phase. In May, NIA Researchers managed to redirect part of the disturbance to 10 chosen Impact Zones. They are:
- Shizuoka City, Shizuoka, Japan
- Dubai, UAE
- Denizli, Turkey
- Kraków, Poland
- Stuttgart, Germany
- Cambridge, UK
- La Plata, Argentina
- Grand Rapids, MI, USA
- Midland, TX, USA
- Tapachula, Chiapas, México
Kythera Phase 2 is expected to occur from Friday, 20 May 2022 1100 UTC to Monday, 23 May 2022 1100 UTC (72 hours), and reach its maxima on Saturday 21 May.
NIASection14 has started to ornament some of the Portals at Kythera Phase 2 Impact Zones. NIASection14 will deploy Rare Battle Beacons on Saturday, 21 May on Kythera-targeted Portals between 1430 and 1730 local time. The NIA strongly advises Agents to take control of these Kythera targets for K’s investigation.
Additionally, the residue energy will condense into a number of Artifacts, called Shards, in the 10 chosen Impact Zones on Saturday, 21 May between 1430 and 1730 local time. The NIA will deploy Faction-specific safekeep for these Shards (a.k.a. Target Portals). Bring these Artifacts to the Target Portals for further investigation.
The NIA also urges Agents to deploy Rare or Very Rare Battle Beacons on Portals they believe will disturb Kythera during the Phase 2 event window from 20-23 May. Trust your instincts. There are no coincidences. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen.
Good luck.
NIA Procedure
- Some Portals at each Impact Zone will be ornamented fromnow until 20 May 1100 UTC. The ornaments will look like this:
- From 14:30 to 17:30 local time,
NIASection14will deploy Rare Battle Beacons on targeted Portals. They will become visible via Scanner starting at 14:30 local time for the first checkpoint to begin at 14:40. - There will be at least one break within the 3-hour period.
- It is possible for a given Portal to be deployed with a Rare Battle Beacon by
NIASection14more than once within the 3-hour period. - Rare Battle Beacons triggered by the AR Scan Meter at the top of the first hour of Septicycle 2022.20 (Saturday, 21 May 0800-0810 UTC) may affect the Battle Beacon schedule on some sites.
For the 10 chosen Impact Zones,
- On 14:30, 2x ENL Target Portals will manifest
- On 14:30, 2x RES Target Portals will manifest
- On 14:40, 13x Shards will manifest
- Starting 14:50, all manifested Shards will begin moving along L4 or higher Links approximately every 10 minutes
- The last Shard Movement will be approximately 17:20
- On 17:30, all Target Portals will close
Shard Behavior Patterns
- Shards will look like this: [PENDING]
- Enlightened Target Portals will look like this: [PENDING]
- Resistance Target Portals will look like this: [PENDING]
- Both the Shards and the Target Portals will manifest within the identified Anomaly Impact Zones, however, Shards will be able to transit along Links to Portals both inside and outside any Impact Zone.
- In the event that a Shard fails to travel along a connected Link in 25 minutes, it may randomly teleport to a nearby Portal at the following Movement window if no viable Link is present.
- The Shards will be able to travel along any combination of Portal Links, traveling along one Link per Movement window, however, Shards will not backtrack to any Portal they were present on within the previous 25 minutes. If multiple viable Links exist, a Shard may travel on any one of those Links. If multiple Shards are present on a Portal, they may each jump along different Links.
- If a Shard movement is found to have been the result of actions by a rogue Agent, NIA operators may cause that XM Shard to return to a previous known location.
Scoring
The final Kythera score for each Faction will be the total Kythera score across 3 phases earned by the respective Faction.
For each phase, Factions may earn 13 points from each of the 100 Impact Zones based on NIA-deployed Rare Battle Beacon outcome, excluding Rare Battle Beacons triggered by the AR Scan Meter at the top of the first hour of Septicycle 2022.20 (Saturday, 21 May 0800-0810 UTC).
Each set of 13 points is to be distributed to the two Factions according to the ratio of weighted Battle Beacon Point Values. Each Battle Beacon will be weighted based on the Battle Category, which is based on offensive or defensive actions on the underlying Portals. From CAT-I to CAT-VI, the weighted values are 1-2-3-6-7-8 respectively.
For example, if a given Battle Beacon Score is Checkpoint 1: ENL 2; Checkpoint 2: RES 3; Checkpoint 3: ENL 4, and Battle CAT-V, then the Enlightened earns 42 points (6*7) and the Resistance earns 21 (3*7).
Further to this example, if the aforementioned Battle Beacon is the only NIA-deployed Battle Beacon in a given Impact Zone, then the Enlightened scores 9 out of 13 and the Resistance earns 4 out of 13 at this Impact Zone.
In Kythera Phase 2 and 3, Factions may earn an additional 13 points from each of the 10 chosen Impact Zones by bringing Shards to Target Portals of their alignment.
These 10 Impact Zones were picked from applications received via this form: https://forms.gle/id3vFqXQ1MuEj95E8. Each of these 10 Impact Zones will be worth a total of 26 points - 13 points from NIA-deployed Rare Battle Beacons and 13 points from Shards reaching Target Portals.
For May, only applications received before Sunday, 24 April were considered. For June, apply by 29 May.
Agent-deployed Rare or Very Rare Battle Beacons for each phase is worth a total of 260 points globally, to be distributed to the two Factions according to the ratio of weighted Battle Beacon Point Values they earned from Agent-deployed Battle Beacons between 20 May 2022 1100 UTC and Monday, 23 May 2022 1100 UTC. Rare Battle Beacons triggered by the AR Scan Meter at the top of the first hour of Septicycle 2022.20 (Saturday, 21 May 0800-0810 UTC) will be scored under this group regardless of whether the deployer name is shown as NIASection14.
For example, if all Agent-deployed Battle Beacons during the said period sum up to ENL 305,752 vs 317,323 RES, the actual point distribution will be ENL 128:132 RES.
Results Announcements
Interim global results for each Faction will be announced periodically through in-app News Feed and the Ingress Community Forum.
The final score for Phase 2 will be announced within 24 hours through in-app News Feed and the Ingress Community Forum.
Kythera Medal
Any Agent who has interacted with at least ten (10) Battle Beacons scored at any of the three Kythera Phases will be awarded the in-app Kythera medal. This medal will be awarded as soon as an Agent meets such criteria. Agents who have already been awarded the in-app Kythera medal in an earlier event phase will not receive a second medal in a later phase.
For example, if an Agent interacted with 3 Battle Beacons deployed by XM Sensitive Agents during Phase 2 and interacted with 7 NIA-deployed Battle Beacons during Phase 2, they will receive the Kythera Medal by the end of Phase 2.
To assist Agents, the Kythera Anomaly metric will remain on your Agent Profile for the duration of the Kythera Anomaly Series to help you monitor your individual progress.
Also available during the season of Kythera in the Ingress Store:
- Limited-time Klue load-out kit with re-release of the 2015 Klue medal (30800 CMU)
Want to have your location considered as a Kythera Anomaly Impact Zone in June?
Please fill in: https://forms.gle/id3vFqXQ1MuEj95E8 by 29 May.
As always, please remember to be aware of your surroundings. We encourage players to follow local health and safety guidelines when playing Ingress (such as wearing masks and maintaining at least six feet/two meters of distance from other people). For the latest on in-game events and feature updates, be sure to check COMM > NEWS.
— The Ingress Team
Comments
May the best faction win!
SHARDS!!!!!!!!!
Let's fight on the field of play! One more time!! 🏃🏻♂️
the next stage of an anomaly in which there is no storyline ??? Dear Administration, explain what are we fighting for this time?
Whether Klue will use the Kythera Mechanism or destroy it.
Which faction win is use and which faction win is destroy?
@NianticOfficial @NianticBrian
Shard scoring is not clear.
I'd appreciate if you could clarify it.
Which one of the following is right ? (or other scoring method ?)
1) 1 shard goal add 1 point to a faction.
2) 13 points will be distributed between two factions based on the number of goals by each factions. (it could be possible that some shards would not be delivered onto the targets by 17:30)
" 13x Shards will manifest"
"In Kythera Phase 2 and 3, Factions may earn an additional 13 points from each of the 10 chosen Impact Zones by bringing Shards to Target Portals of their alignment."
"These 10 Impact Zones were picked from applications received via this form: https://forms.gle/id3vFqXQ1MuEj95E8. Each of these 10 Impact Zones will be worth a total of 26 points - 13 points from NIA-deployed Rare Battle Beacons and 13 points from Shards reaching Target Portals."
It's actually pretty clear.
I don't think it is clear.
Can anybody explain what the scores would be in the following case based on the rule above ?
ENL +6, RES +5.
13 shards, one point per shard you land.
I need to reconfirm if the portals set for Chitose, Sapporo, Japan is correct.
The portals set for the subject area is set at Chitose Airport and is not ideal for game play area as the whole airport is privately owned, as well as it is not meant for may people to play safely without disturbing the travellers.
Would it be possible to reset the game play area to the Chitose city area and not the airport terminal area?
maybe, maybe not.
Unfortunately, "one point per shard" is not written anywhere in the rule.
This rule is vague. It could be interpreted in any way.
Even the following unreasonable scoring could be applied after the game at Niantic's discretion.
Shard #1-#3) 2 points each
Shard #4-#13) 0.7 points each
As someone who hasn’t seen Shards active, what’s the big deal with them? Do I get a badge/niceties if I interact with a Sharded Portal?
No, shards normally only appear for anomalies and are used as an additional scoring mechanism instead of just capturing portals. With shards, you not only have to capture and hold it, but also clear the way to the target portal, capture that one and link them together. Some people like them, some loath them, so everytime someone says the S-word, people get flashbacks.
I see. Thanks for explaining. Would be nice to get a badge for any Shard interactions too. I can see they’re a nice little extra gameplay thing.
There was the Avenir event which was a global shard game with a badge. It was not awarded for interacting with the shards however, but just by simply hacking a portal. The problem is that there are a lot of moving parts in a shard game which are extremely important, but don't touch the shard directly. For example, clearing links or setting up rails don't touch the shard directly, but without them, the shars wouldn't travel. How would you give those agent the badge? And how do you know that the agent that just dropped that link even knew about the shards and even wants the badge?
The shard game is exciting! The battle beacon game is ... increasingly not. While it's always great to get people together, we are getting pretty tired of having the exact same portals light up every month. Nearly half of the ornamented portals in Philadelphia for Kythera Phase 2 were also ornamented in Kythera Phase 1; many of these portals were also lit up in Kureze Phase 1 and Kureze Phase 2. One driving force for players to travel to anomaly events is interactions with new unique portals, and these are the exact opposite of uniques.
Please change your algorithm to encourage agents to gather in new places. New cities. Different neighborhoods of the same city. Something. This implementation is unfair to everyone.
Except that means this impact zone will not be worth a total of 26 points because there are 2 points missing...
wow. a whole 10 days ahead informationa bout oficial shard anomaly. good job niantic. keep on the good job of keeping players interest in the game.
well, in my country we had oficial sites in 2 rounds out of first 5 this year. one of rounds were in cities where less then 3 players attended. so niantic keeps us prety motivated to travel, or pick location for our own battle beacon locations, it still does not change fact, that it is simply not interesting.
well my town didnt get chosen this time so nearest for me is like 4 hour drive with car and since i already have the badge i will not participate this round so it seems they did swap some cities from previous round looking at europe only.. i think its also if not many were active last round which in my town there was only a few due to easter holidays and some agents out of town probably thats why previous cities that had didnt get chosen randomly.
Ornaments in Nagasaki, Japan had disappeared and another city got Ornaments.
Is Nagasaki canceled ?
We’d like to clearfy.
The problem with awarding a shard badge for interacting with it is that you'll have a bunch of players only concerned about getting their shiny, even if that comes at the expense of the team effort/strategy to score the shard.
In Orlando, FL portals at Disney we're chosen for the event. Unfortunately this is a paid to enter location and not everyone has a fair shot to access the Beacons.
I agree, we shouldn't have to pay to enter the park for this type of event
I have to agree with spacecadet and AriaLake on this. It is DEFINITELY pay to play and the pay part is OUTRAGEOUS. As one of the enlightened POC's, it isn't fair to put beacons in areas that are not accessible to all who would like to participate. Having beacons only inside Disney parks and nowhere else in the Orlando area is ultimately not fair to all our local agents.
I also agree. As a Native Orlandoean, I can think of myriad free-to-access locations—even on Walt Disney World property—that would offer access to dense portals and fair play.
I concur, AriaLake!
Amen, POC!
Full agreement with all of the above.
And to add my own ¢2...
Putting the play area behind literal pay gates seems counter to Niantic's mission statement to encourage exploration and to bring the world together through play.
With a $149 entrance fee per person over 10 years old, it puts the event outside of what a casual explorer with the scanner open may be willing to spend to participate in the event.
It also sets up two distinct classes of players... those that can afford to get in or were there already, and those that are left outside.