Treasure Maps

Treasure maps lead intrepid adventurers to buried chests guarded by dangerous monsters. Decode the map, find the dig site, defeat the guardians, disarm the trap, and pick the lock to claim your reward.

There are 5 map levels, each with a name, a difficulty, and a profession-themed loot package.

Level	Map Name	Quality
1	Stash	Plainly / Expertly Drawn
2	Supply	Adeptly Drawn
3	Cache	Cleverly / Deviously Drawn
4	Hoard	Ingeniously Drawn
5	Trove	Diabolically Drawn

Each decoded chest is themed around a profession package — Artisan, Assassin, Mage, Ranger, or Warrior — which determines the type of loot inside. A map will read something like "A Tattered Treasures Map Leading to a Mage's Hoard."

Chests come in three qualities: rusty, normal (metal), and gold. Quality is set at dig time based on the digger's modified Cartography skill on the first successful dig. Re-digging (forcing a move) can never improve quality, only hold it or make it worse. Luck is pulled from the player who digs the chest at the moment digging successfully begins.

Banes World Note: The Greatest Mongbat

On Banes World, The Greatest Mongbat drops a Trove (Level 5) treasure map. This is the one Banes World–specific change to treasure map mechanics — everything else on this page follows standard rules. The Greatest Mongbat is a world boss, so this is one of the most reliable sources of a top-tier map on the shard.

Where Do I Get a Treasure Map?

Maps appear as loot on a wide range of creatures (roughly a 1% chance), with the map level scaling to the strength of the monster. Beyond The Greatest Mongbat (Trove), some common sources include:

The Witch's Apprentice quest — rewards a random Level 1–4 map. Complete it in Felucca for a Felucca map, or Trammel for a Trammel map.
The Guardian Room in Doom — random Level 1 or 2 map (watch the poison cloud).
Monster loot — Level scales with the creature. Low-level elementals and humanoids drop Stash/Supply maps; dragons, balrons, and paragons drop Cache and Hoard maps; the toughest bosses drop Trove maps.

Map locations spawn on whichever facet the carrying monster is killed, with a few exceptions (Yomotsu Mines, Fan Dancer Dojo, and The Citadel produce Malas maps). Maps found inside monster-held chests are random facet.

High-Level Map Carriers (Hoard & Trove)

Hoard (Level 4) and Trove (Level 5) maps are the rarest and most valuable, so they only drop from the toughest creatures. The list below covers where to hunt them.

Level 4 — Hoard. Mostly paragon versions of high-end monsters, plus a few standalone bosses. The map drops directly from the Dimetrosaur; from all others it comes from the monster's held chest:

Dimetrosaur (direct drop)
Paragon Ancient Wyrm
Paragon Balron
Paragon Betrayer
Paragon Blood Elemental
Paragon Ethereal Warrior
Paragon Greater Dragon
Paragon Meer Eternal
Paragon Poison Elemental
Paragon Rotting Corpse
Paragon Skeletal Dragon
Paragon Succubus
Paragon Titan
Miasma
Pyre
Rend
Abscess
Putrefier
Master Theophilus
Stygian Dragon

Level 5 — Trove. The top tier, dropped only by a handful of the strongest bosses:

Allosaurus
Corgul the Soulbinder
Scalis the Enforcer
The Great Ape
Tyrannosaurus Rex
The Greatest Mongbat (Banes World — guaranteed shard boss source)

On Banes World, The Greatest Mongbat is the most dependable Trove source since it's a scheduled world boss rather than a ~1% loot roll off a rare spawn.

Decoding a Treasure Map

Double-click the map to decode it. If your Cartography is high enough you'll read it, though it may take more than one attempt. An undecoded map is tattered; once read it becomes blessed. A read location stays valid for 30 days, after which the map resets to tattered with a brand new location (useful if the original spot was unreachable).

Level	Map Name	Cartography to Decode
1	Stash	27.0* (approx; 27–30)
2	Supply	70.0
3	Cache	90.0
4	Hoard	100.0
5	Trove	100.0

* NPCs can train you past 30, so Level 1 maps are decodable as soon as you've trained. If you get "this map is too difficult to attempt to decode," it is not a Level 1 map and you won't gain skill trying.

Consider Davies' Locker (Year 8 Veteran Reward) for storage — it also provides rough coordinates on maps you've read.

Finding the Treasure Chest

After decoding, the chest location shows as a single pin (Classic Client) or a red X (Enhanced Client). Compare the map's landmarks against a world map to find the area, then zoom for rough coordinates.

EC players: tick the "tilt map" option on your overhead map and compare.
CC players: bring a mapmaker's pen and blank scrolls, stand still, create a local map, and use "plot course" — place pins at the four corners and find where the lines cross.

Begin digging via the map's context menu, or double-click a shovel, target the map, then target the ground. Do not move once digging starts or the attempt is invalidated — though you may cast spells. Failed digs only give a message; when your character actually starts digging, you've found it.

Cartography Dig Radius

Cartography extends your dig radius around the true chest spot (this bonus was formerly granted by Mining):

0–50.9 skill → 1 tile (exact spot only)
51–80.9 skill → 2 tiles
81–99.9 skill → 3 tiles
100 skill → 4 tiles

These are enhanced skill values, so +Cartography items (e.g. Legendary Mapmaker's Glasses) help.

The Guardians

As the chest clears the ground, an initial spawn of 4–8 guardians appears, tethered to the chest. The lock cannot be picked until all guardians tagged [guardian] are defeated. Some maps also spawn 2–4 extra non-guardian mobs (often tameable) that don't block unlocking.

The chest remains for roughly an hour before disappearing. For Level 5 (Trove) maps a team of 2–3 is strongly recommended, especially in Trammel, Felucca, or Eodon — a solo hunter may not clear all guardians in time.

Disarming the Trap

Chests are trapped and must be disarmed with the Remove Trap skill (telekinesis/absorb tricks no longer work). There is no minimum skill requirement — higher Remove Trap simply means a faster disarm.

During disarming, Ancient Chest Guardians spawn (chosen from the dig's monster pool) and the digger plus nearby party members take periodic fire damage. These guardians drop no loot but must be killed. Moving more than 16 tiles away or dying restarts the process.

High HP and 70 fire resist will carry most characters through the damage. Greater Strength Potions, Rose of Trinsic petals, Truly Rare Fish, and Firefish Pies can also help.

Opening the Chest

Once guardians are down and the trap disarmed, double-click your lockpick and target the chest. A failed lockpick may release a Grubber that steals an item and flees fast — kill it to recover the item. Levels 1–3 can also be opened by a mage with sufficient Magery using Magic Unlock.

Level	Map Name	Min. Lockpicking	Magery (Magic Unlock)
1	Stash	11.0	50
2	Supply	76.0	80
3	Cache	84.0	100
4	Hoard	92.0	No effect
5	Trove	100.0	No effect

Do not attempt to open a chest until you have at least the recommended Lockpicking skill.

The Treasure

Four factors determine loot: Map Level, Profession Package, Chest Quality, and Facet. Chest quality affects item quantity, bonus ranges, crafting material types, and the intensity of randomly generated magic equipment.

Possible contents by level and package include:

Gold & Gems in special bags — all packages, all levels
Minor & Pub 67 Artifacts — all packages, Supply
Randomly Generated Equipment — type based on package and facet; quantity scales with level and party size — all packages
Scrolls of Transcendence — all packages, Stash/Hoard/Trove
Scrolls of Alacrity — all packages, Supply and above
A Treasure Map one level higher — all packages, up to Hoard
Decorative Items — all packages, Cache and above
Refinements — Artisan Stash
Legacy Recipe Scrolls — Artisan Supply & Cache
Crafting Materials (wood/metal/leather) — Artisan Stash & Supply
Special Crafting Materials (essences, ML ingredients) — Artisan Supply
Utility Items — Assassin, Artisan, Ranger Supply
Reagents in a special bag — Mage Stash
Powerscrolls (up to +10, level based on chest quality) — Felucca only, all packages except Artisan, Cache/Hoard/Trove

The Completed Map

Completed maps can be made into a wall hanging via Cartography to commemorate your hunts. Whether tattered or completed, maps are worth Clean Up Britannia points:

Level 1 (Stash) — 50 points
Level 2 (Supply) — 100 points
Level 3 (Cache) — 250 points
Level 4 (Hoard) — 500 points
Level 5 (Trove) — 750 points