9Dragons Online

What is the Cave of Conquerors? What is in there for me?

The Cave of Conquerors, or CC in popular langage registry, is a five-levelled mid-low to mid-high dungeon. All five levels are individually designed in-game as cc1, cc2, cc3, cc4 and TGW room (cc5). It acts as a PvP grinding area, where you will find mobsters to train on, items to acquire (some unique) and bosses to defeat, as well as a rather interesting scenery.
You can start training in CC at RL10 for hybrids and healers, and about RL12 for warriors. You will be able to train there until FC12 at max, but by then you should have moved to Liaodong. A good level to stop training there would be FC7 (start Party quest).

The pros:

-Mobsters in CC give more experience than mobsters of the same level in the regular map (esteemed at about +20~25%).
-Better drop rates, especially for BEs.
-Conqueror chests, which can be opened using conqueror keys (one type for each level), dropped by Earthen Soldier type opponents.
-Unique bosses with unique drop (such as the Gold Blood "def" Trinket).
-Hermit at level 3 (cc3) and quick exit at level 4.
-Less crowded in early levels than the regular maps.
-Accessible to both factions
-Different floors are considered as the same maps, so a party can be on formed and remain functionnal on different floors.

The cons:

-Mobsters are slightly harder to defeat, this is noticed at cc3-4 mainly.
-Conqueror's Poison* which retrieves 10% Life every 3 seconds
=>Requires herbs
-PvP section, can be dangerous for PvE grinders

How to enter Conqueror's Cave? How to find my way around?

INDEX:
I. Locating the herbs.
II. Using the chests.
III. Looting the herbs, involved risks.
IV. Entering CC.
V. Dealing with map and poison issues.
VI. Possible protections from the effects of the Conqueror Poison.
VII. Traps.
VIII. Conqueror's Chests.
IX. Helpful NPCs; Hermit and Vagabond.
X. CC5 overview.

I.The herbs required to enter CC can be found in Conqueror's medecine chests, which are spawning periodically in BP in the locations shown below. The first thing you should do is to collect them, as indicated in I, II, and III.



Run around the entrance until you see the chest. You can use ADV lightfoot if your cheng is lower than 6 or if you have a powerful computer and good reflexs. Otherwise, I advise using basic Lightfoot as you don't need to run fast anyways and it will give you more time to change direction once you see it. Turn around the entrance checking the aformentionned spots until you see a chest. It looks like this:



II. Run to it and attack it to open it. A few hits should do it as it is level 1. Past GB levels, you will 1-hit the chests.



III. Take the herb drop.



Note:The herb(s) loot does not belong to you if you opened the chest. That means anyone can take them right away, so be careful, and quick on pressing spacebar!

It will be 1 to 3 herbs of a given kind; low, medium or high level. Low level herbs last 10 minutes, medium last 20 minutes, and high last 30 minutes.







Be careful however as the following mobsters are around the chests:





Sacred Flowers: lvl 51
Shaolin: lvl 54
Thieves: lvl 57
Wu-Tangs: lvl 60
Heavenly Demons: lvl 63

See also alternate guide to get the herbs.

IV. Enter CC... for glory and fame... or for death by the hand of the Earthen Soliders, guards of General Wei!


V.Upon entering CC, you will notice that you have no map and that you are poisonned, as shown below:




For the map, you can consult this guide by defunct.
As for the poison, you will need to follow indications in VI a), b) or c).

VI.
a) The first way to protect yourself from the harms of the Conqueror poison is by consuming one of your herbs. You will see the following icon appear next to your status bar:



b)Remember to check the timer often, as you cannot take an herb until the herb you were using runs out, and if it does, you won't last long if you don't have one at hand, you are likely to die quickly (10% Life/ 3 seconds isn't neglectable).
Your second option consists in using the "war buff", a buff that is given to the players belonging to the winning factions of every saturday's black versus white war. It lasts longer, gives you access to the fifth floor, and gives you a fair damage advantage:



c)Your last option if you are a healer or an hybrid is to rely on your heals. More information can be found here.

VII. Once inside, even with herbs, you will have to be careful. There are traps in CC which will activate when you trip the triggers*, which are not always visible. There are different traps for each levels of CC, each dealing various amount of damage. They are very dangerous if the surrounding mobsters are about your level (depending of your role, about three hits and you are done). You can see here the only type of trap that is always visible, in CC4. Others are harder to foresee, so be careful:



*Note on the traps: All triggered traps (CC1 through CC3) can be set off a given amount of times, which resets with the server. Usually 3-4 days after a server reset (patches, downtime, maintenance, etc.) you are unlikely to fall on a trap. They also appear in given spots, so once you've found a safe spot, you won't see a trap pop out of the blue.

VIII.Along with monsters to train on and the aforementionned good experience and drop rates, Earthen Soldiers type opponents are likely to drop conqueror keys. Those will allow you to open conqueror chests, which contain rare drops such as superior clansmen clothes (4 pkt), BE, a few trinkets including the Black Iron Trinket (dodge), and of course gold. Each floor has its own matching keys and chests. From CC1 to CC4, in order:




Note that you can also sell those keys for a fair price on the market, depending on the server (see marketplace board).
Here is how the chests look like, and how you proceed to open them:

i- Find the chest.

ii- Target and attack it to open it.

iii- Loot the chest.


Note: Keep in mind that unlike mobsters drops, chests loots (except CoF, VoH, WT, Mansion, VoTD) don't belong to anyone and can be taken on the spot by anyone once opened.

IX. CC may look hostile, but it also has two very helpful NPCs hidden in it.

i- The Hermit, in CC3, next to the Shaolin monks, will offer the same cavity presses as any other Hermit, for the same fee, and without any penalty of any kind.


ii- The Vagabond, in CC4, next to the Forbidden Swords of Wu-Tang and the BrotherHood of Thieves mobs, will allow you to climb back to the surface very quickly for free, and without any dialogue (you can just click on the "Leave" option). It is very useful as starting from CC3, it is quite long to run back to the entrance. Quitting through the Vagabond makes you spawn at the same place as with the entrance doors.


X. The Cave of Conqueror has a very popular, yet rarely visited fifth floor, that is only accessible for three hours after the Black vs White war on Saturdays, and only for the winning faction (see the buff on top-left of the screenshot). You can access the fifth floor only when the buff "Can enter the 5th floor of the Cave" is active, and you can do it through the doors present at very end of the CC4 corridor:



It will lead you to the one-room fifth floor of CC, where the True General Wei spawns once a week, along with his level-6-elixirs-dropping jars, his guards, and of course the possibility to acquire the "Killer of True General Wei" epithet (see epithet guide for more information) along with incredible drops -- rare 15, 30% critical rate weapons, up to 40 BEs, elixirs, among other useful items. It is impossible to kill it alone. Here is what the empty room looks like:



In the current version of the game, this is your goal, vagabond of The Land!





Thanks to Soulspawn for the picture editing on the map part, thanks to drakenfyre75 for searching up a link for me , thanks to warda for her suggestions.

EDIT: Restructured the guide for better understanding, and will be adding information about the CC chests, hermit and vagabond.

EDIT2: Added sections VII to X along with an index to make it easier to find your way around, as the guide got quite heavy now.

EDIT3: Tweaked all SSs sizes and resolutions to make it easier to browse: no need to scroll horizontally.

From Official Forum