Barrier/Guide: Difference between revisions

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.''' Starting from the [[Trickery Temple]] dungeon, enemies also regenerate 25% every 7 attack turns.

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 is strongly recommended:

In case the {{Icon|Throne of the Herald Expansion|notext=true|img=TotH|}} [[Throne of the Herald]] expansion is owned, the following is a better alternative:

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.

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 Gem|barrier gems]] are needed for the entire combat portion.

From 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!

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, so prefer melee because it doesn't use resources. Use the melee weapon that provides the highest hit-chance.

## Optionally kill 100 of these for the [[Township/Tasks#Atlas_of_Discovery| Township task]].

# Make a {{ItemIcon|Ring of Barrier Touch}} and equip it.

# Get a {{ItemIcon|Sapping Barrier Gem}} and {{ItemIcon|Barrier Sapping Gloves}} from {{MonsterIcon|Vampiric Bat}}.

## Optionally kill 100 of these for the [[Township/Tasks#Atlas_of_Discovery| Township task]].

==Golem Territory==

* {{ItemIcon|Summoning Skillcape}} or {{ItemIcon|Maximum Skillcape}}

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 {{ItemIcon|Draining Barrier Gem|}} to upgrade your gloves into {{ItemIcon|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.

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!

This dungeon can be completed with 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.

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 therefore highly recommended to use the ranged combat style, preferably with [[Ranged#Javelins|javelins]] or [[Ranged#Throwing_Knives|throwing knifes]] to lower the player's max hit.

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

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.