Danger In The Deep
| Danger In The Deep | |
|---|---|
| Type | Special Order |
| Board | Mr. Qi |
| Giver | Mr. Qi |
| Time Limit | 7 days |
| Repeatable | Yes |
Mr. Qi switches the mine lift off and asks the farmer to walk the whole shaft again in a week, with every monster down there replaced by a tougher version of itself. It is the heaviest payment on his board short of the month-long farming order, and the only one that leaves something permanent behind: finishing it installs a lever at the bottom of the mine that can put the place back into its dangerous state whenever the farm wants Radioactive Ore or a pocketful of gems. The mine also changes its scenery and its contents from top to bottom while the order runs, which makes this the most interesting week on the board rather than merely the hardest. Fifty Qi Gems for seven days of descending is good value for a farm with a decent sword, and a bad bargain for one that has only just bought its first.
The board reads: The mine elevator system has been reset, and new dangers have emerged from deep underground. Make it to the bottom of the mines in one week.
Requirements
The hundred and twentieth floor is the target, and the week's real cost is that the lift no longer remembers anything. Every stop it had learned is gone, so the descent restarts at the first floor. Fresh stops do re-open at each fifth floor as they are reached, which is the saving grace: the shaft can be split across several days instead of crammed into one, with the lift picking up where the last evening left off.
Staircases are allowed and are the obvious shortcut. Stone is the limiting ingredient at ninety-nine per step, and the quickest supply is a loop: Jade from a Crystalarium becomes a staircase at the Desert Trader on a Sunday, and a staircase dropped into a Deconstructor comes back out as a heap of stone.
The notice also clears out the gear the Adventurer's Guild had unlocked. Marlon's racks fill up according to how deep the mine has been explored, with a sword or a pair of boots appearing every ten or fifteen floors and the Lava Katana waiting at the bottom, so wiping the mine progress wipes the shop with it until the floors are walked again. Anything already bought stays bought.
What the mine turns into is worth knowing before stepping in. The top floors sprout beach forage, with seaweed, coral, shells and clams lying on the stone. The forties grow mahogany trees, grass and woodland mushrooms. The fifties and sixties fill with cobwebs that catch and slow anyone walking through them. The seventies become a bone castle with skeleton mages and flying skulls in it. From the eighties down, grass hides monsters until they are close. Radioactive Nodes appear on any floor that is not a lift stop, which is the only ordinary way to collect Radioactive Ore.
The best thing in the mine that week is easy to miss. Stick Bugs stand in the cold middle floors disguised as fallen branches, and each one slain gives up a Qi Gem.
Rewards
Fifty gems is enough for the Horse Flute that calls the horse anywhere outdoors, or for Pierre's Missing Stocklist, or for the recipe that makes Hoppers craftable for good.
The Shrine of Challenge is the lasting reward and the reason to take the notice even for a farm that does not need the gems. It appears on the mine's lowest floor and acts as a switch between ordinary monsters and dangerous ones, so Radioactive Ore, Stick Bugs and the dangerous drop table become available on demand instead of once a week. Qi leaves a note on the shrine saying he has disabled it for the day, so it only answers from the following morning. With the shrine on, monsters anywhere in the mine can drop an Iridium Band, an Enricher, a Pressure Nozzle, a Radioactive Bar, a Qi Gem and, very rarely, an Auto-Petter.
Strategy
Fight the first forty floors and buy the rest. The upper mine is survivable even in its dangerous form, so walking it re-opens the lift stops cheaply and saves the staircases for where they matter.
Spend those staircases on the floors that waste time rather than the floors that are frightening. The nineteenth, fifty-ninth and ninety-ninth are laid out as spirals that take an age to cross, infested floors refuse to show a ladder until everything on them is dead, and all three are better skipped than solved. Coal sits in carts and sacks on a dozen named floors, which is worth grabbing on the way past.
Carry ginger through the fifties and sixties. Putrid Ghosts live there, and their spell leaves the farmer unable to heal from food or drink for a couple of minutes, which is exactly the wrong thing to happen on a floor full of spiders. A piece of Ginger or a bottle of Ginger Ale clears it at once, a Basilisk Paw in the trinket slot stops it landing in the first place, and a Fairy Box keeps topping health up regardless.
Rings carry the rest of the week. An Iridium Band glows, pulls items in and adds to the damage dealt, which answers three problems at once in a dark mine full of grass. A Burglar's Ring doubles most of what the dangerous monsters drop, which is how a single descent turns into a pile of loot rather than a chore.
The common failure is treating it as one long day. A farmer who commits the whole staircase stack at nine in the morning can still be on the hundredth floor at one, and a faint at two costs gold and can cost items. Splitting the week into two or three descents, each ending at a lift stop, is far safer.
Notes
The week also counts towards something larger. Fifty dangerous monsters slain persuades the Island Trader to stock Galaxy Souls, which it sells for Radioactive Bars, so a dangerous mine supplies both the kill count and the currency for the final upgrade of a galaxy weapon.
Remixed mine rewards and anything else permanently changed about the shaft survive the reset. Only the lift's memory and the guild's racks go back to the start.
Seven days is the figure on the board, counted from the Monday it was posted rather than the day it was taken, so a notice spotted on Thursday leaves four days to walk a hundred and twenty floors.
All Special Orders
Every special order from both boards, with who posts it and how long it runs.