Missions in The Secret World may in some cases, particularly story missions, be categorized by the Faction that commissioned their completion:
 |
Templars |  |
Dragon |  |
Illuminati |
The first missions in the game are Faction missions, introducing the home location of the Factions: No Sleep till Brooklyn (Illuminati), The Butterfly Effect (Dragon) and London Calling (Templars).
Missions may be categorized by their locations :
And they may be categorized into seven different means by which they are carried out or acquired : Story, Action, Investigatio, Sabotage, Item, PvP, or Dungeon.
Story Mission[]
A story mission gradually reveals some of the deeper secrets of why the game's world is in the state it currently is. Story missions usually have cut-scenes at various points, which sometimes give clues to how to further progress the mission. A story mission usually contains fighting elements found in action missions, but can also involve elements like stealth and puzzles found in sabotage and investigation missions. They frequently involve single-player instances.
A single story mission can span over a wide range in difficulty levels, and it should usually not be expected that you can do it from start to finish without also improving your characters skills and abilities.
Main Mission[]
You are only allowed one main mission at a time. They are divided into three categories, Action, Investigation, and Sabotage.
Action Mission[]
An action mission usually contains the normal fighting elements found in most MMOs. They are the most common missions aside from Item Missions.
Investigation Mission[]
An investigation mission involves puzzles, thinking and logic. Unlike the other missions you will not always be told exactly what to do and where to do it, but rather have to figure this out on your own based on clues given to you. These clues may or may not be interpreted literally, and some clues may also be red herrings. The clues can often involve searching on the internet or looking up stuff in an encyclopedia. The difficulty level of an investigation mission can range from very easy to insane depending on your prior knowledge and ability to understand the clues.
List of investigation missions
Sabotage Mission[]
A sabotage or stealth mission usually, but not always, involves sneaking past enemies and bypassing obstacles rather than fighting them. A sabotage mission can also involve disguising yourself, or hacking into enemy security systems and computers networks.
Side Mission[]
Side missions are divided into two main categories. Item and PvP (Player versus Player).
Item Mission[]
An item mission is a smaller and fairly short mission. Despite the name it can in reality be either an action, sabotage or investigation mission, and despite the name you will not always get an item reward upon completion.
PvP Mission[]
A PvP mission is a smaller mission you get inside one of the PvP areas in the game. Aside from the fun (or frustration) with PvP the main reward of these missions are PvP-tokens that you can buy gear and equipment with.
List of PvP missions
Dungeon Mission[]
A dungeon or group mission involves a group instance, and can usually be found close to the entrance of the dungeon the mission involves.
Gameplay[]
When you find a mission in the game world the estimated difficulty level of the mission will be listed after the name. However, this listed difficulty is determined by the level of the mobs in the area(s) involved, and will not necessarily reflect any difficulties that may arise because of stealth, jumping and puzzles.
Currently you are allowed 1 story mission, 1 main mission, 1 dungeon mission, and 3 side missions.
One story mission at a time is not a resource management task, because you will never have the option to choose a different one.
Some missions also requires you to have completed an other mission before that specific mission can be accepted, creating a timeline in which they are done. Sometimes the mission will be displayed, with the prerequisites noted, but sometimes that field is just left blank and you need to figure out this on your own.
Mission markers show the distance to a mission objective, making it easy for Secret Worlders to see which of several missions are closest.
Repeatable[]
Most, but not all, action and item missions are repeatable 18 hours after you finish them, possibly giving you an opportunity to choose a different reward.
- See Category:Missions for mission categories