Treasure Map
Treasure Maps show the location where a Treasure Chest is buried. Maps can be obtained from various creatures and come in five types roughly corresponding to the difficultly of the creatures both possessing and guarding the map: Stash, Supply, Cache, Hoard, or Trove. Treasure maps require Cartography to decode, at which point the map will change from tattered to Blessed, revealing the location of a buried treasure chest. The treasure may have belonged to one of five types of adventurers: Artisan, Assassin, Mage, Ranger, or Warrior. Each profession has individual preferences as to what they might choose to bury as treasure.
Finding the Treasure
- Mining is no longer required to dig up a treasure chest.
Cartography now provides bonuses to both the distance you can be from a chest while digging and the quality of chest dug up. Legendary Mapmaker's Glasses increase Cartography, thereby also affecting digging radius and chest quality.
- %Cartography talismans are used in the crafting of maps and do not affect the Cartography skill, digging radius, or quality of treasure chests.
With 0 Cartography, the digger must be directly on the tile where the chest is buried.
| Cartography Skill | Radius |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 tile |
| 51 | 2 tiles |
| 81 | 3 tiles |
| 100 | 4 tiles |
To attempt a dig, double-click on a shovel (or pickaxe), then target the map you want to dig, then target the spot you wish to dig. Alternatively, use the context menu on the map and choose the 'dig treasure' option. You will see a short animation and then either receive a message that you find no treasure, or the animation will repeat a few times, you will receive a message you found the treasure, and a chest will slowly appear out of the ground.
The chest may be Rusty, Standard, or Gold. A Gold chest has both higher numbers of stackable items and better quality items than a Rusty chest. Higher Cartography increases the chances the chest will be of higher quality. At 100 Cartography, you will most likely get a Gold chest when digging Stash and Supply maps, but will still dig up Standard and even Rusty chests when digging Hoard and Trove maps.
- Cartography is not required to dig up a chest. You can dig up a Trove chest with 0 Cartography, but it will most likely be Rusty and the "treasure" inside equally poor.
Once the chest has been dug up, a group of monsters will spawn. These are the chest Guardians. Some will have (Guardian) as a tag on their name. Those must be killed before the lock on the chest can be opened. Not all Guardians have the (Guardian) tag. Those that do not have the (Guardian) tag can be lead away instead of killed. This can be helpful in dealing with Frost Dragons and other high level spawn if you don't want to spend the time to kill them. The unexpected Frost Dragon can also really spice up the lives of wandering adventurers!
- You can Remove Trap on a chest while the Guardians are still alive, prior to Lockpicking.
Open a lock: Magery. To open Stash, Supply, or Cache chests you can use the Magery spell "Unlock". You must have sufficient Magery skill per type of chest, even if you are casting from scrolls. However, Magery skill can be from +skill items, it does not need to be "real" skill. You can therefore "Unlock" up to Cache with 0 Magery if you are using +100 Magery in items.
| Magery | Chest |
|---|---|
| 50 | Stash |
| 80 | Supply |
| 100 | Cache |
Open a lock: Skeleton Key. Skeleton keys can be very useful for the Treasure Hunter. They weigh only 1 stone, can have up to 100 charges, don't consume a charge on failures (only success), and can be insured for Felucca adventures. By contrast, 100 lock picks would weigh 100 stones, one would be destroyed on each failure, and they could not be insured.
All treasure chests are trapped and Remove Trap must be used on the chest before the chest can be opened. Remove Trap is timed (similar to a Taming attempt) and at 100 Remove Trap when the timer expires you will either succeed and the chest can be opened, or fail suffering unavoidable damage, and spawn an Ancient Guardian. (The AG mechanic at lower levels of Remove Trap is somewhat different.) An Ancient Guardian is a blue hued, slightly tougher version of one of the chest Guardians that can spawn with that type of chest. Ancient Guardians carry no loot and must be killed before you can remove the trap from the chest. You can fail to remove the trap and spawn multiple Ancient Guardians per chest. As this process can repeat a great number of times, having a healing skill or spell prepped and being prepared to move out of the way of the guardian is essential. If you stray too far from the chest (16 tiles) the trap removal process will be halted. This is not necessarily a bad thing -- it gives one time to heal up and recover mana before using Remove Trap again.
All chests have a "Safety Valve" where past that point no additional Ancient Guardians will spawn. The "Safety Valve" is a specific amount of time that must pass from when the chest was initially dug up and the first group of Guardians appeared. "Safety Valve" times decrease as Remove Trap skill increases. Interestingly, if you kill off the initial Guardians and pick the lock, you can wait until the "Safety Valve" time has passed before attempting Remove Trap. By using this tactic, Remove Trap will succeed on the first attempt and no Ancient Guardian will spawn. Conversely, an Ancient Guardian will always spawn if your first Remove Trap attempt completes before the "Safety Valve" time.
| 100 Remove Trap | |
|---|---|
| Time (s) | Chest |
| 20(?) | Stash |
| 60 | Supply |
| 180 | Cache |
| 420 | Hoard |
| TBD | Trove |
"Safety Valve" times increase substantially with lower skill levels of Remove Trap, but have not yet been precisely identified.
- 0 Remove Trap can be used successfully on Trove chests, either by fighting numerous Ancient Guardians until the chest can finally be opened, or by just waiting until the "Safety Valve" time (for 0 skill) has passed before attempting to remove the trap.
It is possible to dig up, unlock, and untrap a Stash, Supply, or Cache with 0 skill invested in Cartography, Lockpicking, Magery, or Remove Trap.
Treasure Hunting Tips
Party size has a chance to increase the number of Magic Equipment found in a chest. A larger Party can cause more magic equipment to spawn than a smaller party, but there is still only a chance the additional magic equipment will spawn. All party members must be present at the dig site.
Mysterious Fragments have been spawning in all treasure chests since Pub 105. What use they are is still mysterious as of (7/Aug/2019)
Completed treasure maps may be collected and used to create a Tattered Wall Map.
There is a random chance another guardian will suddenly appear for each item taken out of the chest, so sometimes it may be wise to only pull out one item at a time.
Sometimes a player may not be able to pull an item out an open chest, so they should simply take a step around or to the side of the chest or have someone else who is standing next to it do the same. Additionally, anyone in a Party with the person who dug up the chest can also take items out.
After completing a treasure chest, it is considered good treasure hunting etiquette to destroy the chest. This can be accomplished by either striking the chest with an axe or using the Contextual menu on the chest. This way if another treasure hunter comes along with a map on to the exact same spot they do not have to wait around for the previous chest to decay and disappear on its own before starting to dig up their treasure chest. Any items still in the chest will be destroyed along with the chest so ensure the good stuff has been taken out first.
Additionally, it is also considered good treasure hunting etiquette to not leave guardian monsters wandering around waiting to ambush people who may live nearby or even other treasure hunters who may come later. (Oh come on! It adds spice to life! Hit'em with a shot from the Spice Weasel!) It's also a good idea to Dispel summoned creatures prior to departing to free up control slots before doing another map so you don't have to return to do it or wait for them to dispel on their own.
Chest Information
| Level | Map Title | Cartography | Lockpicking* | Treasure Items | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum (~40% Chance) |
50% Chance | 100% Chance | Magery (Unlock spell) |
Magic Equipment | Special | |||
| 1 | Stash | 27.1 | 5.1 | 30.1 | 55.1 | 50 | 6 |
Ancient Weapon |
| 2 | Supply | 71 | 45.1 | 50.1 | 75.1 | 80 | 8 | |
| 4 | Cache | 91 | 75.1 | 80.1 | 105.1** | 100 | 12 | |
| 6 | Hoard | 100 | 80.1 | 85.1 | 110.1** | - | 18 | |
| 7 | Trove | 100 | 80.1 | 85.1 | 110.1** | - | 36 | |
- * Note that these Lockpicking skill values are only experimentally tested using a Crystal Ball of Knowledge and has not been verified.
- ** Lockpicking skill is capped at 100.0.
- Every 1.0 skill point of Lockpicking increases the chance to pick a treasure map chest 2%. (This might not be valid after Publish 105)
- Assassin Cache chests contain 24 Magic equipment. All other Cache chests contain 12 Magic Equipment.
Guardians
Lookout! When a chest is fully dug up 4 to 8 (I think I saw a chest with 9 once too, trying to verify) guardians will suddenly appear around it and try to attack the digger. Especially on higher level treasure maps, casting Invisibility on the digger just as the chest finally finishes rising out of the ground can help save their life. Hiding skill may also be used for this, but with both methods precise timing is crucial. Possible guardians on each facet are:
Treasure
- Visit uo-cah.com for a searchable directory of treasure chest loot.
With Publish 105 in June of 2019, treasure chest loot was reorganized and new loot added. Keeping track of what spawns where can be intimidating, so the uo-cah.com website linked above can be a huge help to T-hunters of all types looking to stay organized and sane!
General Loot Distribution
In general, there are five types of Treasure Map, with the treasure for each type being buried by five professions of adventurers. Additionally, some items adventurers only bury in specific facets. All that adds up to a lot of variables to keep track of for a treasure seeker! The following is a general overview of loot, but the uo-cah.com website is your best bet for detailed information.
For some basic ideas of what is found where in chests, start with the facets:
- Eodon has lots of Dragon Turtle and Tiger armor and related equipment.
- Felucca has original equipment.
- Ilshenar has original equipment (with properties normally found in dungeons).
- Malas has lots of bone and dragon armor.
- Ter Mur has lots of Gargish equipment.
- Tokuno has lots of Ninja and Samurai armor and related equipment.
- Trammel has original equipment.
Add into that what each profession considers treasure:
- Artisan has axes, hammers, hats.
- Assassin has ring armor, chain armor, fast weapons. (Medium-Heavy Armor)
- Mage has leather armor, staves, wizards hats. (Light Armor)
- Ranger has studded armor, knives, bows. (Medium Armor)
- Warrior has plate armor, maces, shields. (Heavy Armor)
Finally, factor in the races:
- Elves have circlets, leaf armor, hide armor, woodland armor.
- Gargoyles have boomerangs, leather armor, stone armor.
Put it all together and it becomes fairly straightforward where to find something.
- Want boomerangs? They'll be in Ter Mur (Gargish Gear) Ranger (boomerangs - garg equivalent of bows) chests.
- Leaf Armor? That'll be Mage Chests (Light armor).
- Hide Armor? Ranger chests (Medium armor).
- Platemail Jingasa? Tokuno (Samurai Empire) Warrior (Heavy Armor) chests.
- Tiger skirts? Eodon. Bone helms? Malas.
Ok, you get the idea.
As for which type of chest to find things in, here are some general guidelines.
- Magic equipment is never above Major Magic Item in Stash/Supply. If you want artifacts, you have to go Cache, Hoard, Trove.
- The quality of magic equipment in Cache, Hoard, Trove is the same. You just get more magic equipment in the harder chests.
- Luck has a significant impact on the quality of magic equipment. 0 luck and the distribution will be centered on Major Magic Item. 4000 Luck and the distribution moves up to be centered on Major Artifact. Each 1000 in Luck basically moves the distribution up 1 equipment category. The distribution is truncated before Legendary, so even with 4000 Luck you won't see as many Legendaries as you're expecting.
- Reagents are in Mage Stash chests. Necro in Malas, Mysticism in TerMur.
- Refinements are in Artisan Stash chests.
- Resources are in Artisan Stash chests. More Resources in Artisan Supply chests. Essences in TerMur Supply, Peerless in Malas Supply.
- Most of the traditional special treasure chest loot is in Supply chests. Skeleton Keys, Tasty Treats, Minor artis, etc. All Supply, by profession.
Detailed Loot Distribution
Let's start with a simple table Showing the five map types and the five professions. We can fill this table in with different types of loot, but we'll start with the new Pub 105 Deco Items.
| Publish 105 New Deco Items | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Map Type | All Facets | ||||
| Profession | |||||
| Artisan | Assassin | Mage | Ranger | Warrior | |
| Stash | - | - | - | - | - |
| Supply | - | - | - | - | - |
| Cache | Skull Floor Tile | Ancient Weapon (Curved Blade) | Hourglass | Ancient Weapon (Z-Hilt) | Ancient Weapon (Circle Hilt) |
| Hoard | Skull Floor Tile | Ancient Weapon (Curved Blade) | Hourglass | Ancient Weapon (Z-Hilt) | Ancient Weapon (Circle Hilt) |
| Trove | Skull Floor Tile | Ancient Weapon (Curved Blade) | Hourglass | Ancient Weapon (Z-Hilt) | Ancient Weapon (Circle Hilt) |
Notes
- Publish 105 dramatically changed treasure hunting. See publish notes for specific details.
- Publish 97 Updated Treasure Maps. Mining is no longer needed.
- Before Publish 67 randomized the map locations, Mining skill was not popular amongst the treasure hunters since many players were using a treasure map rune library or a website to find out precisely where to dig.
- There are 60 different kinds of Surge Shield, 18 different kinds of Mana Phasing Orb and 2 different kinds of Runed Sash of Warding.
- During the Publish 67's release on TC1, Playing Cards were spawning on Guardians. This is removed when the Publish went live on production shards.
- Before Publish 67, treasure maps were only spawning in the game for Trammel and Felucca. Thus, the treasure maps for Ilshenar were considered as rare items. These pre-existing Ilshenar treasure maps are tagged with an Artifact Rarity 0 tag with the release of the Publish on production shards.
See Also
- uo-cah.com Searchable directory of treasure chest loot.
- Map
- Cartography
- Artifacts (Treasure Map)
- Treasure Map Spawn
- Treasure Hunters of Britannia