User:Ricewind/Sandbox2

This content is part of the Atlas of Discovery Expansion.

This guide is a WIP and may not be accurate nor complete!

The following guide takes the player through the combat of the Atlas of Discovery Expansion with as little effort as possible. This guide is targeted at people who have either completed or nearly completed the base game. Completion of at least the Air God Dungeon is recommended to follow the largest portion of this guide.

Every enemy in this expansion has a Barrier health bar as well as a regular health bar. Enemies cannot be damaged in anyway until the barrier is entirely removed. Only familiars are able to damage the barrier.

Two-handed weapons are strongly recommended during the entire combat section, unless the alternative is required for Damage Reduction or the alternative simply does more damage. Two-handed weapons generally have a higher hit chance and because the familiar's hit-chance is based on the player's hit chance, the higher the hit chance, the better.

Since the combat portion is heavily focused on using familiars the following requirements are a prerequisite:

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  Level 90
• Tortoise
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  Dragon

Because the combat mechanics in this expansion are rather complex, and minor changes in enemy, equipment and player stats can make specific items better or worse it is always recommended to use the Combat Simulator to verify how to get the most kills per hour or drops per hour.

The minimal and recommended requirements for every individual section is listed within the sections below.

Preparing for combat

Required:

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  Level 6
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  Level 5
• Find Torn Chart

Recommended

• Old Summoning Amulet
• Ring of Summoning or Aorpheat's Signet Ring
• Necromancer outfit

Unlock the Ancient Market digsite and upgrade the map to perfect. It's heavily encouraged to also refine the map and get the +1 artifact bonus. Although it is possible to reduce the Tiny Artefact weight by 10, this generally isn't required as not that many barrier gems are needed for the entire combat portion.

From this the Ancient Market, collect a whole bunch of barrier gems. These are needed to make Tortoise familiars. These are a must have for all the combat in this expansion. Depending on how many tablets you can make at once, and the preservation chance, more barrier gems should be obtained. 1,000 - 5,000 gems is a good number to aim for, depending on the previous factors.

Make Tortoise tablets and an equal amount of Dragon tablets. If possible use the Necromancer outfit, Old Summoning Amulet and the Signet Ring for more tablet output. Equip both the Tortoise and Dragon tablets. These will be used throughout the expansion!

Entry barrier equipment

Requirements:

• Discover The Eye-Conic Cave
• Any combat equipment.

Recommended

• Old Summoning Amulet

This portion of the guide aims at getting the very entry barrier equipment items, outside of the familiars of course. Gear doesn't matter much at this point, prefer melee because it doesn't use resources. Use the melee weapon that provides the highest hit-chance.

1. Get the Barrier Touch Gem and Lesser Summoning Amulet from Blind Ghost.
   1. Optionally kill 100 of these for the Township task.
2. Make a Ring of Barrier Touch and equip it.
3. Get a Sapping Barrier Gem and Barrier Sapping Gloves from Vampiric Bat.
   1. Optionally kill 100 of these for the Township task.

Golem Territory

Requirements:

• All items obtained in the previous section.
• Find Ancient Stone Tablet
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    Level 35
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    Level 24

Recommended

• Summoning Skillcape or Maximum Skillcape
• Pure Crystal 2H Axe

For this dungeon, we still do not require any specific (B) armour. Use the familiars made earlier and let them do most of the work. Make sure whatever equipment you are wearing doesn't result in death, and whatever weapon you are using should once again provide the highest hit-chance that you can find. Melee again works fine for this dungeon, as it doesn't consume runes or ammunition.

Optionally, a Summoning or Maximum Skillcape can be worn to save some familiar tablets, but is by no means required.

Run this dungeon until you have obtained 10 Draining Barrier Gem to upgrade your gloves into Barrier Draining Gloves. The Township Task associated with this dungeon will also provide 3 gems.

All other items/loot received from this dungeon can be ignored. Do not use the familiar weapons. Unless the player is using very inaccurate and/or low level weapons, these will result in significantly lower clears per hour.

Dungeon Rush

The goal of this section is to unlock the Cult Grounds dungeon as fast as possible. The following two dungeons have to be completed once in order to unlock Cult Grounds. Starting from Trickery Temple the combat difficulty starts ramping up quite a bit!

Unholy Forest

Requirements

• All items obtained in the previous section.
• Complete Golem Territory
• Find Old Route Chart
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    Level 65
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    Level 80

This dungeon can be completed by ease, by using the same equipment as the previous dungeon. For instance, Ancient Armour will be more than enough to clear this dungeon. Just make sure you have enough damage reduction (combined with hitpoints) to survive the dungeon once. Melee is recommended to benefit from the combat triangle.

Trickery Temple

Requirements

• All items obtained in the previous section.
• Complete
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  Unholy Forest
• Find Torn Scrolls
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    Level 90
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    Level 80

The monsters in the trickery temple deal a lot more damage than previous dungeons. On top of that, the enemies there have a reflect mechanic (where part of the damage the player deals is inflicted back upon the player), and a mechanic where the enemies' max hit is based on the player's max hit. All enemies in this dungeon are also magic-based. It is therefor highly recommended to use the ranged combat style, preferably with javelins or throwing knifes to lower the player's max hit.

Although the Trickery Temple also drops Barrier Exalted Shard and Siphoning Barrier Gem, due to the reflect and max hit mechanic, the Cult Grounds dungeon is prefered, as the player can focus much more on dealing damage, rather than having to deal with the max hit mechanic instead.

Even with throwing knifes the reflect and enemy max hit still become very high. Always make sure to use the combat simulator beforehand to ensure you are not going to die! Alternatively, you can also do one clear by manual eating.

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Aeris God Helmet
	Aeris God Platebody
	Aeris God Platelegs
	Aeris God Boots
	Throwing Power Gloves	Barrier Draining Gloves	Aeris God Gloves
	Maximum Skillcape	Ranged Skillcape	Cape of Ranged Preservation
	Lesser Summoning Amulet
	Deadeye Ring	Ring of Barrier Touch
	Ancient Throwing Knife	Dragon Throwing Knife
	Shield of Ranged Power	Scaled Shield
	Old Summoning Amulet
	Ranged Hinder Scroll

Upgrading to (B)

This section is about clearing and effectively farming the Cult Grounds dungeon and monsters for Barrier Dust. The player can progressively upgrade their Aeris God armour pieces to increase the kills per hour with every item upgraded.

Requirements

• All of the requirements mentioned above.
• Complete Trickery Temple
• Find Lost Cursed Text
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    Level 82
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    Level 80

Continue using your Aeris God armour setup for this dungeon. These monsters do not have the mechanic where they base their max hit off of the player's max hit, a crossbow with bolts can be used. As soon as enough Barrier Exalted Shard and Siphoning Barrier Gem have been obtained to upgrade the first item, it is advised to go collect barrier dust. All of the individual armour pieces have the same passive effect, so the order in which they are upgraded doesn't matter. Start with the armour piece that costs the fewest Barrier Shards and Siphoning Gems.

Item	Upgrade Cost
	4 Barrier Exalted Shard 2 Siphoning Barrier Gem
	10 Barrier Exalted Shard 5 Siphoning Barrier Gem
	6 Barrier Exalted Shard 3 Siphoning Barrier Gem
	5 Barrier Exalted Shard 5 Siphoning Barrier Gem

Once enough upgrade materials have been obtained, depending on the gear the player has, kill either

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Cult Imp

or

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Cult Member

. The benefit from killing Cult Members for barrier dust, is that only the Aeris set needs to be upgraded for maximum effect. However, the Cult Imp can potentially drop more barrier dust in a given hour. Especially if the player is using Big ol Ron. Terran God armour is also required in the next sections of the guide.

Collect enough barrier dust to obtain 2,000 Imbued Dragonite Bar. Upgrade your armour piece and move back to the Cult Grounds dungeon until enough materials have been obtained for the next upgrade. Repeat this cycle until the full Aeris armour has been obtained. Finally, also upgrade a pair of (U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces as they are slightly better than the previously used Barrier Draining Gloves.

Recommended starting gear is similar to that of the previous dungeon. Be sure to double check the amulets and rings that offer damage and familiar damage bonus after every (B) Aeris upgrade, as what results in more kph can change!

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Aeris God Helmet
	Aeris God Platebody
	Aeris God Platelegs
	Aeris God Boots
	Barrier Draining Gloves
	Maximum Skillcape	Ranged Skillcape	Cape of Ranged Preservation
	Lesser Summoning Amulet	Old Summoning Amulet	Deadeye Amulet
	Summoner's Blessed Ring	Deadeye Ring	Ring of Barrier Touch
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	Shield of Ranged Power	Scaled Shield
	Jadestone Bolts	Emerald Bolts
	Old Summoning Amulet
	Ranged Hinder Scroll

The following gear is starter gear to farm cult imps for barrier. If you do not have Big ol Ron, simulate how many barrier dust you are receiving with your alternative, and potentially use ranged on cult members instead. It is recommended to upgrade the melee armour used, with a preference over upgrading Terran. This is because the extra Damage Reduction is required for the Underwater Ruins. The equipment below will result in roughly 2,400 barrier dust an hour. More or less can be obtained depending on the actual gear and other bonusses used. The amount of barrier dust an hour rises to around 3,100 with Terran fully upgraded to (B). Depending on your choice in the next section, you do not need to fully upgrade Terran

Again, Terran is used in this recommended gear over Ragnar with the assumption that this will be (partially) upgraded into (B).

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Terran God Helmet
	Terran God Platebody
	Terran God Platelegs
	Terran God Boots
	Barrier Draining Gloves
	Maximum Skillcape	Ancient Infernal Cape	Infernal Cape
	Lesser Summoning Amulet
	Summoner's Blessed Ring	Ring of Barrier Touch
	Big ol Ron
	Old Summoning Amulet
	Melee Hinder Scroll

Melantis?

Requirements

• All of the requirements mentioned above.
• Complete Cult Grounds
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  Level 90
• Water Expert Wizard Robes
• Ancient Infernal Cape
• Trickery Mirror.

Melantis is a Point of Interest that first needs to be discovered to unlock the Underwater City and Underwater Ruins dungeon and combat area.

The player first needs to find Melantis Clue 1 from the Monuments dig site and follow a trail of clues. Alternatively, you can look for the solution here.

This is also a good time to go back to

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Magic Mirror

with the gear recommended here. With fully upgraded Aeris (B) and the other barrier damage items, it shouldn't be a problem at all taking these down much faster than before.

Underwater Ruins

Requirements

• Have followed this guide up until this point, or have obtained all relevant items mentioned in this guide.
• Discover Melantis

Recommended

• Full (B) god armour for the chosen combat style.
• Cloudburst Staff for magic.
• Ultima Godsword for melee.
• Damage Reduction Potion IV
• Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs
• Barrier Burn Shield if the passive slot is unlocked.

The Underwater Ruins contains 4 enemies of which 3 drop weapons that are potentially an upgrade. The monsters also all drop plenty of Barrier Dust, which allows for easy upgrading of the remaining god armours that haven't been upgraded yet.

The player has a choice of killing the following monsters:

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  Mermaid Archer for the Engulfing Vortex Longbow
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  Merman for the Water Pulse Staff
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  Merman Guard for the Hasty Trident

These monsters and their drops can be obtained in order, since they are all one part of the combat triangle. For example, the Mermaid Archer can be killed for the longbow, which can then be used on the Merman for the staff which then can be used to obtain the trident from the Merman Guard.

It is strongly recommended to start this section with the Ultima Godsword and killing Mermaid Archers. This is because the Ultima Godsword is a very strong weapon, and the Engulfing Vortex Longbow resulting from this is also a very strong weapon.

Mermaid Archer

Slot	Item	DR%
	Terran God Helmet (B)	8%
	Terran God Platebody (B)	8%
	Terran God Platelegs (B)	8%
	Terran God Boots (B)	8%
	(B) Ancient D-hide Vambraces	6%
	Ancient Infernal Cape	5%
	Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs	3%
	Summoner's Blessed Ring	0%
	Devouring Barrier Gem	0%
	Ultima Godsword	8%
	Whetstone	0%
	Melee Hinder Scroll	0%
Total		54%

Finishing up

Player now has access to crystal behemoths for task + upgrade material for Arch / Carto Underwater Ruins drops BiS gloves, Shield upgrade, task access