Heart of Thorns contains 15 different “Adventures” that can be completed for experience points and other rewards.  These adventures are located throughout Verdant Brink, Auric Basin and Tangled Depths. Depending on the current state of the map, adventures may or may not be accessible due to the fact that they only become available when certain events are completed.  You can tell if an adventure is currently available by looking at it’s map icon. If the icon is gray with a padlock, then it is not currently accessible.  Out of all the adventures, we prefer those that have reasonably obtainable gold medals and are fun to complete.  Here is the list of our top 5 adventures in Heart of Thorns, presented in no specific order.

Fungus Among Us

Located in the southwest region of Auric Basin, this adventure requires players to quickly navigate through checkpoints as a transformed mushroom. As a mushroom, you have access to certain unique skills such as a forward dash and targeted long jump.  Although the path is fairly linear, there are still areas that allow you to choose different shortcuts.  Knowing when to use the forward dash or long jump is critical to achieving the fastest time.  A gold medal time on this adventure can be obtained after a medium amount of practice.  This adventure makes our list because of the unique movement steals and fun path layout.

Flying Circus

The “Flying Circus” adventure is located in northwest Verdant Brink and involves gliding through a series of circular checkpoints.  Power-ups such as a gliding boost and teleport charge are spread throughout the gliding path.  Achieving gold on this adventure should not prove to be overly difficult, it’s more a matter of avoiding mistakes.  We enjoyed this adventure because it’s a fun gliding experience that doesn’t involve collecting items in a small area.

Sanctum Scramble

“Sanctum Scramble” is a sort of jumping puzzle adventure that involves making your way to the top of the “egg bearer” chamber beneath Tarir in Auric Basin.  During the adventure players gain access to three powerful movement skills such as jump, dash and leap.  To achieve a faster time players must correctly manage their skill cool-downs and use them appropriately to maximize effectiveness.  Achieving a gold medal time in this adventure will require a fair amount of practice.  This adventure is one of our favorites because of the fun to use movement skills and moderate level of challenge.

Drone Race

Even though this adventure is one of the easiest in Heart of Thorns, it is also one of the most accessible and fun to complete.  Located in the eastern region of Tangled Depths, the Drone Race adventure involves racing a drone “motorcycle” through a treacherous obstacle course.  Racers have access to skills such as speed boost and other helpful abilities.  Achieving a gold medal time should be trivial to most players due to the forgiving time requirement.  This adventure made our top 5 list due, in part, to the fact that you can jump a motorcycle over a flaming ramp. Enough said.

Ley-Line Run

Located near the end of the Ogre Lane in the Tangled Depths map, the “Ley-Line Run” adventure involves hopping over a series of platforms as a transformed spark.  Proper use of the Teleport and speed boost skills are crucial to achieving the fastest time.  This adventure offers medium difficulty, with bronze and silver scores being relatively easy to achieve.  Completing the Ley-Line Run under the gold time limit will require a little bit of practice but should not be too difficult once players are familiar with the power-up locations and general mechanics.  This is one of our favorite adventures because of it’s interesting mechanics and short duration which encourages replay-ability.

Final Thoughts

On the whole we feel that adventures in the Heart of Thorns are a welcome addition.  Many of them are fun to complete and offer decent rewards.  That said, we also feel that with a few changes they could be even better.  The main problem with adventures is that they are only available during specific times in relation to the status of map events.  This creates an issue where players who want to participate in certain adventures cannot access them, or players that are currently in the adventures may be kicked out when an adventure closes.  Allowing adventures to be accessible all the time would encourage more players to participate in them and reduce frustration.  There is also the problem of gold medals being nearly impossible to achieve in certain adventures.  The adventure that comes to mind is the “Hay-Wire Punch-O-Matic” adventure, which requires a huge increase over the silver medal requirement, which is already difficult to achieve.  The gold medal requirements on adventures like these should be reevaluated and changed to an appropriate level in line with other adventures.

Lastly, we realize that choosing the top five adventures in Heart of Thorns is based on our opinions and may not reflect the opinions of other players.  The adventures we chose to include in this top five list are simply the ones that we enjoyed the most and wanted to share with others players who may not be aware of all of the adventures in Heart of Thorns.