Your hero has been zooming around Champions Online dispatching the
forces of evil and mayhem. Suddenly, you realize that you have no more
missions to do and you can’t find any readily available
missions. Your supervillain-smiting heart is as sad as a cop staring at
a closed donut shop. What do you do? Have no fears, good citizen! Ten
Ton Hammer is here to help you out in your time of need. We will show
you what to do when you have mission lag.



There are two noticeable times in Champions Online when
you’ll have mission lag, which means that you’ve
finished all your missions, but you can’t seem to find any
more to do. The first mission lag occurs in the mid 20s, whilst the
second occurs in the low to mid 30s. Fortunately, there are a few
things you can do to get you over this crisis. We’ll examine
the various options that a hero can do to get them back to full action.



Crime
Computer

The first thing you can do is to check the crime computer on your
mission log. A lot of players (including myself) get used to doing
mission after mission that they forget that they can check the crime
computer to see if any contacts need help. This option can generate a
few leads for your character. Most likely you’ll have to
travel to another zone, which leads us to the next option.

Travel
to a Different Zone

If the zone you’re currently in seems devoid of missions,
then you should head out to a different zone to see if there are any
available missions there to do. Lower level characters (mid 20s) can go
back and forth between Canadian Wilderness, Southwest Desert, and
Millennium City looking for missions. Higher level characters (low to
mid 30s) can check out Lemuria, Monster Island, Millennium City, and
Canadian Wilderness. Remember that missions that are 3-4 levels below
you and 3 levels above you are available for you to take. If you have
to do some missions that are a few levels below you, do so! They may
not present the greatest challenge, but they’ll provide a lot
more xp than just mindless grinding. If you can’t find lower
level missions to do, then do higher level missions. A hero should
normally not have a lot of problems doing missions that are a couple of
levels above them.



Recheck
Contacts When You Level

Remember that you can take missions that are 3 levels higher
than you.
When you level, travel back to contacts that had no missions for you
earlier to see if they now have missions for you. You’ll be
surprised by what a difference a single level can make. On Monster
Island, I had no missions for a time. However, when I dinged, I found
that 4 different contacts that were empty before now had a plethora of
missions for me to do.



Man
on the Street Missions

As you travel around looking for available missions, keep an eye on
your mini-map and NPCs walking around. A person on the street may come
up to you with a robbery or a kidnapping mission. Who cares what it is?
It’s a mission with xp! Also, you might come across a quick
mission, such as a bank robbery or an escort quest. An example of a
non-contact mission is one I recently did on Monster Island. I was
flying over some mountains to check for missions in the northern part
of the island when I stumbled across a little camp on the mountaintop.
I would have flown right over it if I hadn’t noticed the big
exclamation point popping up on my mini-map. There I had to free a
small group of manimals from their captors. The whole mission took me
about 5 minutes, but I was instantly rewarded with some good xp! Like
any good superhero, keep your eyes open!



Grinding
and Grinding Missions

Grinding is the least preferable way to level up. It’s time
consuming, boring, and frustrating. However, sometimes it’s
the only way to get that xp. However, there is a way to get some
grinding to work for you. In each zone, there are usually one or two
contacts that have a repeatable grinding mission. These missions are
the standard “kill x number of something,” but they
do have the extra benefit of getting mission xp at the conclusion of
the mission. Getting a free 13K of experience for essentially grinding
means that’s a lot less creatures I need to kill to level.

Open
Missions

Another form of grinding is doing open missions. The main thing with
open missions is that since they have a little storyline to them, they
can be used to break the monotony of grinding. Of course, doing the
same open mission over and over again can be dull. One plus of open
missions is that, if you do really well, you might get some swell loot
out of it. In addition, you get mission xp if you finish the open
mission.



PvP

You can also gain experience by engaging in some PvP action. While I
find the PvP in CO lacking, it can be a nice change of pace from the
normal grind. You do tend to get experience at a slower rate, but you
will gain acclaim as well to spend on rewards and costume
unlocks.  I wouldn’t try to level by just doing PvP,
but it can spice up the leveling grind.



As you can see, there are a few options available to your costumed
crusader when they experience mission lag. While some options might be
more interesting than others (finding new missions in a different zone
is way better than grinding), you might have to use all of the methods
listed above throughout your game play to level 40. Your best two
options are to check the crime computer and travel to different zones
to find new missions. After those two options, rechecking contacts when
you level is the next best preferable one. Hopefully, these suggestions
will help you get over the hump in your mission lag so your hero can
get back to bashing villainous foes!