Ancient Cultivator

An **Ancient Cultivator** is a previously dormant Cultivator who has been reborn by the Thousand-Year Tide.

## Thousand-Year Tide

On Day 271, the Thousand-Year Tide event starts, with the following event:

 Triggers Weather Qi Frenzy: +300 Qi on Tile for 14 days

One week later on day 278, the following story triggers:

 Adds between 6 and 11 Ancient Cultivators

From now on, you can encounter Ancient Cultivator Events.

After that, 2 more events with no gameplay consequences will trigger before the Thousand-Year Tide event stops, on days 289 and 299 respectively, foreshadowing the Mysterious Cavern appearance:

Day 289 Event

Day 299 Event
However, underground shakes started to happen frequently in your sect. You don't know what is going on...

## Finding an Ancient Cultivator

After day 278, Traces of Ancient Cultivators occasionally appear as Secrets on the World Map. When adventuring to the specified location, you may either receive news that the cultivator has just been reborn and has left, or discover the cultivator.

The probability of either occurring depends on the current number of living Ancient Cultivators. If a random number between 1 and 15 is >= the number of current living Ancient Cultivators, a new cultivator is reborn, increasing the number of current living Ancient Cultivators by one, but terminates the event with no further outcomes other than increasing the chance that an Ancient Cultivator is encountered when the Secret appears again in the future.

Otherwise, one of the living cultivators is discovered and encountered. When encountering a Cultivator, there are a number of possible options:

## Observe

The properties of the cultivator are revealed. They may have the following bonuses:

* "Bottomless Qi": Spiritual (+1,500,000 Max Qi, +15,000% Max Qi)
* "Excellent Defense": Resilient (+0.25 Barrier Power Bonus (Value))
* "Artifact Mastery Astounding the World": Keen (+20,000% Artifact Power Bonus)
* "Incredibly Powerful Artifact Mastery": Robust (+10,000% Artifact Max Qi Bonus, +10,000% Artifact Qi Recovery Bonus)
* "Artifact Mastery like a Bolt of Lightning": Nimble (+100% Artifact Flying Speed Bonus, +100% Artifact Turning Speed Bonus)
* "Unmatched Artifact Mastery": Masterful (+50% Number of Artifacts, +200% Artifact Trail Length Bonus)
* "Tool capable of defending against all directions": Versatile (+150% Number of Artifacts, +2 Artifact Qi Recovery Multiplier)
* "Spellcraft Unmatched on this Plane": Mystic (+10,000% Spell power bonus)
* "Rapid Spell Cast Delay Recovery": Swift (-20% Spell Cooldown Bonus)
* "has a bitter dispute with our Sect that can't seem to be settled": Nemesis (+1,500,000 Max Qi, +15,000% Max Qi, +24,000% Artifact Power Bonus, +12,000% Artifact Max Qi Bonus, +12,000% Artifact Qi Recovery Bonus, +15,000% Spell power bonus)

## Mysterious Cavern

This option only appears if it is Day 300 or more and this option has not been successfully used previously.

If the Ancient Cultivator has the "Nemesis" property, they will immediately attack, as though the Provoke action had been taken. Refer to the Provoke section for further details. This does not count as a successful use of this option.

Otherwise, receive the following guaranteed rewards:

* Morality Seal
* Unlocks Boss Information section on the User Interface, which explains in detail the bosses' special attacks.

## Negotiate

If the Ancient Cultivator has the "Nemesis" property, they will immediately attack, as though the Provoke action had been taken. Refer to the Provoke section for further details.

If the cultivator's Cultivation Level is below 10 (below Primordial Spirit), the Ancient Cultivator will ignore you, terminating the event without any reward.

If the cultivator's Charisma < a random number between 6 and 10 (0% chance with maximum CHA), the Ancient Cultivator will ignore you, terminating the event without any reward.

Otherwise, the Ancient Cultivator will take notice, and one of the following random rewards will be received:

* 40% chance:
	+ Receive INT\*15,000 Inspiration.
	+ If LUK > a random number between 5 and 10 (5/6 chance with maximum LUK) and Dragon's Platform has not been discovered, receive Ancient Secrets: Volume I which unlocks that location. Only 1 of the 2 location unlocks can happen each Negotiation.
	+ If LUK > a random number between 5 and 10 (5/6 chance with maximum LUK) and Heavenly Battlefield has not been discovered, receive Ancient Secrets: Volume II which unlocks that location. Only 1 of the 2 location unlocks can happen each Negotiation.
* 40% chance:
	+ Receive 2-5 drops from the Gift of the Master loot table.
* 20% chance:
	+ Learn a random "Ancient Secrets" Unorthodox Manual for no Inspiration or Attainment cost. The manual can be later transcribed.

## Provoke

The Ancient Cultivator is a very strong Boss enemy significantly above the level of an average Sect Elder and can be comparable in difficulty to the Boss Monsters. They should not be provoked unless ready to face an enemy of that power level.

Provoking the Ancient Cultivator without injury requires a sufficiently high Adventure Fly Speed, where the Adventuring Flying Speed (km/Qi) \* (1+Adventure Fly Speed Bonus) must be >=30. Having too low Fly Speed leads to the cultivator being injured, however unlike the other Bosses, the Ancient Cultivator will still show up in the sect and attack.

The Ancient Cultivator will arrive in the map within 600 to 899 seconds (1-1.5 days), regardless of whether the cultivator was injured. Unlike Boss Monsters, they do not have to be fought in a specific manner to receive all drops, simply killing them is sufficient.

Soul Inquiry should also be cast on the dying Ancient Cultivator, in order to receive 2-5 random "Ancient Secrets" Unorthodox Manuals.

## Drops

Ancient Cultivators drop many unique items.

### Ancient Relics

If you don't have obtained all Ancient Relics yet, there's a 5% chance to drop for each Ancient Relic you don't have yet.

### Unique Manuals

If you don't have obtained all the Ancient Cultivators specific Manuals yet, there's a 2.5% chance to drop for each Manual you don't have yet.. They can be transcribed in the Manual Pavilion.

## References

1. ↑ `Scripts/Misc/timescript.lua`
2. ↑ Settings\Modifiers\Modifier\_SpecialNpc.xml
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Settings\MapStories\MapStory\_Special.xml
4. ↑ Settings\Npc\SpDrop\SpDrop\_DaNeng.xml
5. ↑ `XiaWorld.OneOffDrop.Drop() & XiaWorld.Map.DropItemsEx(), drop mode = 0 means several drops from the same pool are possible at the given rate.`
6. ↑ `XiaWorld.SpNpcMgr.SpDrop() & XiaWorld.Map.DropItemsEx(), drop mode == 1 means only 1 drop possible for each DropKey, with a chance decided by the rate compared to other items in the list.`