Introduction
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.
A lot of the combat for
Atlas Of Discovery is locked behind both the
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Cartography and
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Archaeology skills so progress those if you have locked combat areas/dungeons.
This Guide is NOT designed with the Ancient Relics Game Mode in mind. Players looking for more information about that Game Mode should visit the Ancient Relics Guide. There is also the 
Barrier Guide which can be used as an alternative to this guide.
A simplistic order for completing Combat:
- Acquire god gear sets from:
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Air God Dungeon, Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Water God Dungeon and Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Earth God Dungeon
- Find
Torn Chart
- Excavate
Ancient Market to get some starting gear
Blind Ghost
Vampiric Bat- Find
Ancient Stone Tablet
Golem Territory- Find
Old Route Chart
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Unholy Forest- Find
Torn Scrolls
Trickery Temple- Find
Lost Cursed Text
Cult Grounds- Upgrade god gear to
(B)
- Discover
Melantis
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Mermaid Archer
Underwater City
How Atlas of Discovery affects Base Game Combat
Barrier Combat
The primary mechanic added to the game in
is
Barrier, a powerful shield that is entirely immune to player attacks while active. In order to break barriers, the player must utilize
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Summoning Familiars that deal damage such as the
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Golbin Thief or
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Unicorn. Clear speed will be almost entirely determined by how fast you can break the
Barrier so make sure to prioritize summon max hit in your builds.
Higher hit chance 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, the higher the hit chance, the better.
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.
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Other Combat Changes
Gem Slot
A new gem equipment slot has been added which allows you to squeeze out higher summon max hit damage with gems like 
Devouring Barrier Gem or give various non Barrier modifiers such as the 
Agile Gem which reduces player attack interval.
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Points of Interest
Another mechanic added is
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Points of Interest. Once mastered in
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Cartography, they can be travelled to to give the player both positive and negative modifiers.
Reccomended points of interest to use for combat are:
These can also be simulated in the Combat Simulator to avoid the expensive travel costs.
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Unholy Prayers
Unfortunately
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Unholy Prayers were nerfed so don't worry about those.
Stats and Buffs
Having progressed through
combat will make
combat significantly easier. This is due to the huge damage increase in the
Spectre 
Spider compared to
Tortoise Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Dragon, the summon set from
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Necromancers Palace and the endgame weapons from
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Golden Cloud Mountains.
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Summoning
There are two main summoning synergies to use for Barrier focused combat:
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Gear
Base Game
Collect the first three god sets from:
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Air God Dungeon,
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Water God Dungeon and
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Earth God Dungeon. Collecting the fire god set from
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Fire God Dungeon will also be helpful but not strictly required. It is only for endgame clear speed improvement when you have enough damage reduction already.
Throne of the Herald
Ensure you have the following armour from
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Necromancers Palace. This will be BIS save for a few items near the end of
:
Collect the three weapons from
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Golden Cloud Mountains as these are the BIS for most
encounters:
Acquiring the 
Superior Max Skillcape will also be helpful.
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Herblore
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Prayers
-
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Battleborn is goated so pretty much always use this
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Battleheart-
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Valor/Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Avidity/Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Divination
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Piety/Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Rigour/Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Augury-
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Holy Aegis
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Stone Skin
Consumables
Make sure to run in Combat Simulator to find out what to use! These are just recommendations.
Atlas of Discovery Combat
Early Game Atlas of Discovery
After collecting the first three god sets from:
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Air God Dungeon,
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Water God Dungeon and
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Earth God Dungeon the player will be well equipped to start combat. Immediate goals are to begin gathering
Barrier damaging equipment. The first gear the player will get is actually from the
Ancient Market in
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Archaeology. Remember
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Cartography and
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Archaeology are crucial to progressing
Atlas Of Discovery combat.
Major Goals
- Excavate
Old Summoning Amulet and 
Ring of Summoning from 
Ritual Site
- Farm
Barrier Gem from Ancient Market to create Tortoise (you only need one for gem slot if you have a lot of Spectre Spider already)
Lesser Summoning Amulet from Blind Ghost- Craft
Ring of Barrier Touch
Sapping Barrier Gem and 
Barrier Sapping Gloves from Vampiric Bat- Excavate
Ancient Silk from 
Bazaar to craft 
Ancient Infernal Cape
- Optionally; Max all skills for the
Max Skillcape
- Excavate Ancient Stone Tablet from Monuments
- Farm 11
Draining Barrier Gem from Golem Territory to upgrade your gloves to 
Barrier Draining Gloves and to equip one in your gem slot
Mid Game Atlas of Discovery
After completing the early game the next goal is to unlock the Cult Grounds dungeon as fast as possible and farm it to upgrade your god gear to (B). The difficulty starts ramping up here. If you are struggling to defeat these dungeons check the individual strategy guides on each dungeons page.
Major Goals
- Find Old Route Chart
- Complete
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Unholy Forest once
- Find Torn Scrolls
- Complete Trickery Temple once
- Find Lost Cursed Text
Adaptive Summoning Amulet from Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Cult Imp- Farm Cult Grounds until you have enough
Barrier Exalted Shard and 
Siphoning Barrier Gem to upgrade your 
air god and then earth god armour to (B). The helmet for both should be skipped if you have the 
summon set from . 
Barrier Dust can be farmed from either Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Cult Imp or Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Cult Member
- Equip
Summoner's Blessed Ring from Cult Grounds unless you are using the 
summon set from
Late Game Atlas of Discovery
The main goal of late game is to find Melantis, collect the three weapons from 
Underwater Ruins, finishing Underwater City and then acquiring endgame clear speed items for the subsequent 
pet farms.
Major Goals
- Optionally; Finish
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Into the Mist at least once for the 
passive slot
- Discover Melantis through following a trail of clues (solution here for lazy people)
Engulfing Vortex Longbow from Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Mermaid Archer. Devouring Barrier Gem in your gem slot. Optionally; 
Water Pulse Staff from Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Merman and 
Hasty Trident from Error creating thumbnail: File missing
Merman Guard can be acquired but they are easily replaced- Underwater City (guide higly reccomended!). Equip
Eradicating Gloves (m) as soon as they are found (for those using summon set play around with the Combat Simulator to decide whether to use them or not)
Devouring Barrier Shield for 
shield slot and 
Knight's Summoning Defender for passive slot are both reccomended for further farming
Unhallowed Wasteland for respawn timer reduction
Dark Waters for melee
Bandit Hideout for ranged
The Academia Arcanum for magic
Amulet of Curse Totem Summon
Gloves of Greater Shade Summon
Diamond Luck Potion IV is BIS if you haven't built 
Max Hit potions can be a solid and reliable source of increased damage
Damage Reduction Potion IV is incredibly useful for meeting DR requirements
Penetration Potion IV are potentially the highest amount of raw dps that can be gained from a potion and, once unlocked, can be used as the default combat potion for all Expansion Combat as soon as 
Ectoplasm is easily farmed
Critical Strike Potion IV are about equal to Penetration Potions in most situations, but require a material that is easier to obtain without doing difficult combat
Monster Hunter Scroll
Summoner's Blessing is good but requires a lot of effort to get so use sparingly
Blood Chalice
Power Crystals
Relic Whetstone and 
Charged Relic Quiver are technically good but they take so much effort to get they are ultimately useless
