Cartography
The main purpose of learning cartography is for treasure hunting. When you find a treasure map, the map must be deciphered before it can be read. In order to read a map you must have the cartography skill; the more advanced the map, the higher cartography skill you will need to have in order to decipher it.
Once a map is deciphered, you need to figure out where exactly the treasure is. A deciphered map shows a topographical map with an X where the treasure is, but you still need to figure out where exactly that map is located as it is a regional map, not a world map. Treasure chests on ABCUO are random, rather than the old-style set of fixed locations.
When you arrive at the location you believe is indicated by the map, start digging. Double-click the shovel you brought with you, target the map, then target the ground where you want to dig for treasure. If you've located the correct spot, you'll start digging and slowly uncover a buried treasure chest. The lower your mining skill, the more precise you need to be when digging for treasure.
Once the chest is fully unearthed, the guardians of the treasure will appear and attack you. More difficult treasure maps will have tougher guardians.
The treasure chest will be locked and trapped; you will probably need to use the lockpicking skill to open it. Each time you fail to pick the lock, there is a chance that an item inside the chest will be destroyed. You can reduce this risk by using a skeleton key or master skeleton key - these keys are found as loot inside some treasure chests.
An unlocked chest might be looted by a grubber - kill the grubber to get the item back.
Many chests are also trapped. The telekinesis spell will not trigger these traps; use the Remove Trap skill, or try to absorb the damage.
Once the chest is open, grab whatever you want from inside. Each time something within the chest is moved, there is a chance that more guardians will appear.
The levels of treasure maps are:
Youthful
Plainly Drawn
Expertly Drawn
Adeptly Drawn
Cleverly Drawn
Deviously Drawn
Ingeniously Drawn
Diabolically Drawn
While most treasure maps are found as loot on monsters, ingeniously drawn maps can only be acquired from the metal chests carried by paragon creatures. Ingeniously drawn treasure maps always hide a treasure chest that contains a paragon minor artifact. The following paragon monsters have a chance of giving you a chest with an ingeniously drawn map: Ancient Wyrm, Balron, Blood Elemental, Poison Elemental, Titan. Diabolically drawn treasure maps also contain a minor artifact.
Once a treasure hunt has been done, the treasure map will indicate that it has been completed, and will no longer lead to buried treasure.
If you are unable or unwilling to complete a treasure hunt, a treasure map trader in Skara Brae will happily accept your deviously, ingeniously, or diabolically drawn treasure maps in exchange for reward tokens.
Training
The cartography skill can also be used to draw maps, using a mapmaker's pen. This has little real purpose other than for training. Cartography can be trained by deciphering maps, but it's impractical to get enough maps to get very far in training.
Here's what you should craft to train your cartography skill:
10-25: Local Map
25-35: City Map
35-39.5: Sea Chart
39.5-99.5: World Map
99.5-100: Train by deciphering treasure maps.
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