Tomb of the Ancients

Last updated: Exalt Version 3.4.1.0 (July 2023)
Tomb of the Ancients
Difficulty: 6Difficulty: 6Difficulty: 6Difficulty: 6Difficulty: 6Difficulty: 6

The Tomb of the Ancients is an high-level dungeon whose portal has a guaranteed chance of dropping from the Grand Sphinx event boss, which spawns once per realm. The portal stays open for 30 seconds.

The Tomb is a source of the rare Potions of Life, powerful untiered rings, the Tome of Holy Protection, the Pharaoh’s Requiem, and the entire Priest of Geb ST Set. The dungeon has several hazards, including indestructible turrets that cause various status effects, quicksand that slows movement the longer players are in it, powerful enemies, and a boss fight against three enemies at once.

This dungeon must be completed to earn ‘Tunnel Rat‘, ‘Conqueror of the Realm‘, ‘Hero of the Nexus’ and ‘Realm of the Mad Godfame bonuses.

The Realm Eye says:
The final resting place of the old gods is considered by archaeologists to be a time capsule of ancient culture.
However, research is limited due to the infestation of cursed monsters. They were brought to life through forgotten necromancy and designed as guardians of the tombs.
Generations of mortals have survived in the catacombs as well, perpetually carrying out ceremonies to prevent the awakening of the old gods.

Key

Tomb of the Ancients Key The Tomb of the Ancients Key is available in the Nexus for 200 Realm Gold.

Guide

See the Tomb of the Ancients Guide for a complete walkthrough on the dungeon and all its enemies.

Contents


Layout

The dungeon consists primarily of rectangular rooms linked by short, narrow hallways. Treasure Rooms are circular instead. The floor tiles consist of tan sandstone tiles or hardened sand, with streaks of quicksand extending throughout the dungeon. The treasure room has golden floor tiles instead. The walls consist of slanted sandstone tiles with hieroglyphics.

Players will enter the Tomb in the boss room. However, the bosses are inactive and invulnerable until all Sarcophagi are defeated. The Sarcophagi are scattered throughout the Tomb. Each tomb has 5 “event” rooms containing either a Sarcophagus protected by Worshipping Priests and Worshipping Priestesses a or “treasure room” with a Treasure Sarcophagus with a minimum of 1 sarcophagus in each tomb. A room in a dead end will always be an event room, but an event room does not necessarily need to be a dead end. Once all Sarcophagi are destroyed, the Bosses will become active. Any Treasure Sarcophagi do not need to be destroyed to activate the bosses. For example, if there were 3 sarcophagi destroyed and the tomb bosses have activated, there must be 2 treasure rooms left somewhere.

Example Layout

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Screenshots

    Sarcophagus Room

Treasure Room


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Enemies and Environmental Hazards

Enemies

Environmental Hazards

Bomb Traps and Switches

Frequently found between Sarcophagi chambers, along with the turrets. Up to 8 traps can appear in a room, laid out in a circle pattern. It tosses grenades endlessly, but does not aim at players.

Each grenade deals 120 damage and it fires every 1.5 seconds.

Switches are found in the center of room filled with traps. Standing on it for 3 seconds will turn off all the Bomb Traps in the room.

Elemental Turrets

Various elemental turrets are found in most rooms. These cannot be destroyed but can still be temporarily disabled by stuns and stasising. Their projectiles cause moderate damage but inflict dangerous status effects.

Quicksand

Quicksand “rivers” extend throughout the dungeon and form a square “moat” in the boss room. Quicksand slows players more the longer they stand or move in it.

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Bosses

Sarcophagus


The Boss Trio


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Treasure Room Boss

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Drops of Interest

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Daily Quests

The Tomb of the Ancients is part of the Mighty Quest pool from the Tinkerer and has three associated quests.

Name Description Items Needed Reward
The Ancients Defeat Geb in the Tomb of the Ancients. Mark of GebMark of GebMark of GebMark of Geb Mighty Quest Chest
Long Forgotten Many forgot about these ancient foes. Aye, but not me! Mark of EsbenMark of EsbenMark of GebMark of Geb
Lost and Found People say some things are best left forgotten. I heartily disagree! Mark of Parasitic HorrorsMark of the WyvernMark of Davy JonesMark of Geb

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Tips and Strategies

Fast Clear - the fastest way to clear the Tomb is to have a Rogue run-and-cloak to bypass all the intermediate rooms between the Sarcophagi. This allows the remainder of the group to teleport to the quests. This strategy will also involve leaving at least one person near the dungeon entrance, allowing the group to quickly engage the bosses after the last Sarcophagus is killed. The beauty of this strategy is it can be accomplished with very small groups, avoiding an otherwise epic amount of time wasted on lesser minions.

Most often, people call for a style of Tombing collectively referred to as Clean; Its opposite is often called FFA (Free-For-All. As its name suggests, bullets fly, people die, and the Mad God smiles upon thee). The fundamental principle of Clean is to preserve the lives of the players. To proceed in the Tomb safely, one boss is often attacked at a time, as the bosses only begin to attack upon receiving a set amount of damage. In other words, unless provoked, they will simply stand around. The most popular method (for fighting bosses is) Bes, Nut, and Geb, in that order. When the Tombs were new, Nut was the primary target, due to her status as the healer. Geb is seldom attacked first, except in FFA.

Tips to keep in mind when first attempting a tomb in a large group or in a small group:

(20+ players) Large Group preliminary:

The easiest way to complete this dungeon, with a large group, is to sit back until a designated rusher reaches the sarcophagus rooms. When they reach the rooms, the kind thing to do is to help them clear the sarcophagi and teleport back to the main room and wait for the next room. Repeat this until all rooms are cleared.

Large Group Boss Fight:

The chances of the all bosses being activated is large, but if possible try and keep the tomb “clean” (staying in the designated attack order).

(-10 players) Small Group preliminary:

A small group is generally preferred by more experienced players, but this can be quite a challenge for beginning players. The best way is to let a rushing player do their job, but in smaller groups this isn’t always possible. If there is still a chance that the bosses can be cleared, clear the dungeon of monsters as you go sarcophagi to sarcophagi.

Small Group Boss notes:

In a tomb, with a small group, it is critical to not fight all bosses at once. In a smaller group this is multiplied. Fighting the bosses out of order can result in death.

Notes for any group:

Remember, these bosses can do serious damage and take all precautions possible! (especially on melee classes). The first thing to think about is risk over gain.

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History

The Tomb of the Ancients was added to the game in Build 120, with the new realm event: Grand Sphinx.


A guild Tomb speedrun contest was hosted in January 2020, and the top guild (Black Bullet) received the exclusive Jade Beetle accessory as an award.

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Trivia

  • This dungeon was intended to be the most challenging one in the game upon its release. Its status was first supplanted by the release of The Shatters in December 2013 and additional endgame dungeons since then.
  • A “heroic” version of the Tomb of the Ancients exists in the game files since before the Heroic Undead Lair and Heroic Abyss of Demons, possibly serving as an early prototype of the Heroic dungeon concept. The Heroic Tomb is unreleased, and there are no plans to do so.

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