• Simple question, difficult answer. The bare bones skills for all treasure hunters are Cartography and Lockpicking. No way to treasure hunt without those skills. Whatever else you decide to take really depends on what kind of treasure hunter you want to be.
• Optional skills for all treasure hunters are: Mining and Detect Hidden / Remove Trap. Check the links for more about those.
  Please Note! If you are creating a treasure hunter on Siege Perilous, you will need to have Detect Hidden and Remove Trap. They are not optional on Siege.
• Any other skills are up to you. Check out the "Building a Treasure Hunter" essays for a few ideas.
• Above all remember that the kind of treasure hunter you build is up to you. You are the one who is going to be playing the character, so please yourself first. If you are undecided between a couple of different skill sets, log onto a test shard and try them both out. You are given treasure maps as starting equipment, and many toss these on the ground, so you will have plenty of material to work with.

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• Ok, there are a few common templates.
• Pure Treasure Hunter
• 100 Cartography
• 100 Lockpicking
• 100 Detect Hidden
• 100 Remove Trap
• 100 Mining
• Distribute rest among Magery, Item ID, Fishing, Hiding, etc.
• Mage Treasure Hunter
• 100 Cartography
• 100 Lockpicking
• 100 Magery
• 100 Evaluating Intelligence
• 100 Meditation
• 100 Resisting Spells
• Distribute rest among any other skills.
• Mage/Bard Treasure Hunter
• 100 Cartography
• 100 Lockpicking
• 100 Musicianship
• 100 Provocation or Peacemaking
• 100 Magery
• 100 Evaluating Intelligence
• Distribute rest among any other skills.

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• Lockpicking is affected by the anti-macro code; it is an object based skill, meaning you need plenty of targets in order to train. Movement does not affect this skill.
• Remember as a training lockpicker, tinkers are your friends. You will be going through a lot of lockpicks during your training. You will also more than likely want to buy some tinker-made lockable boxes or chests to work on. Why do I say "tinker-made" when everyone knows that carpenters make these things? Because you are concerned with the quality of the lock on the box, it is important to have it made by a tinker of appropriate skill. A carpenter can make a lockable box, yet if he/she is GM carpenter but has only 25 tinkering, you will end up with a nice box that has a very weak lock on it. Pay attention to the tinkering skill when buying boxes. If you dont know a tinker, try looking on the Stratics Tinker Forum. Chances are good you will find a tinker on your shard of the right level there.
• The first thing you will want to do is contact a tinker and buy some picks. Tinkers raise skill by making them and you can often get a good deal on a bulk purchase.
• At 0 skill get 3 or 4 boxes made by a tinker of 50 to 60 skill. You will break a lot of picks on them, but they will raise you well into your training. You can use these as you walk around town picking the boxes and crates found in shops, or you can go to Vesper bank and work on the level one boxes that spawn in the north back room there. There are 6 boxes that spawn, each box stays up for about 9 minutes and is replaced by a fresh one about a minute after it disappears. Lockpicking raises very fast here at low levels, and the advantage of having a bank right there to refresh your supply of picks from is invaluable.
• You can also train the skill with a theif guildmaster if you prefer not to start at 0.
• Once you get to the mid 50's, you will be opening the level 1 boxes pretty well and the gains will slow down some. From here, you have a few options. You can get a few more boxes made by a tinker in the mid 70's to low 80's and work on those; you can get a set of GM tinker boxes, or you can train on spawning dungeon chests. Let's examine the pros and cons of those options.
• Using boxes made by a tinker about 20 points above your current skill is great for gains with fewer lockpicks broken. However, to get around the anti-macro code, you will need a lot of them if that is all you are working with. They are good when used in conjunction with the harder town boxes and with level 2 spawn chests. You can find level 2 spawn chests in the Western Vesper bank back room, in the north chest room at Yew Crypts, and in various dungeons.
• GM boxes will take you all the way to 95 shown skill. You need a lot of them though, and for many storing them is a problem. There are public lockpick training houses on several shards.
• Training on spawning chests is certainly more fun (and profitable) than the other methods but of course it tends to be more dangerous as well. There are a few safe locations where chests spawn, but they do tend to be popular, so training in those locations alone can be slow.
• The best bet is to combine a few techniques, if your gains stall on your GM boxes, hit the dungeons for a while until you get a gain, at which time your GM boxes will be "reset" and you can gain from them again.
• Once you have reached 95 enhanced skill, you will no longer be able to gain from the GM boxes. Some people believe that it does help to run through them a few times, even though you will not raise from them. Whether you do this or not is up to you. The only way to raise now is to hit the dungeon chests and the harder statics in towns and dungeons.
• Still confused? Try reading TreasureHuntress' "How to Raise Lockpicking Post-AoS" for a step-by-step approach.

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• There are two basic ways you can set up a UOA macro for lockpicking. Which you choose depends on your style and preference. The first method is to record separate macros for locking each box and for picking each box. The second method records picking and then locking each box in a set
• Method One
  1. Open the containers that hold the boxes you want to record and arrange them so you can see them all on your screen.
  2. Select a blank macro slot and hit "record"
  3. Double click your lockpicks and target the first box.
  4. Repeat the process for all the boxes in the set.
  5. Speak, say anything. (optional but handy)
  6. Go to the UOA menu and stop recording. LOCK the macro now. You can lock the macro by hitting the lock icon in the lower right corner. It is far too easy to accidentally hit record instead of play, you don't want to destroy this one by mistake.
  7. The macro will look something like this:
  • use item
  • target
  8. Right click each "use item" line and convert it to "use item type"
  9. Highlight each "target" line and hit the "pause after" button. How much of a pause you put in depends on what your connection is like. Anywhere from 500 to 2000 should do the trick. You can always go back and edit the pause if you find the macro goes too fast for your connection to keep up. It is better to do a few lines and run the macro to see how much you need to adjust before you put all your pauses in. (it's just faster that way)
  10. Your macro should now look something like this:
  • use item type
  • target
  • pause 1000
  11. Give your macro a name so you know what it is for. Don't expect to remember it forever.
  12. Using a new macro slot, repeat the process using the keys to lock each box in turn. Add pauses after each target line. You will not need to convert to item type for this macro, but speaking at the end is helpful so you know when the macro is finished.
• Method Two
1. Open the containers that hold the boxes you want to record and arrange them so you can see them all on your screen.
2. Select a blank macro slot and hit "record"
3. Double click your lockpicks and target the first box.
4. Double click the keys and target the first box.
5. Repeat the process for all the boxes in the set.
6. Speak, say anything. (optional but handy)
7. Go to the UOA menu and stop recording. Lock the macro now.
8. The macro will look something like this:
• use item
• target
• use item
• target
9. Right click the first "use item" line and convert it to "use item type". Do the same for every other "use item" line in the macro.
10. Your macro should now look something like this:
• use item type
• target
• pause 1000
• use item
• pause 1000
11. Highlight each "target" line and hit the "pause after" button as in method one.
12. Name the macro.
• The second method takes a little more concentration to set up properly, but it has the advantage of allowing you to stop partway through and start over when you get a gain from a box.

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• Sit there and make maps. With the addition of UO:R, the skill is difficulty-based, meaning that the higher your skill level, the harder the map you will have to make to gain skill.
• This is a rough guide to what maps to make:
• Local maps up to 45 - 50
• City maps up to about 75
• Sea charts up to about 85
• World maps to 99.5..
• It is not possible to raise cartography above 99.5 shown skill by drawing maps. You will have to decode treasure maps from this point on. Note: Level one maps will not give you much if any gain, and you will not even be able to attempt a level 5 yet. Levels 3 and 4 are best at this stage.
• Some people find it helpful to move while others say it is not necessary. It probably wouldn't hurt to get up and stretch your legs a bit in the middle of a session if you are finding things slow. Also taking a break from it for a day or so and doing other things with that character may help get it going again when you hit the inevitable wall.
• Above 99.5, GGS gains are your friend. If you attempt to "power-through" Cartography, expect to spend 500 L2-L4 treasure maps per 0.1 Cartography gain. If you plan your GGS gain well, 150 L2-L4 treasure maps should be sufficient to GM Cartography from 99.5.

Skill Range    Made          Resources Used    Start    End   Time

00.0 - 33.0    NPC Bought
33.0 - 45.0    Local Maps    [ 392 Scrolls]    13:01 - 13:18  [ 17 mins]
45.0 - 50.0    Local Maps    [ 203 Scrolls]    17:47 - 17:54  [  7 mins]
50.0 - 57.5    Town Maps     [ 487 Scrolls]    17:57 - 18:17  [ 20 mins]
57.5 - 65.0    Town Maps     [ 579 scrolls]    20:52 - 21:14  [ 22 mins]
65.0 - 75.0    Sea Charts    [1177 scrolls]    22:00 - 22:55  [ 55 mins]
75.0 - 80.0    Sea Charts    [ 951 scrolls]    00:32 - 01:14  [ 42 mins]
80.0 - 85.0    World Maps    [1455 scrolls]    01:15 - 02:20  [ 65 mins]
85.0 - 90.0    World Maps    [2939 scrolls]    02:30 - 04:17  [107 mins]
90.0 - 92.5    World Maps    [1647 scrolls]    15:33 - 16:39  [ 66 mins]
92.5 - 93.0    World Maps    [ 352 scrolls]    00:52 - 01:19  [ 27 mins]
93.0 - 94.1    World Maps    [ 968 scrolls]    13:04 - 13:53  [ 49 mins]
94.1 - 95.1    World Maps    [ 742 scrolls]    18:33 - 19:15  [ 42 mins]
95.1 - 97.5    World Maps    [2278 scrolls]    15:16 - 17:18  [122 mins]
97.5 - 99.5    World Maps    [1266 scrolls]    13:49 - 14:49  [ 60 mins]

Total Resources :	15,436 Scrolls
Total Time	:	11 hrs 38 mins

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• There are two ways you can do this also, the first does not use the skill agent, the second does.
• Method One
1. Select a blank macro slot and hit "record"
2. Draw the type of map you wish to train on.
3. Hit stop, and lock the macro.
4. Highlight the "target" line and delete it from the left hand menu.
5. Your macro should look like this:
• use skill/cast spell
• menu selection
• Using this method requires you to target the map you want to draw on. The advantage is that you can make city maps and sea charts this way, and you can use the skill delay time to transfer the map you just drew into a trash barrel or a bag for selling back to the mapmaker. With this method you can also draw over the town maps bought from the mapmaker.
• Method Two
1. Go to the "agents" tab on the far right and select "skill agent"
2. Scroll down the list on the right and select cartography - local map or cartography - world map
3. Go to the "keys" tab, and scroll down to " skill agent trigger" near the bottom.
4. Put your cursor in the window to the right and select a key or key combination to use.
5. Every time you hit the key combination, the agent will look for a blank map and attempt to draw on it for you.
• The skill agent method will only work with blank maps. You will not be able to draw on town maps using this. You can buy the town maps and sell them back, prompting the mapseller to spawn new blanks for you. You will not be able to tell which map has been drawn on without manually checking it though.
• With either method, if you know you have blank maps in your pack but UOA says you don't, count your resources. Often when you add new items, especially if you had none of that type in your pack before, UOA will not "see" them until you have counted resources.

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Maps to draw on:
• Buy blank maps at a shipwright or provisioner shop from the mapmaker. Here is a list of where you can find mapmakers:



Britain	The Oaken Oar	10'53oS 7'1oE"
Buccaneer's Den	Pirates Provisioner	55'11oS 99'50oE
Jhelom	Sailor's Keeper	173'4oN 9'0'E
Magincia	The Furled Sail	55'53'S 164'48oE
Moonglow	The Scholars Goods	49'13oN 142'2oW
Nujel'm	Seaborne Ships	36'2oN 167'16oE
Papua	Pier 39	14'24oS 9'29'W
Serpent's Hold	Supplies	154'57oS 118'58oE
Skara Brae	Superior Ships	57'13oS 50'20oW
Trinsic	Britannia Provisions	103'16S 37'20oE
Vesper	The Majestic Boat	70'24oN 117'33oE
Yew	Great Oak Vessels	51'30oN 49'0oW

• You can also draw over the town maps which they sell. While these are a bit more expensive, it does mean you have more maps to draw on. Well worth the minor added expense.
• Mapmakers will often buy back your drawn maps and generate a new blank one for each on he/she buys from you. This is mostly true of detail maps, but sometime you will find a generous one who will buy back the more difficult ones also. Don't be afraid to throw a few hundred gp on the mapmaker to encourage him/her to buy more from you!

Maps to dig up:
• Level one maps can be fished up with over 90 base skill. You have to kill the sea serpent that comes up, and you will find the map on its corpse.
• Click here for a chart that lists monsters and what level maps they give.

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• First, single click on the map. If it says, "a treasure map completed by So-and-So", then the chest has already been dug up. If it says "a ________ drawn treasure map" or "a tattered, _________ drawn treasure map", then you need the required cartography skill to use it (in the first case) or decode it (in the last case). If you double-click on it and it says "The map is too difficult to decode" or "You did not decode this map and have no clue where to look for the treasure", then you don't have enough skill to read it. If it says "You fail to decode the map", then you have enough skill to do it, but you just failed. If you decode the map, then it will come up on your screen.
• Then you need to find out where the chest is. Compare the map onscreen to a map of the world (the cloth/paper map that came with the game is perfect). Compare coastlines, roads, cities, shrines, and any other landmarks. Find the area it is located at and work your way there. The map's label will say "Felluca" or "Trammel", so you will not have to guess which facet to dig on.
• From there, use a shovel to dig around the area until you find the chest. You can use Map Archives to speed up this process. Try the THB archive, located here.
• For a more detailed essay on finding treasure spots, go here .
• When you dig, one of three things will happen.
• "You fail to find the treasure." (or something along those lines) -- You're looking in the wrong area...or it's more than one tile outside your mining radius. Move a few steps and try again, if you think you're in the right area.
• "You dig and dig, but no treasure seems to be here." -- This means you're close. Try moving a tile in each direction and see what you find.
• No message comes up, but you continue digging -- You've found it!

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• Maps now tell you the level when you single click on them. In addition to saying "tattered" (or not) and the facet the map for, you will see a description of how the map was drawn. The wording is as follows:

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• Khaldun puzzle chests give random maps ranging from level 2 to level 5, with the most common seeming to be level 2.

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• Click here for a chart.

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• Mining is not a required skill, that is to say you can find and dig up any level of map with zero mining skill. However, mining does provide a few advantages. It increases your dig radius (from the treasure spot) as follows:
• 0 to 50.9 mining gives a 1 tile radius (in other words, you must dig the exact correct spot of the chest)
• 51 to 80.9 mining gives a 2 tiles radius
• 81 to 99.9 mining gives a 3 tiles radius
• 100 mining gives a 4 tiles radius
• Note: These numbers refer to enhanced skill, not "real"
• If you use a map archive to locate the treasure, you may not need the advantages of mining. However, it also allows you to stand back from the chest spot a little, which can give you a bit of a head start if you plan on making a run for it once the chest is up.

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• Yes - a decoded map may be dug by anybody with sufficient Cartography skill. However, only the first person to decode a "tattered" treasure map may get a Cartography skill gain from it.
• The person who decoded the maps does *not* need cartography to dig the map up. As long as your decoded the treasure map, you can still dig the chest up even with 0 Cartography skill.

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• You have a few options here:
• Option A: Raise your mining so that you are outside the spawn radius when you dig the chest up. This should allow you the space to high tail it out of there when the beasties spawn.
• Option B: Pre-cast invisibility. While digging, cast invisibility but hold the target. Target yourself just after you have dug for the 7th time, and you will turn invisible just before the monsters appear and therefore won't be attacked immediately. This option takes a little practice to get your timing down. If you have high hiding skill you can substitute that of course.
• Option C: Work up the Honor Virtue. During the dig, Embrace Honor and target yourself. The monsters will ignore you for a brief time instead of targeting you instantly.

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• You must target your map before you try to dig. This is how it's done:
• Double click your shovel/pickaxe. When the targetting cursor appears, do not target the ground, but target the treasure map instead. This will give you another targetting cursor. Now target the ground where you expect the treasure to be.
• Alternatively, single click the treasure map (if you haven't changed context menu settings, this will open up the context menu, otherwise, you'll have to shift + single click), select "Dig for treasure" and target the location.

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• Detect hidden has nothing to do with lockpicking a box.

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• If you want to use Remove Trap, you need at least 50 Detect Hidden. You cannot attempt to use RT with anything less. Having more does not improve your success rate either, so if you are using it solely for treasure hunting, you might want to lock DH at 50 and use the other 50 points elsewhere.
• Unless you are on Siege Perilous, you may want to forego these two skills altogether, as casting telekinesis on the unlocked treasure chest from at least 4 paces away will do the trick. So...why would anyone want to use it unless they are on Siege? Well, it's a matter of personal preference really. Mordan wrote up a nice list of "pros and cons of DH/RT" ...so here it is, thanks Mordan!

There are two main types of treasure hunters: the pure treasure hunter and the mage treasure hunter. The difference lies in what skills they use. The mage t hunter uses the skills common to both types of hunter, cartography and lockpicking. These are a must if you want to be able to decode and open a treasure chest. The pure t hunter though, will also add the skills of detect hidden, remove traps, and mining. Mining has the bonus of not needing to stand right next to the chest to dig it up, thus you don't need to use the map library in Stratics, and the monsters won't spawn directly on top of you. The skill detect hidden must be at least 50 to be able to start training remove traps. Any further points in detect hidden will NOT help you in any way in treasure hunting. Using the skill detect hidden has become obsolete for anything except revealing hiders in Felucca (see below).

The mage treasure hunter only needs to have 3 skills TOTAL to be able to open any treasure chest. Lockpicking and Cartography of course being two of these, and magery naturally being the third. The spell telekinesis can be used to disarm a chest safely if you are standing at least 4 steps away. However, some static chests are trapped with 2 or even 3 traps and thus you would need to use the spell multiple times to be able to safely open a chest.

Each template has its good and bad points, but BOTH are equally effective in getting the job done. Many will say that it is pointless to have Remove Traps because the same thing can be accomplished without wasting at least 150 points, hopefully the following list will illustrate some of the advantages I find in using Remove Traps.


• Pros
• Don't have to use magery to disarm...more mana and reagents for other spells
• Fast disarm time. One successful disarm attempt will remove ALL traps on a chest, where-as using telekinesis will only remove one at a time...thus 3 spells to disarm some static chests.
• Can stand right next to chest during disarm attempt...using telekinesis requires you to move at least 4 steps away from chest in order to avoid its damage.
• Looters/grief players will have a MUCH harder time stealing your gold if you use the RT skill instead of telekinesis (they can see you moving to cast it, and then run in to grab the loot.) Mainly applies to dungeon chests.
• Can run into a dungeon with a newbie instrument and newbie lockpicks and be able to clear out ALL the spawn and ALL the chests.
• Cons
• Must have at least 50 in detect to even USE the RT skill...IMO a waste of points since the detect skill has NOTHING to with treasure hunting anymore.
• The RT skill isn't reliable on map spawned treasure chests.
• Telekinesis can be cast with scrolls at a minimal magery. Thus RT and DH use skill points that could be better applied elsewhere.
• Using telekinesis, you are guaranteed to not losing your life to an explosion from a failed RT attempt.

Basically, if you want to become a T hunter as quickly and easily as possible, then telekinesis is probably the way to go. If you would rather have the satisfaction that you are able to disarm a trap with the touch of a button using a skill that was VERY difficult to raise...then go with RT. I am not saying that using one is better than the other...I use both personally. It is definitely a choice based on your play style.