Dungeons

Dungeons

Dungeons are the long forgotten ruins filled with a seemingly immeasurable amount of treasures. Anyone can run dungeons, but there are a couple of reasons why they are special to adventurers.

The reasons are

you often need to do one or more adventure quest to discover the ruins that house the dungeons.
each dungeon contains a number of discoveries
adventure skills such as unlock and traps are useful to survive the dungeons
the new devices introduced in Gran Atlas inside some dungeons require high ranks in knowledge skills
adventure battle skills have an advantage in dungeons.

What is this about battle skills you may ask; these are long forgotten ruins. Well, apparently they are not as forgotten as we thought. The dungeons are filled with outlaws, bandits and other unsavoury men, ghosts even. The deeper you delve the stronger they get.

Thus, it is important that you are prepared to defend yourself and that is where land battle comes in.

Land battle

Land battle is where you fight against bandits or other NPCs. It is possible to do land battle against other players, but I will not discuss this. Land battle can happen on land, in dungeons or if you initiate deck battle against an enemy admiral ship at sea.

In land areas when you walk around, you can see the NPCs loitering in some places. You can click on them yourself to get the option to attack them, or you can be ambushed by one of them when you walk nearby. There are not invisible ambushes like at sea (that you prevent with caution).

To decrease the chance of being ambushed and to decrease the fatigue rate on land, you can get the Marching skill. In dungeons you have to defeat all the enemies on a floor to proceed, although there are devices that let you sneak past them.

How to defeat the enemy?

During battle there are a number of factors that play a role

Health
attack and defence
weapon type
items
techs or techniques.

These are predetermined for your enemy, but you can chose and influence these yourself. This guide explains these factors much better than I could do it.

Overall, this guide by HeroForEver explains everything you want to know about battle tech’s.

You prepare for land battle in the Equipment menu (press ‘i’), where you equip your weapon and gear available from your inventory. There are also two buttons Land Battle Items (shows Backup Equipment & Inventory Items) and Weapon Discipline (shows Finesse & Forte Weapon).

In the first menu you can select your backup weapon and 4 items. I usually take two healing items, antidotes to remove status effects and an evade enhancing item like eagle’s wings. You can buy good items at the item shop in Naples and in the Rome Coliseum.

The guides mentioned above are the most complete and detailed that I found. Furthermore, this guide explains land battle quite nicely with pictures, and this wiki guide is good as well.

Remember to use short keys in battle:

Tab to switch between different character, like enemies, allies and yourself
Space to attack a selected enemy
1 to 3: Use an available tech
5 to 8: Use an item

Some additional tips:

While using an item you cannot move, and while moving you cannot use an item. What works for me is moving to a point, press for example 7 (Secret medication), and click to move again right away. The healing will then be done while you are moving. If you take too long, then you will have to wait until the healing action has been performed before you can move again.
When an enemy uses spice sauce, they get into Berserker state and they deal double damage. Watch out for this and wait till it ends (about 25 seconds)
Evasion items ensure that you evade normal attacks (even when the enemy is in Berserker state). However, watch out for techs, traps and items as these ignore your evasion entirely.
There is a lot more to say about land battle, but that is not within the goal of my guide 🙂

Back to dungeons

You know now how to survive, so it is time to actually enter the dungeon. A very good guide to dungeons is this guide by Huseyin. The dungeons in Syracuse, Bordeaux, Lima and Rome can be accessed just by going to the right town and entering the church. Select the table/bookstand and the dungeon option will appear.

The other dungeons are hidden within some ruins in a second land area. These always require one or more quests to enter. A list with all the dungeons, with the exception of the one in Rome, can be found here. Below you see an example of how this looks:

The first time you arrive at a dungeon, you will not be able to explore it entirely. Only the upper floors can be explored at that time. To enter the middle and lower floors of the dungeon you will need to complete some extra prerequisites (Note: not all dungeons have lower floors).

These prerequisites are shown above. You need to discover the Pyramids of Giza before you can enter the upper floors. Completing the upper floors rewards you with a discovery (Thoth Statue). If you have this discovery then a new quest will become available.

In this case that is Study of the Pyramid Structure, an 8 star quest from Istanbul. Completing this quest gives access to the middle floors. Run the middle floors to get the Cartouche discovery and unlock the last quest for access of the lower floors.

The Luxor Temple and the dungeons in East Asia require an item instead (they can be found somewhere else in a dungeon, just follow the yviro links).

On to the mechanics of the dungeon itself (for more details see the dungeon guide of Huseyin):

Stamina

Inside the dungeon your stamina decreases every 1:30. Your stamina determines your maximum health during a fight. Stamina is determined by your job and your levels; the formula is: Stamina = 30 + 5*(Lvl of current class) + 2.5*(Sum of Lvl of other two classes), rounded down to nearest multiple of 5. During a fight your maximum stamina is not affected, but otherwise it is, so don’t idle too long.

Traps

Some floors, especially those lower floors, have traps lying around. Outside a fight these can summon NPCs again after you have already defeated them once. During a fight they can poison, damage or restrain you. The higher your trap skill, the better you can disable these. These traps are one of the reasons why carrying antidote is so important. There is also a land battle item that you can use during a fight to see the location of the traps. Trap locations are random.

Moving to the next floor

To move from one floor to the next you will need to find the entrance to the next room. This is normally an odd stone or statue somewhere in the room, like these for example.

The yviro database has little layouts of the floor with the exit indicated, in case you have a lot of difficulty finding it. Click the stone/statue and you can select whether you want to proceed, do nothing or return to the surface. In the new dungeons sometimes an option appears to enter a hidden passageway, but more on that later.

Bosses

Every section of the dungeon has a boss, who can be found on the last floor of the section. For example in Syracuse on floors 2 and 5. Lower floors have an intermediate boss on floor 12 in addition to the one on floor 15. Bosses are generally stronger and have more items and techs available to them.

Treasure chests

These are the reason why dungeons are so popular. Treasure chests contain valuable goods that you can sell for much profit and let you circumvent the trading aspect, in particular the Nanban trade. Many goods are specialty goods, like sapphires from India or diamonds from East Africa, that sell for a lot in Europe. However, some treasure chests contain traps. These traps can destroy some of your consumables, lower or increase your stamina or decrease the durability of a piece of gear. The higher your unlock skill, the better your chance of disabling these traps (those that increase your stamina are not affected I think).

New dungeon mechanics

With Gran Atlas some of the dungeons have been updated with new devices and hidden passages. In addition a new dungeon has appeared in the church in Rome. The official information can be found on the OGP website and a comprehensive guide on the new features was written by Ragesick.

New enemies

The floors in the updated dungeons are now also populated by several lookout NPCs. They are always level 1 enemies and not dangerous in combat. However, walking close to them increases the enmity of the enemy NPCs.

Enmity

Enmity can increase by notifying the enemies in the room of your presence. If enmity hits 100, then they attack you. Enmity increases when you get too close to one of the NPCs, by 10 if you are in their periphery, by 25 if you stand very close to them. Obstacles somewhat decrease their viewing range, so you can make use of that. Opening a treasure chest with enemies in the room gives an increase of 30 enmity. When you are hidden from the enemies for a while (15 seconds), then your enmity will decrease over time (every 2 seconds). The enmity decrease gets more significant over time, the first decrease is 1 enmity, the second 2 enmity, etc. Thus it takes around 26 seconds (+15 seconds waiting time) to decrease your enmity from 90 to 0. The starting place is often a good spot to let enmity decrease.

Devices

Blue: In blue rooms you can defeat all the enemies by solving a number of small puzzles. Each blue device gives you a puzzle that you have to solve within the time limit. Solving all the puzzles defeats all the enemies in the room at once. The colour of the flame changes from blue to green after solving the puzzle correctly. The number of blue devices ranges between three on upper and middle floors to five on boss floors. If you fail to solve the puzzle, then all the devices will stop working and you will need to defeat the enemies in the classic way. While you are doing the puzzle, enmity will not increase. Here a few examples:

EDIT: After discussing with Huseyin, we came to the conclusion, that the blue devices are affected by whether you have the discovery card yes or no. If you do, then you get the full information. If you don’t then some of the information is scratched out, see the example in his guide, or this one for example:

Yellow: In yellow rooms you can unlock the door and the treasure chests without defeating the enemies. The devices have a yellow fire burning. Click on the device and you will get message like this:

“It seems to be a device that activates mechanisms to open the treasure chests and doors of the room. If Appraisal skill is Rank13 or higher, you can activate it safely.”

Click the Activate Trap button. You will be tested on one of your knowledge skills (in this case your appraisal rank needs to be at least rank 13). If your rank is too low, then you will fail (I am not sure what happens, but I think enmity increases). If you succeed you can get one of four results:

Nothing seems to be happening. – Nothing happens, most are like this
Something seems to have changed with the other devices. – The colour of type 3 & 4 devices change from yellow to purple, so you know which ones to activate
It seems that a treasure chest in the room has been unlocked. – Unlocks the treasure chests
The way into the next room has been opened. – Unlocks the way into the next room

So of all the yellow devices only two devices in the room (results 3 & 4) actually do something. Result 2 shows you which devices they are, but you can already find 3 & 4 without them having purple flames. It is random and if you find the right ones quickly depends on luck. So if you evade the enemies well, then you can pass the room without fighting. Of course, if you do fight, then the treasure chests and next room will be available like usual.

Red: Floors with red devices are my favourite. Activating a red device automatically defeats a nearby enemy (sometimes two). So if you walk around smartly, then you defeat an enemy and you can safely reach the next one. In addition, if you get caught and have to fight, then at least the number of enemies is lower. Like with the yellow devices you will be tested on an adventure knowledge skill:

“It seems to be a trap that can be set on enemies nearby. If Biology skills is Rank9 or higher, you can activate it safely. If your skill rank is high enough, the number of traps set can be increased.”

If you successfully activate a number of red devices (usually 2 for me), then you will get a message saying that something seems to have changed with the other devices. That reminds you of the yellow devices, right? In this case all the red devices remaining change their colour from red to purple. Activating a purple device defeats two nearby enemies instead of one.

Sometimes the number of devices is not enough to defeat every enemy in the room, in which case you will have to find and defeat that last one yourself. If you fail to activate a red device, then enmity will increase by 25 and the devices become/stay red, not purple.

Lastly, in boss rooms red devices have an additional effect. Even if you activate a red device and the enemy boss is nearest, then you will not defeat him yet. You will need to activate all the devices on the floor to take care of him. But watch out (!), every time you activate a device the enmity will increase by 10. This can quickly stack, so you might need to let enmity lower at one point before continuing.

Hidden passages

When you defeat all the enemies or pass by using the devices, you can always find a statue or stone that lets you pass to the next floor. However, in the redecorated dungeons you sometimes find the option to explore a hidden passage.

There are three types of hidden passage

Corridors transport you to another floor based on the time you took to clear the current floor. Taking long sends you back a number of floors, while quickly completing the floor allows you to skip some floors. I think that when you are sent back by a hidden passage the composition of the enemies changes.

For example, when going back from Luxor Temple f7 to f4, the enemies have changed (they are stronger). Some corridors have two of your crew and a device in the middle, you can talk to the crew (does nothing) and click the device (restores about 50 stamina).

Treasure rooms have a number of treasure chests inside. Some treasure rooms also give you a discovery when opening the treasure chests. In a few cases the treasure chests are locked and you need to solve a number (3) blue puzzles.

Bandit rooms are filled with a large group of high level enemies. Ten or more, depending on your fleet size. I even encountered a group of level 80 ghosts in Luxor. These enemies are strong, so I usually run around waiting for my evasion item to become available so I can put them on fire using a trap before running around again. By running around the walls you can evade their attacks and they do not use many techs. Bandit rooms also have some treasure chests that you can open after you defeat them.

In this Google Document, I wrote down all the devices and discoveries in the updated dungeons: Devices and hidden passages. The trap system indicates what kind of devices can be found on a floor and hidden passage gives info on the type of passage and whether a discovery can be found. There might be some info missing, but I get bored after going through the same dungeon over and over

Other information

Items

Antidotes: restore status defects and can be found at item shops in each capital
Secret medication: restores 250 health, can be bought in the item shops of Bordeaux, Naples, Alexandria, Hangzhou, Sakai, a.o. According to Snipe (yviro) Antidote + Secret medication restores 375 health
Asclepius’ elixir: restores 350 health, dropped by several NPC in the landing points of Portobelo and Veracruz, Cairo, a.o., or in some dungeons
Kite/Hawk/Eagle’s wings: Provide you with evasion from normal attacks for a certain time. They can be found in many item shops. Eagle’s wings are the best type, but cost more to use and can only be bought in the Cairo item shop.
Escape rope: Send you straight outside the dungeon, escaping a fight, but you will have to start over again. They can only be bought in the item shop in Rome for 25000 ducats each.

Skills

Useful skills to have include Unlock, Trap, Swordplay and First Aide. If you want to use the devices a high rank in the knowledge skills is advisable, but devices are not necessary to proceed through the dungeon. In addition some skills to fight are useful. Choose according to your preferred range (short, mid or long range) by picking up Sword mastery, Throwing or Sniping.

Short range weapons are most widely available, especially swords, but longer range allows you to attack from behind structures within the dungeon. Pick a job that favours the skills that you try to improve, e.g. Ruin Explorer is best for adventurers using a combination of throwing weapons and traps.

Titles

There are three titles related to dungeons:

Relic Hunter: Increases the loot you receive from treasure chests, requires you to have an exploration rate of more than 500. Each time you explore a dungeon your exploration rate increases.
Relic Chaser: Give an invisible bonus to your knowledge skills, letting you activate devices more often.
The Keeper of Secrets: Bandit rooms show up less often, but these are not replaced by other hidden passage (credits to BlakeC, yviro)

Selling loot

To conclude this chapter I would like to spend a little bit of text on selling your well-earned treasures. Perhaps many of you know this already, especially the traders. It is not very nice to others to crash a market because you simply want to get rid of all your trade goods and get your paycheck.

Crashing a market, with for example Precious Stones, brings down the price of that good for many hours. If this happens across Europe, then profit for others and yourself (should you acquire more dungeon/trade goods) drastically decreases. Therefore I have two small tips:

Selling goods with a profit of less than 100,000 ducats does not crash a market

Crashing the market with another good (which other people do not want to sell) protects other trade goods from crashing. For example you acquire a lot of precious stones, precious metals and crafts from the Giza or Luxor dungeon. You see the selling rates in Cairo are very good for the precious stones and metals, so you want to keep selling there more often.

Try to crash the market with a good number of Crafts goods first, afterwards you can sell the rest without a worry. You know a market is crashed when the Market Keeper says something like ‘The market’s flooded with [name good] right now’. For more information a nice explanation from bzbz nanban guide

Market Protection

This is a critical part to selling EA good from a nation point of view, imagine that someone from your nation was 5-10 minutes ahead of you with the same trade goods, they found a port at 140% so they sold it and crash the market, which mean you will lose the chance of selling it at a good price.

There is a solution to it, and if we all willing to spend a tiny amount of ducats and time, we can all be happy while selling EA goods. Here is what you needed to do after you found a port with good price:

Check and see if the Market is already crashed. If so, you don’t need to do anything
If it’s not crashed yet, check and see if your trade good type are available at the Market, as Market are almost ‘anti-crash’ with whatever trade good type it is available
If the trade good type is not ‘anti-crash’ type, now you need to see whats the less favored type for the area. (Just so you don’t purposely do Step 4 and kill another good trade good for the area)
Sail to the nearby major city and attempt to find some other EA goods of the type you want to crash, I often do multiple of 25s as sometime it take 2-3 attempts for the market crashing.
Sail back to the town (praying that nobody else have crash it with the type you need to sell), and sell the trade goods you got from Step 4 in lumps on 25s.
If Market is now crashed, YAY!! Go ahead and sell your goods and your mates from the same nation with the same trade good will be happy as well.