Skills/Cartography

« Back to Skills

Cartography is the art of drawing maps. Cartographers draw maps of the land around them with a mapmaker's pen, and they are the only ones who can decode treasure maps and lead the dig for buried chests.

At a glance

Skill cap	100 (Grandmaster)
Tool	mapmaker's pen (8 gold at mapmakers)
Materials	blank maps (5 gold at mapmakers)
Main uses	Drawing maps, decoding treasure maps
Stats it trains	Dexterity and Intelligence

Drawing maps

Double-click a mapmaker's pen to open the cartography menu and choose a map. Each map uses one blank map and shows the land as it is drawn. Your chance starts at 0% at the low end of the range and rises steadily to 100% at the top; a failure may use up the blank map. Every pen wears down with use (You have worn out your tool!).

Map	Skill range	Materials	Chance at 50	What it shows
Local map	10–70	1 blank map	67%	The area around you, reaching 64 tiles plus 2 per skill point in each direction (264 at 100).
City map	25–85	1 blank map	42%	A wider view around you: 64 tiles plus 4 per skill point each way (464 at 100), drawn at a larger size as your skill rises.
Sea chart	35–95	1 blank map	25%	A large stretch of land and sea: 64 tiles plus 10 per skill point each way (1,064 at 100).
World map	39.5–99.5	1 blank map	18%	Centred on the middle of the world rather than on you; at high skill it covers the whole land.

Mapmakers sell blank maps and pens, and buy finished local, city and world maps for 3 gold each.

Treasure maps

Treasure maps are found on monsters and fished from deep water. A fresh treasure map can't be read until a cartographer decodes it: double-click the map and the game checks your Cartography against the map's level.

Map level	Can attempt at	Always decodes at
Level 1	Any skill	57
Level 2	41	101
Level 3	51	111
Level 4	61	121
Level 5	70	130
Level 6	70	130

If your skill is below the map's minimum: The map is too difficult to attempt to decode.
If you fail: You fail to make anything of the map. You can try again.
On success: You successfully decode a treasure map! The map now shows the spot where the chest is buried.

Digging up the chest

Take the decoded map to the marked spot and use a digging tool (a shovel or pickaxe) on the ground there. Your Mining skill sets how close you need to stand:

Mining	How close you must dig
Below 51	Within 1 tile of the spot
51 to 80	Within 2 tiles
81 to 99	Within 3 tiles
100	Within 4 tiles

The chest rises out of the ground and its guardians spawn around it, so bring friends for the higher levels. Opening the chest takes Lockpicking and Remove Trap (or the matching spells).

Training Cartography

Every map you draw is a chance to gain, as long as the map is inside its skill range. The closer you are to the low end, the better each attempt teaches.
Decoding treasure maps also trains Cartography.
Below 10.0 you gain on every attempt, sometimes several tenths at once. Above that, each attempt has a chance to gain 0.1.
The harder the attempt is for your skill level, the better your chance to gain. Your chance also drops as you get closer to your Cartography cap and to your total skill cap of 700.
If you've set Cartography to go down (the arrow in your skills list), gains elsewhere can lower it to make room under your total cap. Lock skills you want to keep.
Reaching 100.0 adds Cartography to the Skills Mastered count on your achievements.
Mapmakers will train you for gold: up to a third of their own skill, at most 42.0, for 1 gold per 0.1 points. Ask them (or use their context menu) to train the skill, then drop the gold on them.

Stats: each successful use has about a 2% chance to raise Dexterity and about a 2% chance to raise Intelligence by 1 point. Each stat can rise at most once every 10 minutes, and only if it's set to rise.

Suggested path

Cartography	How to train
0 to about 33	Buy it from a mapmaker.
33 to 50	Draw local maps.
50 to 65	Draw city maps.
65 to 85	Draw sea charts.
85 to 100	Draw world maps until they stop teaching, then decode the treasure maps you find.

Messages

Message	What it means
The map is too difficult to attempt to decode.	Your skill is below the minimum for this map level.
You fail to make anything of the map.	Decoding failed. Try again.
You successfully decode a treasure map!	The map is decoded and shows the chest location.
You have worn out your tool!	Your pen broke. Buy or make a new one.

Tips

Tinkers can make mapmaker's pens (25 Tinkering, 1 iron ingot), which is cheaper than buying them in bulk.
Decode maps for others. Many players find treasure maps but can't read them.
Bring a miner to dig: with 100 Mining you can dig from 4 tiles away.