Cartography

Revision as of 15:48, 12 September 2023 by OhCause (talk | contribs) (→‎Skill Overview: Added tables for Dig Site Map upgrade and refinement)

Cartography is a skill in which the player can explore the map of Melvor, uncovering hidden areas and secrets throughout their journey.

This page was last updated for (v1.2).
Cartography

Skill Overview

The world map of Melvor consists of a grid of 944 hexagonal map tiles (called Hexes). The map layout is the same for all players and all players start on the same Hex (15, 16). The primary action for Cartography is Surveying map tiles in order to discover them. When first uncovering the map, each tile will have a level between 1 and 5 that will determine how many times it must be surveyed in order to be fully discovered. Once the map has been fully discovered once, the max level for all tiles will be increased to 5.

Hex Level Total Surveys Difference
1 24 24
2 108 84
3 264 156
4 504 240
5 864 360

Once a Hex has been fully discovered, the player may travel there. Some Hexes contain Points of Interest which will be revealed upon traveling to the tile. Visiting a Point of Interest will always provide a blurb of text explaining a bit about the location, and some Points of Interest will reward the player with resources upon the first visit.

The base interval for a Survey action is 5 seconds. It can be reduced through various boosts, although "non-combat skill interval" reductions from   Harold or the Elite Pillar of Expertise won't affect it.

Undiscovered Hexes

These icons will appear on undiscovered Hexes if there is something to discover underneath.

Icon Description
Denotes an
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Archaeology
Dig Site exists underneath.
Denotes a Point of Interest underneath.
If "Toggle Cat" is enabled in Settings, then this icon will denote a hidden
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Archaeology
Dig Site. It will display only when you locate a required Dig Site item in
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Archaeology
(One example being the   Torn Chart).

Types of "Points of Interest"

These are the types of "Points of Interest" that can be discovered underneath a Hex.

Icon Description
An
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Archaeology
Dig Site.
A standard "Point of Interest" which will some times provide Item rewards.
Provides powerful permanent modifiers. Requires you to be located on the Hex to become active.
Used when traveling to significantly reduce GP cost to get to a location. These are automatically used when traveling.

Creating Maps

In addition to surveying, Cartography is used to create the Dig Site Maps used in

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Archaeology

. Creating a map has three steps:

First, the player can convert any type of Logs into   Paper. Higher tier logs will produce more paper. Turning logs into paper has a base interval of 5 seconds, which can be reduced by bonuses that affect non-combat skill intervals and can also be affected by chance to double items or chance to preserve resources.

Second, the player can select a dig site and create a map in one of the map slots for that dig site. If they already have a map for the selected slot, map creation actions will instead make progress on upgrading the map towards the next tier. Creating maps costs paper and has a base interval of 5 seconds, which is affected by the same interval reduction bonuses as creating paper as well as by the chance to preserve resources.

Third, the player can refine the selected map until the maximum number of refines is reached. At each step the player will be given a choice of three options to pick from which will permanently upgrade that map. Each refinement costs more than the previous one.

Upgrade Dig Site Map

Tier Upgrades Needed Total Cost Time1
Poor 0 N/A N/A
Fine 1920 1,920   Paper 2h, 40m
Excellent 3840 5,760   Paper 5h, 20m
Perfect 5760 11,520   Paper 8h

1Based on default action time of 5 seconds.

Dig Site Map Refinement

Each Dig Site Map tier unlocks new refinements which can be purchased. Refinements exclusively affect the Dig Site Map it is applied on.

Tier Cost Refinements (Choose One)
Poor Refinement 1
1,000 
-5 Tiny Artefact Value
-5 Small Artefact Value
-5 Medium Artefact Value
-5 Large Artefact Value
Fine Refinement 2
50,000 
+3% Chance to Double Items in Archaeology
+3% chance to preserve dig site map excavation actions
+3% Archaeology Skill XP
+3% Archaeology Mastery XP
Excellent Refinement 3
500,000 
-5 Tiny Artefact Value
-5 Small Artefact Value
-5 Medium Artefact Value
-5 Large Artefact Value
Perfect Refinement 4
5,000,000 
+2,500 Dig Site Map excavation actions
-10% Archaeology Interval
Refinement 5
5,000,000 
+5% Chance to Double Items in Archaeology
+5% chance to preserve dig site map excavation actions
+4% Archaeology Skill XP
+4% Archaeology Mastery XP
Refinement 6
5,000,000 
+1 minimum Items found in Archaeology
x2 Consumable Items received from Archaeology
+15% Archaeology Skill XP when location a Common Artefact

Skillcapes

The   Cartography Skillcape can be purchased from the store for 1,000,000  after the player reaches

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Level 99

. The   Superior Cartography Skillcape can be purchased from the store for 10,000,000  after the player reaches

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Level 120

.

Regular Skillcape

The   Cartography Skillcape is the skillcape for the Cartography skill. It can be purchased for 1,000,000  from the Shop once the player reaches

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Level 99

in the Cartography skill. The Cartography Skillcape offers the following benefits when worn:

-20% Cartography Dig Site Map upgrade interval, -10% dig site map refinement cost, and +10% Chance to Preserve Resources in Cartography

Superior Skillcape

The   Superior Cartography Skillcape is the superior skillcape for the Cartography skill. It can be purchased for 10,000,000  from the Shop once the player reaches

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Level 120

in the Cartography skill.

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Level 120

can only be reached if the player owns the   Throne of the Herald expansion. Likewise, the superior skillcape can only be purchased if the player owns this expansion. The superior skillcape offers the following benefits when worn:

-30% Cartography survey interval, -50% Cartography Dig Site Map upgrade interval, -20% dig site map refinement cost, and +20% Chance to Preserve Resources in Cartography

Pets

  Skye is unlocked at random by performing any Cartography action.
  Hex is unlocked by surveying the entire map to the intial maximum Hex level.
  Carthulu is unlocked after 944 Hexes have been Mastered (Reach Level 5 on every Hex. The option to do this for Level 2 Hexes is unlocked after you survey the entire map for the first time).

PetNameDLCEffect
 Skye  -5% Cartography travel costs
 Hex  +3% Mastery XP in all Skills
 Carthulu  Doubles the effects of all Active Modifiers from Point of Interests in Cartography

Shop Upgrades

The shop contains several upgrades that can be purchased to provide permanent boosts to Cartography. These fall into two categories:

Ship Upgrades

Ship upgrades require a specific Cartography level in addition to various items in order to purchase.

Enhancements

Enhancements require the player to discover specific points of interest first, at which point they can be purchased by spending the required amount of GP.

Skill Boosts

This table lists most sources of Cartography-specific modifier boosts. For a list of boosts that apply to all skills, see the Skill Boosts page. This list does not contain boosts provided from

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Mastery

rewards.