The Archive
The Archivist, writing a spell in the air.
What it is
A buried library of magic under the Overworld. Its doors open only to spells, Runebound guard its halls, and the Archivist waits over its lectern. Past the Archivist is a vault of Tier IV runes. It’s usually your first dungeon, and beating it is what the 8th Heart Circle asks for.
How to find it
The way in: broken pillars around a stairway going down.
- Where: under most land biomes (forests, taigas, jungles, savannas, badlands, plains, snowy plains, deserts, meadows, cherry groves, groves). Never under oceans, rivers, swamps or beaches.
- How often: about one in every square 704 blocks across, where the biome allows.
- Look for: a ring of broken deepslate-brick pillars, some topped with amethyst, around a stairway. An arch with a crying obsidian keystone and a soul lantern stands over the steps.
- Torn Pages point the way. Reading a Torn Page in the Overworld gives you a riddle and, in the margin, the rough distance and direction to the nearest Archive (rounded to 50 blocks). See Secret Spells.
Finding one earns the advancement The Buried Library.
The layout
A stairway of 24 steps takes you about 24 blocks down. Then the rooms run in a line:
| Room | What’s in it | Guards | Door out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hall of Shelves | A library with bookshelves, reading tables and a chest | 3 Runebound (skeleton, witch, pillager) | Seal of Frost and Storm |
| Hall of Braziers | Four unlit campfires (a fire spell lights them) | 2 Runebound (a vindicator Adept and a skeleton) | Seal of Fire and Wind |
| Arena | A domed circle with eight pillars and the Archive Lectern | The Archivist | Side seal of Arcane and Life |
| Vault | Two chests and a Wellstone | none |
Skeletons, zombies and witches also spawn in the dark, and about a third of them are Runebound. The arena and vault are warded: you can’t dig, blast or fly into them. See warded arenas.
Rune Seal doors
The Archive’s first door: Frost and Storm seals.
Every dungeon door is a Rune Seal door: seals 5 wide and 4 high, checkered with two elements.
- Seals can’t be broken by tools or blasts. Only your spells open them (never a monster’s).
- Hit the door with any effect of one of its elements, within a block of a matching seal. Those seals light up.
- A lit element stays lit for 10 seconds. Light both elements in that time and the door dissolves for good.
- Opening a door earns the Sealbreaker feat and advancement for everyone within 24 blocks, the first time.
The easy way is one spell with both elements: Bolt · Chill · Shock opens the first door in one cast. Any Tier I
effect works, so any Cord can do it:
| Element | Cheap effect | Element | Cheap effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | Ember | Life | Nourish or Heal |
| Frost | Chill | Void | Hex or Blind |
| Storm | Shock | Arcane | Harm |
| Wind | Push | Time | Countdown |
| Earth | Pelt | Blood | Rend |
Recipes are on Rune Recipes. Every dungeon’s doors are listed on The World.
The Archivist
The Archivist rises. Its boss bar names every spell before it lands.
It rises the first time a player comes within 12 blocks of the lectern, and only once. If it’s ever lost without being killed, the lectern wakes a new one after players spend about 3 minutes nearby without finding it.
| Health | 400 (phases change at 267 and 133) |
| Armour | 8, and it barely takes knockback |
| Immune to | Burning, falls and other monsters (blasts like Explode still hit) |
| Weak to | Void (+50%). Resists arcane (half). See Creature Affinities |
| Boss bar | Purple; names the spell it’s casting. Seen within 48 blocks |
How it fights:
- It floats and keeps its distance. Every 8 to 14 seconds it may blink about 10 blocks away (always if you’re within 6 blocks). If it strays more than 22 blocks from its lectern, it blinks back.
- It needs line of sight to start a spell. Each spell shows its circle and lands 1.4 seconds later.
- Between its spells it plays tricks from its tome. Spells and tricks come out of one deck, so it never does the same thing twice running, and it picks what suits where you stand: near or far, behind it, above it, or crowded together. Sealing its casting stops its spells, but not its tricks.
| Trick | From | What you see | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hurling tomes | Phase 1 | Arms swept up, books wheeling faster and higher about it, marks opening under and around you | Step off the marks |
| Writing a line | Phase 1 | Quill drawn back, a line of ink following you, turning gold as the aim locks | Sidestep the line |
| Reading aloud | Phase 1 | Tome raised high, a ring of script drawn in at its feet, then rolling out along the floor | Jump the ring |
| Snapping its tome | Phase 1 | Tome thrust out and opened flat, light drawn into it, a circle marked about 4.5 blocks round | Back out of the circle, or be thrown. Then strike: while its tome hangs shut it takes 35% more |
| Erasing | Phase 2 | A hand drawn across its body, a pale cone chalked before it | Get behind it, or right under it. The sweep burns and strips a blessing. Afterwards it hangs blank and takes 50% more |
| Binding | Phase 2 | Chains of script running to everyone it can see, turning gold before they pull | Break its sight behind a pillar, or get past 16 blocks |
| Marking its place | Phase 3 | An arm straight up, a gold mark creeping after you, stopping just before it lands | Keep moving. It steps onto the mark in a burst, then leafs for its place and takes 30% more |
| Calling for quiet | Phase 3 | A finger to its hood, a seal over everyone near, then two seconds of quiet | Stand still: whoever walks is struck. Hit it from where you stand |
| Phase | Its spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Splitting Frost Bolt, Shock Rain, Arcane Orb |
| 2 | Volleying Fire Crescent, Wide Venom Zone, Greater Arcane Blitz, Splitting Chill Mine |
| 3 | Arcane-Chill Domain, Dismantle Barrage, Sonic Boom Beam, Frost-Shock Bolt, and now and then Sunfall |
What each phase changes.
- Phase 2: Erasing and Binding join in, more tomes fall, three ink lines fan out, and it pauses less between moves.
- Phase 3:
- Marking its place and Calling for quiet join in.
- Its earlier tricks grow stronger:
- a second volley of tomes
- a second, faster ring
- the open tome pulls at anyone near
- a wider erasing cone
- chains that drag the bound in
- Most tricks run straight on into another with a shorter tell, and it rests less.
Sunfall is a secret spell. A wide orange circle marks the ground around you. A Shield won’t hold it unless you parry at the last moment, so get out of the circle. Everyone within 40 blocks learns Sunfall’s riddle.
Rewriting its Cord. At each phase change the room’s light is drawn into it and a column of gold rises over it as it writes. It can’t be hurt for 2.5 seconds, clears away whatever its tricks left on the floor, and calls up two Runebound (a skeleton and a pillager; Adepts the second time). No single blow skips a phase.
Tips and counterplay
- Bring void, leave fire. Sonic Boom, Hollow and Blackspark hit hard. Burning does nothing, and arcane does half.
- Fight at range. It blinks when you close in, so bolts, beams and lances beat Touch or Burst.
- Read the boss bar. It names every spell and trick. Step out of Zones and marked Rain or Mine spots. Sidestep bolts.
- Punish its tome. After it snaps its tome shut, erases, or steps onto its mark, it hangs open for a moment and takes more damage. Save your big spell for then.
- Freeze when it calls for quiet. Anyone who walks during the quiet is struck, so stop and cast from where you stand.
- Use the pillars to break line of sight.
- Shield up against bolts and orbs. See Shields and Parrying.
- During a rewrite, kill the two Runebound instead of wasting a big spell.
- Answer its Domain: step out, or break it with a strong Domain of your own. See Playing Together.
When it falls
It drops a Tier IV rune its killer doesn’t know yet, 2 Torn Pages, 3 Mana Crystals, a 50% chance of a greater staff of any element (see Casting Gear), and 200 experience. Tier IV runes need an Echo Cord to cast.
Everyone within 64 blocks earns The Last Page feat (the one the 8th Heart Circle asks for) and the advancement of the same name. Everyone nearby also gets the 7th Circle’s boss breakthrough. See Heart Circles.
The Relay Circle lesson
Once the Archivist has fallen, the quiet Archive Lectern holds a Master lesson, The Margin Between Places. If you have The Last Page and an active 8th Heart Circle, use the lectern to copy it into your Grimoire. Then read its three pages, there or later from your Grimoire, to learn the Relay Circle. Copying alone doesn’t teach it, and you never need to fight the Archivist again. See Relay Circle.
The chests
| Chest | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Hall of Shelves | 2 to 3 runes (mostly Tier II, some Tier III, rarely a rune of the world), and 1 to 2 of: a Torn Page, Blank Runes, books, lapis, a Mana Crystal, amethyst shards. 20% chance of the Tome of the Fifth Page or a focus |
| Vault (each of two) | 1 Tier IV rune, 1 to 2 Tier III runes, and 2 to 3 of: Mana Crystals, a Torn Page, gold, diamonds, an echo shard. 45% chance of casting gear: the Tome, a focus, or a greater staff |
The chest foci are Haste, Thrift, the Deep Well, Echoes and Resolve. See Casting Gear.
A Wellstone, awake on a ley line.
The Wellstone is yours: mine it with a pickaxe. Set on a ley line, it quickens mana for everyone nearby. See Ley Lines and the Wellstone.
A server can make runes, pages, crystals and gear more or less common in chests.