Friday, April 23, 2010

Treasure!

Allods has a pretty nifty system for insuring every character can accumulate some nice loot on a regular basis. The daily treasure chest. This article highlights the mechanics of the treasure chest system and shows you where to find treasure chests in each zone.
How It Works

Each character can receive one treasure chest per day. I've been told that characters with higher levels of patronage can pick up additional chests, one per level of patronage, while using incense, but I have not been able to confirm this as fact (if you can confirm this, please leave a comment). To get a daily chest a character needs to visit a treasure site, accept the quest the chest offers, then immediately turn it back in to receive your reward. There are three common reasons a character can't pick up the treasure, even if they're at the right site:

  • Their quest log is full. This is always a bad thing, as a full quest log prevents quest icons from appearing.
  • They've already picked up a treasure. Remember: one treasure per character per day!
  • No room in inventory. The character must have at least one empty bag slot to receive a treasure chest.
So how does one find treasure sites? Each zone has an NPC that offers a quest hinting at the treasure's location. Follow the clues to find the chest. When completed at an appropriate level, the treasure finding quest is worth a nice chunk of XP, so it pays to seek out the treasure as soon as you feel you can reach it safely.

Where are the Chests?

Yeah, I know this is why you're really reading this article. Here's the list of each treasure that I've managed to find, along with hints on reaching these locations.

Evermeet Isle

The Evermeet Isle treasure is on the coast in the June Ruins. This is an easy treasure to find as the quest Ancient Stones takes place at the same location.

Lightwood
  • Quest: Treasure!
  • Quest Giver: Acrobatic Family
  • Treasure: Iron Chest
Lightwood is unique in that there are two treasure locations in this zone. The first treasure is tucked away on the eastern cliffs, just north of the sawmill. Search the cliffs between the cavern leading to Darkwater and the Rebel Camp and look for a half-dug hole surrounded by skeletons and wreckage. I believe you have to complete the Treasure! quest here.

The second Lightwood treasure is located near the camp in Dead Thicket. From the camp head straight east to the ridge that bounds the region, then turn south. Look for a wrecked wagon. The treasure is right next to it. Note that this location drops a better quality steel chest, so this is the preferred chest to pillage each day. Use caution, there are level 10 wolves and werewolves, including two slightly tougher rare spawns, near the chest location.

Siveria
Siveria is the first difficult to find chest. To reach it you have to go through the Orc village near the two giant pillars in the middle of the region then fight your way into the camp atop the east pillar. The chest itself is hidden in a large gray rock to the right of the hut at you come up the trail. Note that the quest The Climb leads you right to the treasure site, so you may want to wait til you have this quest before seeking it out.

Frozen Frontier
The Frozen Frontier treasure is the most difficult to reach of those I've found so far. It is on Nordheim Island near the elite Ice Drakes you have to kill for the quest Drake Hunting. I strongly recommend going for this treasure while doing this quest. It's just not worth the effort to make the trip more than once.

That said, it is possible to get to this treasure without fighting any Drakes. Be warned that this is a one way trip so be sure your Adventurer's Stone is available, otherwise you're fighting Drakes or taking a suicide leap off the Allod to get back to civilization. Here's how (follow the green dots):
  • Go to Nordheim and fight your way through the caves, past the June Golem, to the far side exit.
  • Turn left and follow the edge of the Allod to a point where a trail turns toward the interior (top image). You should see Drakes up this slope. Don't go that way! Instead proceed ahead, over the little drop and continue along the edge of the Allod (second image).
  • Proceed along the edge, fighting your way past a couple of Ice Elementals, until you reach a split in the pass, down to the right and up to the left. Go left up the narrow trail (third image).
  • Follow the left ice cliff in a U-turn which leaves you at a spot just above the split in the trail.
  • Head west-northwest along this plateau, again fighting an Ice Elemental or two. The treasure will be right in front of you, disguised as a large gray boulder. You will have to be very close to the rock to get the treasure (fourth image).
Note: I think I found a safer way to get to this treasure without going through the caves, I'll post an update if I can confirm it.

Darkwater
In sharp contrast to Frozen Frontier's difficult to reach treasure, Darkwater's is a breeze. It's located underwater along the southern edge of the region. If you look at your map, the treasure is straight south from the "L" in Lukomorie. You may encounter hostile crabs as you swim south but the area around the treasure is fairly safe. The treasure itself is a cluster of blue stones on the bottom of the Astral Bay. The map at left shows the chest's location. Remember it's underwater!

Tenebra
Tenebra offers the first mithril chest treasure, a nice upgrade from steel chests. Luckily the treasure isn't too hard to reach. It is located on the southern Allod next to Lamia Lake. The easiest way to reach this treasure is to take a June Stone to Tainted Woods, then travel east along the coastline until you're within striking distance of the lake. The treasure is on the east side of the lake, near a friendly NPC. Be warned, the Lamia boss across the lake, Deianeira, can be quite tough to kill so watch your approach.

Asee-Teph
The Asee-Teph chest is easy to find, but tough to get to. There are quite a few level 25-26 elementals surrounding the treasure site in Kotick, the Dead City. It's also a bit of a trek to get the quest for the treasure, since the quest giver Titmit is in the Historian camp in Uskul the Dead City. The treasure itself is located right near the Kotick Site of Power, so it's easy to find, just watch out for the elementals!

Eljune
Eljune offers the first chance at an Adamantite chest. Be warned the site is guarded by a mess of Forest Trolls, level 29-30, so expect a fight. It's tucked away in the south-east corner of the Itsmal Ruins. There's a June pillar you can activate to complete the treasure.

The images at right show where to start, on the little cliff above the camp next to Itsmal Ruins. Now turn around and look towards the Ruins. Follow the indicated path and an active pillar should show up right in front of you. Using this path you should encounter only one or two monsters at most. This treasure is much easier to get to than I first thought. The trick is to avoid most of the ruins using this route.

Coba Plateau
  • Quest: Ancient Treasure 
  • Quest Giver: Tin the Unyielding
  • Treasure: Adamantite Chest
The Coba chest is difficult to get to, being both beyond the Cordon, and on the Isle of Weakness. You'll want to head out to the end of the Isle, near where Nighthowl, one of the undead quest bosses, roams. The treasure is a green Zem-crystal looking object. See the screenshot for look at the site. The larger skeleton depicted is Nighthowl.

Coldberg
The Coldberg treasure isn't terribly hard to get to, certainly easier than Coba Plateau.  You'll have to scale the snowy Frost Peak along the northern part of the Allod. From the nearby camp follow the base of the Peak west until you reach the Yak area until you find a narrow trail leading up the side of the mountain. Take this trail and follow its many twists and turns, avoiding the elite demon found half-way up, until you find a small ice crystal in the middle of the trail. That's the treasure!

Avilon
The Avilon treasure requires access to the south Dark Shard Allod of this cluster. You'll have to complete a quest line, culminating in Path to the Dark, to get this access,  so you may have to wait a while to complete this quest. Once you have access the treasure is easy to reach. It's located in the June Ruin on the south edge of the southern Dark Shard Allod.

Dragon Ring
  • Coming soon!