Cartography

Cartography is the Treasure Hunter's gateway skill. It crafts maps of the surrounding land, decodes the Treasure Maps that drop from monsters, and — since Publish 105 — controls the dig-radius accuracy when retrieving treasure chests in the field. Mining no longer plays any role in Treasure Hunting; Cartography handles both decoding and digging.

Mechanics

To craft a map, equip a Mapmaker's Pen (Tinker-craftable; sold by NPC Mapmaker vendors). Use the pen on a blank map (sold by Mapmakers) or a Blank Scroll. The skill check rolls; on success, the local terrain is captured to the map.

A character may only draw maps in the Trammel and Felucca facets. Attempting to draw a map in Ilshenar, Malas, Tokuno, Ter Mur, or the Stygian Abyss produces an Indecipherable Map — a sentinel result that signals the wrong-facet attempt.

Treasure Map decoding

When a Treasure Map drops from a monster (titled "tattered map of "), it must be decoded before the digging location is revealed. Double-click the tattered map; the Cartography skill check rolls. On success, the "tattered" prefix is removed and the map shows the dig area.

Once decoded, any character can read the map — Cartography is required only for the initial decode. This is the critical multi-character workflow: a high-Cartography decoder reveals the location, then any character (including a non-Cartography Treasure Hunter) can carry the decoded map to the dig site.

Dig accuracy — Publish 105 change

Pub 105 (June 2019) restructured Treasure Hunting. Cartography replaced Mining as the dig-bonus skill, controlling the radius around the chest's exact tile within which the player can stand and dig successfully:

A 50 Cartography character must stand on the exact dig tile to retrieve the chest — no adjacent-tile error margin. A GM Cartographer has a 4-tile radius, dramatically reducing the trial-and-error of finding the precise location. For high-level T-Map runs (level 5-7), GM Cartography is conventional because the dig zone overlaps multiple terrain features.

The chest's actual location and contents are unaffected by Cartography skill — only the dig-tile-tolerance is. A treasure chest itself is opened by Lockpicking (and Remove Trap on level 4+).

Crafted maps

A trained Cartographer produces several map products via the standard craft menu:

The Eodonian wall map cannot be crafted without first reading the recipe — a quest gate, not a skill gate.

Training

A Mapmaker NPC near a bank is the conventional training base. Buy blank maps and pens, draw, sell completed maps back to the NPC for a small profit. With Felucca pricing (cheaper than Trammel), the gold cycle covers itself with luck.

The Satyr Trick (see Lockpicking) accelerates training: Discord drops effective skill, lower-skill maps roll gain checks faster, and the Cartographer pumps maps in the discorded state. Also viable: train all the way through World Maps with a Mapmaker partner buying the output back, then push the last 0.5 points on real Treasure Maps.

Roughly 3,000 gold of starter capital covers the 0-100 grind on a Production Shard. Siege and Mugen prices and gold-rarity require a different approach — typically partnering with a wealthy Cartographer who can absorb the loss.

Build context

• Treasure Hunter (modern). 120 Cartography + 120 Lockpicking + 100 Remove Trap + 80 Detect Hidden + 80 Magery (Telekinesis) + Tactics + Anatomy + Healing. The Pub 105 build configuration; Mining is dropped entirely. The 4-tile dig radius matters for high-level T-Map efficiency.
• Mapmaker. GM Cartography + GM Tinkering. Self-sufficient on Mapmaker's Pens and the gold-economy of map sales.
• Sea Chart Specialist. GM Cartography + 100 Fishing + 100 Tinkering. Pairs with the High Seas content; Sea Charts feed into the maritime PvE loop.
• Soulstone Pivot. Cartography is one of the easiest skills to Soulstone in for the decode step then back out — train a dedicated Cartographer to GM, decode every map drop, then return Cartography points to a Treasure Hunter's combat skills before digging.

Strategy notes

• Decode is one-time. Once a Treasure Map is decoded, the Cartographer's job is done. A guild's high-Cartography character can decode the entire raid's map drops in batch, then any member runs the maps. This is the most common use pattern.
• GM Cartography saves dig time. The 4-tile radius means landing inside the zone on the first dig attempt rather than searching adjacent tiles. On a 25-chest T-Map session, this is hours of saved real-world time.
• Trammel/Felucca only for drawing. The other facets reject map drawing — useful sanity check on character location during a multi-facet expedition.
• GGS is your friend at 99.5+. The Glorious Gain System guarantees a skill point per ~5 hour real-time period if the character has performed at least one gain attempt. Run a daily Treasure Map and let GGS finish the build.
• Map crafting profit. A 70-99 World Map run on Felucca often pays for itself — the bank-cycle gold loop is tight. Most cartographers report breaking even or making a small profit during 0-100 training.

See also

Treasure Map, Treasure Chest, Treasure Hunter, Lockpicking, Remove Trap, Detect Hidden, Mining, Tinkering, Mapmaker's Pen, Blank Map, Blank Scroll, Sea Chart, World Map, Eodonian Wall Map, Exterminating the Infestations, Valley of Eodon, Trammel, Felucca, Indecipherable Map, GGS, Satyr Trick, Soulstone, Magery, Telekinesis, Fishing.