User:Ricewind/Sandbox2

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.

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. This is because the familiar's hit-chance is based on the player's hit chance.

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

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    Level 90
  • Tortoise SynergyIcon.png
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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. Therefor 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

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 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)

Get barrier touch gem from ghosts Get Lesser Summoning Amulet from ghosts Make ring of barrier touch Get sapping barrier gem from vampiric bat Get Barrier Sapping Gloves from vampiric bat

Golem Territory

Requirements

Ancient Stone Tablet

Required for Draining Barrier Gem to upgrade barrier sapping gloves; Get 10 gems. Can still be done without (B) gear. Combat style doesn't matter much, assuming high stats.

Do not use familiar weapons, they are bad

Dungeon rush

Clear the following dungeons once, in order, to unlock Cult Grounds. This will be the place where god armours can efficiently be upgraded into their (B) counterparts.

Golem Territory

Req: Find Old Route Chart

Unholy Forest

Req: Find Torn Scrolls

Trickery Temple

Req: Find Lost Cursed Text

Upgrading to (B)

Req: Aeris etc.

Cult ground gives gems and shards to upgrade Aeris. Upgrade one piece at a time as soon as you can to drastically speed up clear times.

Req: Melee gear. Rec: Ragnar, big ron Cult grounds also unlocks Cult Imps which are efficient sources of a lot of Barrier Dust.

Melantis?

This area is a big brick wall unless the player has already met the pre-requisites. These monsters deal very high damage and therefor require a lot of damage reduction gear and bonusses. This area also requires

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Level 118

and a series of items.

> List all requirements to even enter Underwater Ruins

Underwater Ruins

Player has a choice of killing (Mermaid Archer > Merman > Merman Guard) for very good weapon upgrades, unless the player already has better TotH gear.

UGS is recommended for Archer farm.

Alternatively, the player can do manual Underwater City for (B) armour upgrades.

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