Guide: Mine

WARNING: This page may contain spoilers and ruin the joy of adventure. Conversely, being killed out of nowhere can also ruin the joy of your adventure. Reader discretion is expected.

Overview

Mines are a series of wide-open underground chambers, typically spanning several map tiles per z-level and a few z-levels as well. They represent the most significant darkness-challenge in the game, but can provide decent rewards throughout the entire exploration.

Preparation

In order to access a Mine, you'll first need some amount of Computer skill or a crowbar (to either activate the elevator or open the ladder access, respectively). It's possible to find useful gear at the bottom of the shaft, so feel free to check it out before seriously investigating the Mine.

Mining IRL is seriously dangerous and requires specialized equipment. Cata mine-exploration is also dangerous and requires specialized equipment. In order to make good progress and remain healthy, you should have:

• some capability for seeing in the dark; night-vision goggles may suffice, as will a Flashlight. You can expect to find a few hundred points of Battery on-site, but your typical Mine is large enough that you'll probably want 500 or so spare Battery coming in. Since the Mines are wide open, short-range lighting such as CBM: Cranial Flashlight probably isn't going to cut it.
• a Gas Mask, no exceptions. Mines can and do have rooms that constantly spawn Poison Gas clouds, and the Filter Mask just doesn't cut it.
• decent combat capability (about 30-40 damage/turn should suffice)
• some sort of junk gear such as an empty plastic bottle, scrap metal, etc. just in case
• some form of food; though bottled water is about as common as batteries underground, food is not

It might be a good idea to bring a JHammer (one of those gas-powered drills) just in case, but in general a Mine is already dug out pretty well.

Depending on the Finale, you may have specialized combat requirements. Being able to inflict about 60 damage/turn is a good guideline for survival, and more Dodge never hurts. And as with all serious undertakings in Cataclysm, it's good form to go in Full, Slaked, reasonably well-rested, in good shape, and free from pain.

We dig for Victory.

Mine Environs

Mine levels are made up of several segments, randomly generated when you head down. There are several different possibilities for any given map-square: empty, dead miners, lava rift, gas vent, wreckage, and wyrms are all possibilities.

Each floor is connected via "slope" terrain, which comes in linked groups of four tiles. Slopes can either be four tiles long on the edge of a given map tile, or four tiles in square formation within a map tile.

Empty

Y'know, sometimes there isn't anything to be afraid of right here and right now. Keep on keepin' on.

Dead Miners

Poor bastards, but at least they needn't suffer any longer...and they generally have decent gear. You're looking at a few human corpses with various construction-type gear, such as hard hats, bottled water, batteries, rope, etc. Back in the olden days pre-version numbers miners could rarely have CBMs; not sure how that's changed with the CBM revisions.

Lava Rift

Functionally equivalent to the Fumarole on the surface. This is a diagonal line of lava tiles, generally about 10-12 tiles long. Since it's diagonal, you can pass it without too much difficulty but will probably take some heat damage. If you brought a JHammer, digging around the rift would be a decent idea.

Gas Vent

Bad news. These areas contain a "gas vent" tile that constantly generates Thick Poison Gas clouds (which can disperse to Poison Gas & Hazy Cloud) and will continue to do so as long as you're on the floor. No way to plug the vent currently exists. If you can avoid the area, do so. If you must pass through it, mask up and do so quickly. If your slope is in one of these areas...that's why you brought that junk.

• If you're looking for the downslope, mask up if you haven't already, then use x to look around and scan for the "downward slope" terrain under the gas. You may have to move around within the gas, but a Gas Mask in good shape can handle even Thick Poison Gas safely. Once you've found the downslope, get to it and drop your junk item--since items have a higher display-priority than gas, that'll mark the slope's location for future reference.
• If you just came down an upslope, drop your junk item right now because the gas will probably expand to obscure the slope by the time you come back. If you haven't got a junk item, pick something you can replace or at least won't mind leaving until you come back up. Slope-searching can be extremely tedious work and there's no need to do any more of it than you must.

In any event, gas does not flow through slopes, so a vent on one z-level will not contaminate the entire Mine. Be thankful for small mercies.

Wreckage

Pretty similar to a helicopter crash topside, though here there aren't any corpses to speak of and the only gear lying around is assorted metal bits. If you happen to have a shovel-type item, though, it may be worth making an obstacle course or at least getting some junk metal, just in case.

Dark Wyrm

Sometimes there's a Dark Wyrm just chillin' in the cavern. Fortunately: they're blind. Unfortunately: they hear just fine and can smell you to boot. According to the critter table, they're as fast as you, have a fierce biting attack, and are quite accurate with it. In practice, Zombie Hulks seem more difficult and are far more commonplace. If you see the Wyrm first, consider the local conditions (that wreckage/lava rift may be handy?) and your ability to fight a reasonably dangerous opponent one-on-one; if you're a gun user, your general-purpose weapon ought to suffice. Keep calm and fight on.

The Payoff

There are a few ways the Mine can end. Here are two: others exist and will be described when someone knowledgeable edits them in!

(Stop and take off your Gas Mask if there's no vent in the immediate vicinity. Mouth encumbrance can be fatal here.)

The Thing

Y'know, I have no idea how a Dog could survive this far down...

That's because it's not a dog. Prepare for hard contact. The Thing is a very nasty tentacle-beast that mimics canine form to get within melee-range. If you're a ranged fighter, go ahead and hit it hard now as it'll only get tougher close in. When the "Friendly! Dog" reaches either 0 HP or melee range, it'll self-destruct into the Tentacle Dog, which has significant melee capabilities (including Tentacle attacks, obviously). Back off and keep firing, or get in there and hit fast. "Killing" Tentacle Dog spawns the full-blown Thing in its place. Stripped of its disguise, the Thing has marginally better aim, dodge, and HP than its half-dog form, and is marginally faster as well. Don't take it lightly.

Once you kill the Thing, the room behind it contains the miners who unearthed it as well as an artifact. Good job. Now you gotta get back out, but if you were thorough that should be an uneventful trip.

Amigara Fault

Save you the search: Link to Wikipedia info. Apparently the "output" end of the Amigara mountain moved all the way across the planet and is now underground in New England. That's some Cataclysm, all right.

If you see a pink wall, STOP. You've found an Amigara fault. The critters involved in this finale can effectively one-shot characters with reasonable Intelligence scores, from full dark-green health and perfect armor to "Game Over! Press Spacebar..." in one turn. You'll never even know where they hit you.

That's not so fun.

In order to safely & profitably handle the Amigara Fault, you'll need:

• 19+ Intelligence OR an Artifact that protects your mental state (if you're protected, you'll get a message about it)
• the capability to do roughly 100 damage per turn, ideally in melee (the Amigara Horrors are HARDTOSHOOT, which grants them a 75% chance to auto-dodge shots)
• good armor and/or Dodge skill; Dodge 7-8 isn't overkill here
• at least 3, and ideally 6+, Computer skill

Amigara Scenario

Once you either fail to mess with that computer there or successfully initiate the tremor test, your character will be infected with Amigara obsession, a one-off disease. The obsession lasts about 20 turns, and during that time you cannot move away from the faultline (that pink wall). Moving parallel to the fault is fine, as is moving closer. (You will not be notified when the obsession times out.)

After about 10 turns, the Amigara Horrors may show up. You can get anywhere from 0 through 5 of them; they're slower than you and don't Dodge that well, but excel in melee and have a ranged paralysis attack. On their turn, each Horror that can see you generates a random value between 1 and 20. If that value is higher than your Intelligence, you're paralyzed for a few turns. Paralysis can and does stack, leading to the previously-mentioned effective one-shot kill. So, be immune via Artifact protection, or have extremely high Intelligence to reduce the risk.

"Why bother fighting the Horrors, if they're that bad and I can't even move around freely???"

Because if you kill all the Horrors (provided at least one showed up) before the Amigara obsession times out, the obsession auto-clears and the last one drops an Artifact. The Amigara Fault can, in short, be farmed for Artifacts, provided you're a hyper-intelligent combat monster.

Just be careful to test your new toy(s) somewhere safe; in the middle of the room, at least. Wouldn't want to get teleported into solid rock after that workout, you know.