Obsidian Tower

The obsidian tower is a popular location for farming all kinds of items, as well as farming experience, and gold/crystals (below).

The Obsidian Tower appears above the catacombs once unlocked by reaching floor 6 of borderlands in the normal mode, which progresses in this fashion when starting in the regular catacombs: Catacombs 1-5→Forgotten Keeper→abandoned prison 1-5→King of bones→adamant line garden 1-5→Grim paladin→Borderlands 1-6, which unlocks the Obsidian tower. It is a “customizable stage” that may be changed according to the player’s preferences. A player who returns to their fortress via the camp mentor may then return to the same obsidian tower floor again if they wish; or they may re-start on level 1/5/10/25/50 once clearing that many floors - as with any other endless dungeon. Selecting one of these starting floors will reset the between-floor boss levels, to level 1 if on floor 1, or level 18 if on floor 50.

The BETWEEN-FLOOR bosses levels reset upon death, or when a specific starting floor is selected (rather than just continuing onwards from the last floor). The between floor bosses are not based upon hero level - different from the gate mini-bosses and on-floor monster champions which can become very high level if the hero is very high level, particularly in the endgame with thousands of unused skill points. Note that the boss level reset is triggered even when using a different hero - so if you wish to face very high level bosses in the tower you cannot switch heroes and select a new starting floor.

## Gold and Crystal Farming

The obsidian tower may be used to rapidly accumulate gold and crystals (which are interchangeable with ultimate mode and essentially the same resource, click on crystals at the the top of the screen in the fortress). An example might be employing “while you were sleeping the enemy was training” (creating more green/special monsters), horde to increase number of monsters per floor, brave downworld to make the levels larger, area size 1 floor and boss each floor. WARNING: brave downworld may cause game to crash and cause loss of equipment; it is thus recommended to manually cloudsave and turn off automatic cloudsave at the fortress before trying that mod. On the crypt and borderlands option, upwards of 350 monsters may be generated per floor around floor-50, creating vast income as you slay them all…if you can survive and the game doesn’t crash (EVIL LAUGH)…

## Obsidian Tower Modifiers

Modifiers are options that change certain aspects of the obsidian tower. They drop from defeated Monster Champions, Mini-Bosses and Bosses from any dungeon - including the tower itself. All modifiers increase the experience a monster drops when defeated. Some modifiers simply make the stage harder (for example by reducing healing, monster knockback etc) while others have unique effects that may have benefits beyond the experience buff added by the mod itself - increasing crystals dropped by creating more empowered/green monsters, number of monsters per floor, number of monster champions, diversity of monsters encountered on a floor, and so on.

WE ARE SURROUNDED! - +4% experience. Triples ambush chance, and raises the level of ambushing monsters. Stacks with “underground protein” to create very high level monster ambushes. Does not create an ambush if a boss appears in between each floor (because the boss supplants the ambush), but the experience bonus still applies.

DIPLOMATIC VISIT - +7% experience. Monsters from other dungeons will appear.

DARKNESS - +10% experience. Plunges the dungeon into a pitch-black darkness, making it hard to see more than a few feet ahead.

NO TIME FOR VEGETABLE SOUP - +8% experience. The game will continue while you look at your inventory - monsters will continue to move and attack! Think “dark souls” style. The game still pauses when you are looking at the settings, and the blowup of the mini-map.

HUNTING FOR CAPTAINS - +5% experience. When a monster champion appears, killing the monster champion becomes mandatory in order to go down the stairs to the next level. Monster champions become stronger.

PINCER - +4% experience. It is possible for two monster champions to appear on the same dungeon floor.

DOWNWORLD EXPANSES - +5% experience. 25% larger dungeons, with more monsters spawning. Moderately powerful device is recommended so the game does not become laggy/glitchy. Cannot be used with “brave downworld” (below) WARNING: may cause game to crash and cause loss of equipment; it is thus recommended to manually cloudsave and turn off automatic cloudsave at the fortress before trying this mod.

BRAVE DOWNWORLD - +7% experience. 50% larger dungeons, with many more monsters spawning. Very powerful device is recommended so the game does not become laggy/glitchy. Cannot be used with “downworld expanses” (above) WARNING: may cause game to crash and cause loss of equipment; it is thus recommended to manually cloudsave and turn off automatic cloudsave at the fortress before trying this mod.

UNDERGROUND PROTEIN - +12% experience. Doubles the level of monsters encountered on a given floor. Stacks with “we are surrounded!”, creating very high level ambushes.

HORDE - +6% experience. More monsters appear on a floor.

BREAK-THROUGH - +6% experience. Monsters steadily climb up the stairs one at a time, and hunt for the hero. If the hero is not nearby, the monsters will wait by the stairs, forming a horde. Eventually no more monsters will come - typically after around 20 monsters or so.

DARK ENERGY - +4% experience. When defeated, monsters may be reborn as hostile shadows.

PANDEMIC - +12% experience. Each hit from any monster may instantly poison or petrify the hero.

LIFELESS RUINS - +3% experience. The instant healing effect of the Asylum fortress upgrade will not work. Halves the chance of finding altars.

LONG HIKE - +4% experience. Reduces chance of camp appearing to no more than once every 10 floors. Camp gates now disappear after being exited - similar mini-boss gates and tomb gates.

RUSH - +8% experience. Monsters move 25% faster, see the hero from 50% further away, and will never lose sight of the hero once they see him.

ANTIHERO DEFENSE - +20% experience. Traps are generated more frequently, do more damage to the hero, and do no damage to monsters. Typically most challenging to use in dungeons with open floor plans like burial mounds, and easiest to use in closed floors like catacombs.

WHILE YOU SLEEP THE EMEMY IS TRAINING - +10% experience. Monsters have an higher chance of being an empowered/green variety. These monsters typically grant more experience than a common monster upon being defeated; and additionally sometimes drop the green currency crystals.

FLAMES AND BOARDS - +8% experience. All containers explode when destroyed, and some containers will shoot at the hero when hit.

STURDY STANCE - +5% experience. The hero and his companions suffer more knockback when hit by monsters, while the monsters suffer no knockback.

The Bonds of Pain - +10% experience. Red and blue spheres no longer drop from defeated monsters. Natural regeneration is slower, and healing skills are less powerful.

DRUNK MASTER - +6% experience. More monsters appear on a floor. Each dungeon floor, the skills of the hero are randomly re-selected.

CARROT AND STICK - +10% experience. Each time the hero is hit, they lose experience, but they cannot lose levels (cannot drop below 0).