PvE guide: weapons, Expeditions and the Hunter tree

Monster hunting on Ancients happens in Expeditions: solo maps of monster packs with a boss at the end. This guide covers which weapon to start with, how to pick an area level, what to do with modifiers and votives, and how to spend Hunter points. Balance is new this map, so treat the build advice as a starting point.

Pick a weapon

There are four: wand, bow, sword and axe. All four are tuned to end up close in damage, so pick the one you like using.

• New to PvE: start with a wand or a bow. One death ends an Expedition, and a ranged weapon keeps you out of reach. A wooden one is $300 at the spawn market (/shop takes you there). Gold is $3,000, iron $30,000 and diamond $300,000.
• Melee is a real choice against monsters. Hold right click with a sword or axe and you keep swinging, and a swing that misses hits the nearest monster in front of you. Attack speed from the Hunter tree, jewels and enchants makes melee hit faster. Swords and axes are sold at the spawn market too: $100 wood, $1,000 gold, $10,000 iron, $100,000 diamond.
• Charge it. A wand or bow from the shop comes empty. Drag Ancient Energy onto it in your inventory. It stops firing when it runs dry.
• Tier is what raises base damage. Gear level adds no base damage to a wand or bow. Buy the next tier as soon as you reach its level: gold at 30, iron at 60, diamond at 100. Swords, axes, wands and bows all use these levels. Netherite needs level 102 and Ascension II and comes from Surtr, not the market.
• Enchant it at the Wormhole, the machine on the summit west of spawn. Charge the weapon, drop it in and roll enchants. Each weapon has its own enchant list: Sword & Axe Enchants, Wand Enchants, Bow Enchants.

Enchants to take first

Take these when the Wormhole offers them. They are always on and need no setup. The picks come from what each enchant says, not from test runs, so treat them as a starting point.

Faster shots spend energy faster. If a wand or bow runs dry too often, Reduced Cost cuts the energy per shot by 10% a level.

The base damage and energy tables are on Wands & Bows and Gear & Armour. Combat Basics explains hits, crits and how the four weapons compare. To copy or share an enchant build, use Set Templates.

Armour first

Armour is a stat. Every worn piece adds Armour for its tier, and the total cuts every Hit from monsters and bosses. A full set of one tier blocks this much:

Every piece counts the same, so one missing piece costs a quarter of your Armour. Wear a full set of the best tier your level allows before you raise the area level. /buffs shows your total Armour and what it blocks. See Armour.

The spawn market sells gold, iron and diamond armour: a full gold set is $3,700, iron $37,500 and diamond $375,000. Chainmail comes from G-Kits. Netherite is traded by Surtr for 50 Infernal Netherite Scrap a piece.

Your first Expedition

1. Type /expedition. It takes you to the Lantern Harbour.
2. Click Theron the Cartographer at his chart table to open the Expedition table.
3. Pick any of the 15 maps. Each tile names its boss.
4. Set the area level. For a first run pick a level well under your own. Clicking the level jumps to your highest. Then press Enter.
5. Kill the boss. It is there from the start, and monsters never respawn.
6. When the boss dies, leave through the portal by its arena. /expedition leave leaves at any time.

Entry is free and Expeditions are open from day 1. A run is solo and has no PvP and no time limit. One death ends the run. You keep your inventory and your XP, so a failed run costs only the run.

Choosing the area level

You can open any area level from 1 up to your own level, to a highest of 103. The day's level cap also limits it. If you have Ascended you keep the level you Ascended at.

Run the highest level you clear without dying. Higher levels pay more Hunter XP and more boss keys from the end boss. New things appear as you go up:

If you die to ordinary packs, drop a few levels. If your hits do very little, check the list below before you blame the level.

Why am I weak?

• Your weapon is a low tier. Tier sets base damage.
• Your armour set is incomplete or a tier behind.
• You have not spent your Hunter points. Open /hunter.
• Your weapon has few enchants. Use the Wormhole.
• The area level is too high. Drop it. You can pick any level from 1 up to your own, and nothing is lost by running lower.

For healing, take Bloodthirst in the Hunter tree: 0.5% of your damage leeched as life per small node, to a cap of 6%.

Modifiers and votives

Modifiers make a map harder and raise its item quantity, luck and Hunter XP. Inscribe rolls 1 to 4 random ones for Ancient Energy, and each button shows its price. Inscribe costs about 99,000 energy at level 45, 860,000 at 70 and 12 million at 100.

• Do not Inscribe until you clear that level comfortably. The energy is spent when you roll, Clear Modifiers gives none of it back, and the level locks while the map has modifiers.
• Read what you rolled before you enter. "You do not regenerate life" and more monster damage are the ones that end runs.

The list of modifiers is on Monsters & Map Modifiers.

Map Votives are items. Click one in your bag with the table open and it goes on the map. A votive costs no energy and uses no modifier slot, one goes on a map at a time, and it is spent when the run opens.

Votives drop when you complete a run, trade like any item, and are sold in /tribute shop.

The daily 500

Your first 500 Expedition monster kills each day pay boosted Hunter XP and a bonus drop on every kill: 3x Hunter XP for the first 250 and 2x for the next 250. Do them every day. The count resets at 11 AM Pacific. See Daily Bonuses.

Other things that raise what a run pays:

• A Hunter booster boosts Hunter XP only in Expeditions and only counts down there. Activate it when you are about to run maps.
• Gang upgrades: Expedition Item Quantity, Boss Keys Found and Hunter XP Gained, up to 20% increased each.
• The PvE outpost buff adds Hunter XP for the gang that holds it.
• Own a Siege base before you grind. Kills pay Tribute only to base owners, and a Magic monster pays 4 times a Normal one, a Rare 8 times and a boss 40 times. A Low base opens at level 30. See the Siege guide.

How Hunter XP is earned is on Hunter XP.

Hunter tree

Open it with /hunter. Every Hunter Level gives one point, to a cap of 100, and the tree has 457 nodes. You can take less than a quarter of it, so a build is a choice. Everything in it works against monsters and bosses only.

• Experiment before Hunter Level 10. A respec is free up to level 10. After that it costs money and the price climbs with your Hunter Level: about $82,500 at level 11, $158,000 at 20 and $5.06M at 50.
• There is no auto-spend. Points sit unused until you place them.
• Starting spread: path through Predation for damage (2% increased damage a small node), then take enough Ward and Bloodthirst to survive a mistake. Ward is Armour against monsters and bosses. Bloodthirst is life leech. Some defence pays for itself.
• Sword or axe: add Alacrity. It is attack speed for every weapon, and melee has the most to gain from it.
• Bow or wand: look for Flight (projectile speed) and the notables that give Marksman (projectile damage).
• A second preset opens at Hunter Level 25. Keep one for maps and one for bosses.

Read the keystones before you take one: each trades something away. Every node's tooltip is in /hunter, and the full list is on The Hunter Tree. Increased vs More explains why the same percent is worth more in some places than others.

What to pick up and what it is for

What sells is covered in the money guide. Loot you do not want goes to the Salvage Bench for Ancient Energy or money.

Culling Strike, Shock, Chill, Poison and the other keywords you will see on drops are explained on Ailments & Combat Keywords.

After Expeditions

• Boss keys summon Lamia, Echidna, Thanatos and Hephaestus. See Boss Summoning.
• 100 Ichor buys a Sacred Map from the Ichor Broker in the Lantern Harbour. A Sacred Map always runs at area level 103 whatever your level, and its Avatar is one chance: die and the map is gone. Wait until ordinary level 103 maps are easy for you.

The boss guide takes it from there.