Expeditions
An Expedition is a planned hunt deep into the wilds. You choose a route across a map of stops, fight the beasts waiting along it and push on to the den at the end. Expeditions pay 12% more than a Quick hunt. Start one from the Expeditions page.
• A ward: one of four directions, each with its own prey and character.
• A depth: how far out the route starts, up to your Hunting range. Deeper means stronger prey and bigger rewards.
• A length: 4, 6 or 8 stops before the den.
• A walking stance and a retreat line (none, 25% or 40% Lifeforce) for the routine fights between stops.
• Dread (optional): each level adds a harder rule and pays +6% Blood and gold. Clearing a den at your highest Dread opens the next level, up to 10.
Reaching the trailhead costs about one Action for every 20 steps of depth. You need at least 10 Actions in hand to set out: 10 are held when you leave, and whatever the first leg doesn't use comes back at the first stop. Each leg between stops is a 10-step walk at 1 Action a step, and the routine kills along the way resolve on their own.
• The Rookery (east): crow-black woods and abandoned hamlets. Strangers walk these trails, and familiars leave more tracks here.
• The Drowned Fens (south): past the canal the ground turns to black water. Everything here is diseased and hungry.
• The Ashen Reach (west): ash dunes over a buried city, where the old Spire warden-engines still guard their vaults.
• Prey: a featured fight for double pay.
• Elite lairs: a hard fight for triple pay that ends with a choice of relics.
• Unknowns (?): prey, a cache, or one of many events (a wayside shrine might trade some of your blood for a relic).
• Caches and merchants: loot, supplies and relics. Merchants sell relics, a healing draught and a whetstone.
• Harvests: a rich seam for your gathering job. Take the haul, or dig deep for 60% more at the risk of waking something.
• Familiar trails: a chance at a wild familiar.
• Blood springs: the row before the den is always springs. Drink (heal 35% of your Lifeforce), whet your claws (+10% damage for the rest of the expedition), or put your trade to use. Gatherers work for free: Shadow Mining can Prospect (+15% gold), Blood Foraging Forage (heal 40%), Bone Scavenging Scavenge (+15% Blood) and Soul Harvesting Siphon (Mesmerize +10%, +5% dodge). Crafters spend 4 materials: Weaponsmiths Hone (+18% damage), Armorsmiths Mend (take 10% less damage), Alchemists Brew (heal 60%), Jewelcrafters Set a blood-stone (+8% crit) and Enchanters Inscribe (+8% dodge, Mesmerize +10%).
Some routes also hold a Landmark, a Rival hunter or the week's roaming terror; see Hunting.
Every route ends at the ward's den, which pays four times a kill and always offers a rare relic. Beat it and you can press on into the next act, deeper still, keeping your relics. Crafters who clear a den at 100 steps or deeper always find a recipe scroll.
• Strike: a clean blow.
• Savage: 1.6× damage, but you take 30% more this round.
• Guard: a light blow, and you block 65% of what hits you.
• Feed: bite deep for 0.7× damage and heal 7% of your Lifeforce.
• Mesmerize: freeze the creature for this round and the next. Fail, and it hits 25% harder. Once per fight.
The creature's card shows what it means to do next, and some have traits: a Skittish beast may bolt once it is hurt, and an Unblinking one can't be mesmerized. Read the card before you choose.
You get one attempt, up to three acts. Your score counts what you did (stops, kills, elites, dens, relics and the Lifeforce you kept), and every hunter's score also counts toward their coven on the weekly coven board. Finishing gives your coven 10 Devotion.
Planning a route
Choose before you set out:• A ward: one of four directions, each with its own prey and character.
• A depth: how far out the route starts, up to your Hunting range. Deeper means stronger prey and bigger rewards.
• A length: 4, 6 or 8 stops before the den.
• A walking stance and a retreat line (none, 25% or 40% Lifeforce) for the routine fights between stops.
• Dread (optional): each level adds a harder rule and pays +6% Blood and gold. Clearing a den at your highest Dread opens the next level, up to 10.
Reaching the trailhead costs about one Action for every 20 steps of depth. You need at least 10 Actions in hand to set out: 10 are held when you leave, and whatever the first leg doesn't use comes back at the first stop. Each leg between stops is a 10-step walk at 1 Action a step, and the routine kills along the way resolve on their own.
The four wards
• Gallows Moor (north): wind-scoured heath and roadside gibbets. Wolves run here, and worse.• The Rookery (east): crow-black woods and abandoned hamlets. Strangers walk these trails, and familiars leave more tracks here.
• The Drowned Fens (south): past the canal the ground turns to black water. Everything here is diseased and hungry.
• The Ashen Reach (west): ash dunes over a buried city, where the old Spire warden-engines still guard their vaults.
The map
The route is a set of lanes that branch and merge. From each stop you can only reach the stops it connects to, so the path you pick decides what you find:• Prey: a featured fight for double pay.
• Elite lairs: a hard fight for triple pay that ends with a choice of relics.
• Unknowns (?): prey, a cache, or one of many events (a wayside shrine might trade some of your blood for a relic).
• Caches and merchants: loot, supplies and relics. Merchants sell relics, a healing draught and a whetstone.
• Harvests: a rich seam for your gathering job. Take the haul, or dig deep for 60% more at the risk of waking something.
• Familiar trails: a chance at a wild familiar.
• Blood springs: the row before the den is always springs. Drink (heal 35% of your Lifeforce), whet your claws (+10% damage for the rest of the expedition), or put your trade to use. Gatherers work for free: Shadow Mining can Prospect (+15% gold), Blood Foraging Forage (heal 40%), Bone Scavenging Scavenge (+15% Blood) and Soul Harvesting Siphon (Mesmerize +10%, +5% dodge). Crafters spend 4 materials: Weaponsmiths Hone (+18% damage), Armorsmiths Mend (take 10% less damage), Alchemists Brew (heal 60%), Jewelcrafters Set a blood-stone (+8% crit) and Enchanters Inscribe (+8% dodge, Mesmerize +10%).
Some routes also hold a Landmark, a Rival hunter or the week's roaming terror; see Hunting.
Every route ends at the ward's den, which pays four times a kill and always offers a rare relic. Beat it and you can press on into the next act, deeper still, keeping your relics. Crafters who clear a den at 100 steps or deeper always find a recipe scroll.
Relics
Relics are small blessings that last for the rest of the expedition. Ten are yours from the start; eight more unlock for good as you study Codex regions, clear dens, slay elites, reach Act 3 and brave higher Dread.Fighting
Featured fights are turn by turn. Each round, choose a stance:• Strike: a clean blow.
• Savage: 1.6× damage, but you take 30% more this round.
• Guard: a light blow, and you block 65% of what hits you.
• Feed: bite deep for 0.7× damage and heal 7% of your Lifeforce.
• Mesmerize: freeze the creature for this round and the next. Fail, and it hits 25% harder. Once per fight.
The creature's card shows what it means to do next, and some have traits: a Skittish beast may bolt once it is hurt, and an Unblinking one can't be mesmerized. Read the card before you choose.
What you keep
Blood, gold, Hunting experience and Codex kills are paid as you earn them, and your Lifeforce carries from stop to stop. Going home banks your Bloodlust spoils. Leaving in front of an elite, den, rival or terror costs a quarter of your unbanked spoils. If you fall, you lose your unbanked spoils and your streak, and a point of gear durability.The Daily Hunt
Once a day every vampire gets the same expedition: the same ward, the same map and the same creatures at every stop, plus two Daily Marks that change the rules for the day. It starts at three quarters of each hunter's own range, so it is fair at any level, and the live weather doesn't touch it. It costs 10 Actions.You get one attempt, up to three acts. Your score counts what you did (stops, kills, elites, dens, relics and the Lifeforce you kept), and every hunter's score also counts toward their coven on the weekly coven board. Finishing gives your coven 10 Devotion.