Guide: Treasure Hunting

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Pirul
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Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Pirul »

I constantly get asked questions about Treasure Hunting, so I expanded my New to UOSA Guide to include the following:

About Treasure Maps
One of the more exciting ways of creating wealth in this game is by treasure hunting. On rare ocassions monsters will have a treasure map as part of their loot. Fishermen have also been known to get lucky and fish a treasure map out of the deapths of the sea. However all maps are not created equal. Higher level monsters will hold maps for treasure chests that are much more valuable than chests from maps that have been fished up or have been dropped by lesser monsters.

But be very wary, every treasure chest will have a fair deal of creatures who will guard the treasure with their lives. As is the case with who drops the map, the higher level maps will have much more formidable guardians than lesser maps.

Once you have acquired a map, your first order of business is decoding it. For this you will need the cartography skill. Characters with 0 cartography skill can decode level 1 treasure maps, they might fail a couple of times, but eventually will get it. If they try to decode higher level maps without sufficient skill they will get a message that says something to the effect of "this map is too difficult for you to decode". This comes in real handy when you have amassed a good number of maps, and don't know where you got them from. There are people who have characters at different cartography levels who can assess with precision the level of each map.

But I digress. Once you have successfully decoded a map you need to find a way to get to its location. There are 200 confirmed locations for treasure maps, and they are all numbered out in a very handy guide. This guide can be found following this link. "Also, I have found THB_Offline.v1.01.exe located here to be helpful." (Thanks applejack) Most rune libraries mentioned in the corresponding section above includes a section for treasure map locations following the numbering on that guide. If you would like to enhance your adventure, you could get a boat or just run to its location. A sextant is a very handy tool to carry along, as it will provide you the exact coordinates of where you're standing, which can be compared to those on the stratics guide. Some other helpful gear to carry on your treasure hunt is a shovel, lockpicks, an axe (any type except war axe) or hatchet, and a container to bring back all your loot in (a pouch, bag, backpack work just fine).

So you have found the exact location of a map, now what to do? First you must dismount so you can dig up your trasure. You dig up the chest by double clicking your shovel then targetting the map, and THEN targetting the ground. A common mistakes by unexperienced treasure hunters is failing to target the map after double clicking their shovels. The higher your mining skill, the wider your "dig" radius is. However mining is quite useless if you're using the stratics guide and a properly marked treasure rune library or sextant.

As soon as the chest is fully dug out, a small army of monsters will appear. These will need to be taken care of. Keep in mind that treasure chests are locked AND trapped. Lower level chests can be unlocked by using the magic unlock spell with the sufficient magery skill. Higher level chests will require a character with lockpicking to pick the chest. Level 5 chests can only be unlocked by characters with GM lockpicking or 95 lockpicking AND 60 detect hidden skill. The chests' trap have been known to kill explorers, so that is why it is highly recommended to use the telekinesis spell on the chest once it is unlocked and before opening it. After disarming the trap, the loot inside the chest is freely lootable to anyone around. Keep in mind that as you remove items from the chest or move them around, there is a good chance of spawning more guardians by the chest.

When you're done looting the chest, please take the courtesy of using an axe on it to destroy it, as this will allow other treasure hunters who come behind you to dig chests up at that same location. If you fail to do so, your chest will block the location for up to 4 hours. It is important to note, that only the character who dug up the chest can destroy it.

TIPS for treasure hunters:
Everyone has their own way of doing t-maps, so do not take this as gospel, I'll just share my way of doing them.

Template: My suggested build is: cartography, lockpicking, musicianship, provocation, magery, meditation and hiding. Stats: 100 STR, 100 INT, 25 DEX. Of course there are other builds who can t-map successfully.

When you start digging, the chest will have 7 "steps" between showing itself breaking ground and being fully dug out. The first of these is very hardly noticeable. This is important, because if you can time this well, you can hide as soon as the chest pops up, and buy a bit of time before the monsters aggro on you. This is particularly helpful in higher level maps where the initial spawn include balrons and poison elementals which can spell immediate death for the digger.

Since you need to dismount, and monsters will spawn immediately with the chest, it is sometimes helpful to order your mount to stay, and casting invisibility on it. This might spare its life while you can bring it out of hiding and remounting safely.

Once you have unlocked the chest and popped the trap, drop your loot bag into the chest. Instead of dragging all the loot from the chest into your backpack, drop it in the loot bag you placed in the chest. This will make it faster to loot, as your cursor needs to "travel" less between the loot and the bag in the same container, vs. the loot to your backpack. It also helps you not get encumbered (overweight) in case you need to make a hasty retreat from the chest if a large monster spawns. And if you do eventually get over weight, it makes it easier to gate-hop the loot out.

Chests have a good amount of guardians left after you're done looting the chest. If you want to "milk" the chest for maximum profit, you can put an item in, and just move that around. What I do is record a brief macro that moves the loot bag twice inside the chest. Put a 1 second pause between each move, and check the loop box. Now press play, and the bag will start moving in the chest forcing spawn to come up. You can keep the macro going and it will not interfere with other functions like provoking creatures or targetting spells. You just stand by the chest, and you'll be moving that bag around. If you're moving the bag constantly for a couple of minutes and no monsters are spawning, you have probably milked it dry and are ready to leave.
Last edited by Pirul on Wed Jul 18, 2012 12:03 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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grepler
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Re: Guide to: Treasure Hunting

Post by grepler »

Ahhh now that brings back memories

Good post Pirul :) Going to have to make myself a Treasure Hunter now.

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Re: Guide to: Treasure Hunting

Post by applejack »

Great guide as always Pirul.
Pirul wrote:Once you have successfully decoded a map you need to find a way to get to its location. There are 200 confirmed locations for treasure maps, and they are all numbered out in a very handy guide. This guide can be found following this link.
Also, I have found THB_Offline.v1.01.exe located here to be helpful.
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Pirul
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Re: Guide to: Treasure Hunting

Post by Pirul »

Nice link there! Will add to both guides.
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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Mikel123 »

Once you have unlocked the chest and popped the trap, drop your loot bag into the chest. Instead of dragging all the loot from the chest into your backpack, drop it in the loot bag you placed in the chest.
Clever, I like it!

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Orion GM B^D
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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Orion GM B^D »

Great Guide! Thanks Pirul!
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bishyaler
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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by bishyaler »

Cool guide, I've wanted to make a Thunter for awhile now.

What's the cheapest/macro-easiest way to GM lockpicking and cartog in T2A?

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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Daemonne »

Template: My suggested build is: cartography, lockpicking, musicianship, provocation, magery, meditation and hiding. Stats: 100 STR, 100 INT, 25 DEX. Of course there are other builds who can t-map successfully
I know everybody is going to have their preferences on builds, but can you tell me other than personal preference, is hiding a better skill in that template than Resist?

Working my Provo into a Thunter build and after getting wrecked by a poison ele (resist works against poison right? Been a looooong time since I played :-) ) I was wondering if maybe the resist would be better and just use invisi ?

Edit: Do you stay hidden when Hidden and moving objects around in the chest? Sorry, I'd actually just go home and find a lvl one map to try this out on but most of my questions come to me while at work and I jot em down while they are still fresh in my head.

Pirul
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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Pirul »

bishyaler wrote:What's the cheapest/macro-easiest way to GM lockpicking and cartog in T2A?
Can't macro your way to GM LPing. The highest you'll go is 95, after that you need to start hitting dungeon chests.

Cartography CAN be macroed to GM, it's just a bit of a pain. I never could fully afk it, I would only semi-afk it.

This link will help you tackle both
Daemonne wrote:I know everybody is going to have their preferences on builds, but can you tell me other than personal preference, is hiding a better skill in that template than Resist?

Working my Provo into a Thunter build and after getting wrecked by a poison ele (resist works against poison right? Been a looooong time since I played :-) ) I was wondering if maybe the resist would be better and just use invisi ?
Resist will only work against magery (which PE's and Balrons heavily use). It will do nothing against the poison that PE's inflict. That will mess you up real good regardless of resist (protip: always cary orange potions). And the reason I think hiding is MUCH better than resist on a (non-farming) t-mapper is that mobs usually don't hit you with a myriad of spells, and should give you enough time to GHeal between their spells. This is not to mean that the invis spell is not very useful too, since you need to be 9 tiles away from a foe to hide at GM hiding. I'd say it depends on playstyle. I have resist on my farming bard, and hiding on my t-mapper bard.
Daemonne wrote:Edit: Do you stay hidden when Hidden and moving objects around in the chest? Sorry, I'd actually just go home and find a lvl one map to try this out on but most of my questions come to me while at work and I jot em down while they are still fresh in my head.
You can't stay hidden, any movement in the chest will reveal you. What I do, if there are no other creatures around, is cast paralyse and hit my movement macro. As soon as a mob pops out I paralyse it, and continue moving to find him a dance partner. I will always keep my paralyse targetting cursor up (even while moving) so when he gains mobility again, I can para in no time (be mindful that the spell will only last 30 seconds if not targetted, you will need to cast it again if 30 seconds have elapsed since your last casting).
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Orion GM B^D
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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Orion GM B^D »

bishyaler wrote:Cool guide, I've wanted to make a Thunter for awhile now.

What's the cheapest/macro-easiest way to GM lockpicking and cartog in T2A?
Daemonne wrote:
Template: My suggested build is: cartography, lockpicking, musicianship, provocation, magery, meditation and hiding. Stats: 100 STR, 100 INT, 25 DEX. Of course there are other builds who can t-map successfully
I know everybody is going to have their preferences on builds, but can you tell me other than personal preference, is hiding a better skill in that template than Resist?

Working my Provo into a Thunter build and after getting wrecked by a poison ele (resist works against poison right? Been a looooong time since I played :-) ) I was wondering if maybe the resist would be better and just use invisi ?

Edit: Do you stay hidden when Hidden and moving objects around in the chest? Sorry, I'd actually just go home and find a lvl one map to try this out on but most of my questions come to me while at work and I jot em down while they are still fresh in my head.
Here is my t-map chars skill set:
Cartography 100.0
Provocation 100.0
Magery 100.0
Resisting Spells 100.0
Musicianship 100.0
Wrestling 100.0
Meditation 100.0
Now I have resist, cause I use him to farm sometimes too. Plus I already had GM resist before this guide
was posted. I wasnt going to drop resist for hiding, cost too much. So I carry an inviz item.
I also had already GM LPing on another char. I built the listed skill set to mainly run lvl 1 maps. Some people
dont want to mess with them, but if you can get good routine, you can smoke thru a bunch.
When I do 3s and up, I bring in my picker.
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Daemonne
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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Daemonne »

Thanks Pirul.

Looking forward to getting my toons tuned and running.

BTW, side note, your avatar makes me want to buy a house :-) (if I didn't already have one) Looks like a Realtor photo 8)

Pirul
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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Pirul »

:D

He's actually a politician, but realtors and politicians tend to share the same "honesty" principles.

See you out there, and good luck!!
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Charley27
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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Charley27 »

Pretty cool guide.
Nice template... cept one thing. GMing hiding isn't the best... get some meditation and maybe a little resist. As you do maps, you'll acquire invis items. Skip the skills points for hiding and use the invis items.

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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Charley27 »

I remember about a year after the Tmap loot was nerfed (I got a perfect hally from a lvl 2 map once lol) asking if it could be beefed back up a little. I can't find anything to support this, but I KNOW loot was better from Tmaps than here now back during T2A...

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Afroshacks
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Re: Guide: Treasure Hunting

Post by Afroshacks »

Now I feel stupid..... :?

Had my t-hunter for a while now and just about gave up on her. Didn't know to click the map first.. no wonder all I'm getting is you can't mine here..

Thought I was losing it.. :cry:

Well off to get my riches on these 74 t- maps ive been hoarding! :mrgreen:

Thank you for the guide.
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