Treasure Hunting

*The information in this article is up-to-date as of version Early Access v0.8.5.*

**Treasure hunting** is a specialization skill and determines your ability to decipher treasure maps, locate and dig buried treasures out. Higher level of that skill allows deciphering higher level maps.

It requires the use of a shovel to dig out treasure. The chest is *\*locked\** when it spawns, but will automatically unlock after all of guardian spawn are dead. Alternatively, a player proficient in Lockpicking skill can open the chest while the guardians are still alive.

## Process

Upon acquisition of a map, it can be studied (right click and choose "Study", or double click) to find the area the treasure is located and to reveal the quality of the map (see the maps section below).

Once you are in the correct area, the map can be studied again to locate the treasure precisely. You will get an on-screen message indicating which direction you should travel to find the dig area. **Beware**, each attempt to study a non-trivial map will slowly degrade it off until destruction.

Once you get the message reporting "treasure is nearby", you must equip a shovel and use the ability to dig (default: Q). The chest is always located at the center of the treasure area.

Once the treasure is discovered the map will be destroyed and the guardian spawn will appear. The treasure chest is locked and can be picked, however killing all the monsters will unlock the chest so Lockpicking is not a required skill for land-based treasure maps. Dug up treasure chests last for 30 minutes

## Maps

There are several levels of maps:

In addition to level, there are different *qualities* of maps. The quality determines the size of the area you'll have to search:

* Vague: The dig area is approximately 12 by 12 tiles.
* Approximate: The dig area is approximately 8 by 8 tiles.
* Accurate: The dig area is approximately 4 by 4 tiles.
* Precise: The dig area is exactly 1 tile square.

**The chest is always located at the center of the dig area.**

## Treasure Area

Once you get the message "the treasure is nearby" you know you are in the right area. The dig area that you'll need to search is determined by the map quality (see above).

If your map is in good condition, it is advisable to try to search for the edges of the dig area by checking the map repeatedly as you move around. Once you find the edges of the dig area, the actual treasure location is at the center (knowing the center will allow you to dig up the treasure in a few tries instead of digging over a hundred tiles.)

As you dig, there are 5 possible results:

1. "You find nothing of interest here" : This means you've completely left the treasure area.
2. "The treasure is not buried here" : This means you're currently digging within the treasure area, but haven't found the exact spot.
3. "The treasure is not located here. Keep Digging!" : When is says Keep Digging you can dig again in that same spot for additional skill gains. Also after digging in the same spot I have seen the chest appear.
4. "That location has already been excavated" : You're still in the treasure area but have dug the same place before.
5. "The map disintegrates": You successfully dig up the treasure map and guarding spawn.

The blue marker in the picture are the outer edges of the treasure area for a vague map.

## Tips

* If you take too long to kill the monsters, the treasure disappears along with the remaining monsters. The timer on the chest has been increased during early access and is now much more forgiving.

* Sometimes the treasure is located in an inaccessible area, for these you need to use the Teleport spell/scroll. Once you dig up the treasure you either need to be able to withstand all the monsters attacking you at once or you need to have high enough Manifestation to be able to teleport away quickly without fizzling. If you die in the inaccessible area, you need to use "/stuck" to get out and you most likely will not make back in time to reclaim your body and belongings.

* If you don't wish to use teleport spell to access the inaccessible maps, don't throw them away; study them repeatedly, there will be some skill gain.

* Drag the maps to your quick action (hotkey) bar, faster than right-clicking and selecting study from context menu.

* ~~The map you are currently trying to find needs to be in your backpack, not in a pouch that is in your backpack, for treasure hunting to work. However, all other maps must be in a pouch in your backpack when you dig, otherwise you will not be able to find the chest.~~ Fixed in early access.

* When dealing with higher level maps that you're likely to destroy, or maps that are on the verge of destruction, you can guess the location and dig to find the area where the treasure is buried. You'll lose some time on the guesses, but at least the map will not get destroyed before you find the treasure. E.g., if the map points north, then you can start going north and digging a bit every few steps to see if you found the area.
* After you find the treasure area, but before you dig the chest, you can keep deciphered the map to gain additional skill points. Continue doing this until the map is about to break. If the map does break, you can't dig up the treasure.
* When you fail to study a map it looses durability and will eventually be destroyed and disappear. A map has 10 durability and is always damaged in increments of 1. This means that as long as it has at least 2 durability, you can safely keep using it. If the map reaches durability 1, you will have to try digging around.
* When you've reached the maximum skill requirement for a map you'll stop failing to study them and they will no longer take durability damage.
* Save "Precise" maps until you're about to start the next tier of maps. Due to the small dig area, you're likely to severely damage or destroy the maps before finding the correct location.
	+ This is less of a concern on smaller areas, such as Ceyr Pond or Sacred Isle, but of significant concern in larger digs like Valus or Lake Tethys.

## Map Location Notes

* Maps to Cast Lake (Upper Plains) may spawn on either the east or west bank of the lake and river, making the search quite tedious.
* Maps to Caravan Path (Upper Plains) may spawn in guarded areas, but tend to spawn on the Wilderness side of the wall.

## Known Bugs

* Treasures can spawn under player houses. In these cases, the map will disintegrate and you will get a *"That location is too far away."* message and the treasure will be lost. reported 1/21/2019
* All maps in Lume Coast, Flat Wilds, Jhalir, Ruin of the Artificers, Arid Lake, and The Dunes are bugged. Attempting to use them near the area will get them stuck on your mouse cursor. No matter what you do, the map will be lost. One player reported that the maps in his pack disappeared after relogging to clear the bug. Consider storing these maps until after the bug is fixed. re-confirmed 3/5/2019
	+ Consider unloading undeciphered maps before going anywhere near these zones. It appears that brand new maps can also get stuck, likely because they would decode to the affected regions.

## NPC Trainers

The following NPCs can train your skill to 30 for 300 :

* Justin (Fisher) (Pyros Landing)
* Tidus (Pyros Landing)

## Training Guide

* 0-30: Start with 30 skill at character creation.
* 0-35.1 Buy a few decoded tattered maps for the same area (ie, "Valus"). Go to that region and just repeatedly study the map until it break or you cap. As you gain, you'll destroy fewer maps. Tattered maps are plentiful and generally cheap, so it's worth the extra gains to destroy them.
* 35.1-55.1 Acquire decoded frayed maps in the same way. Since Frayed Maps are harder to acquire, you may want to only push them to "worn" or "damaged" so you can still dig them later.
* 55.1-75.1: Do the same thing with Fancy maps.
* 60.1-95.0: Do the same thing with Ornate maps.
* 95+: Don't bother. You can decode and dig Devious maps with 95 skill. You will damage the map in the process, but you know how this works now and shouldn't destroy your maps while finding your dig site. In time, you will naturally reach 100.
* While grinding your skill, start actually following the maps to find the dig areas with either Frayed or Ornate maps. Digging is significantly slower at gains, but vague maps can give you about 130 extra chances to gain per map due to the large dig area. To maximize gains this way, make sure you don't hit the center spot to dig up the map.