Not all treasure hunts are the same. Have I been hired by some warrior to dig up a treasure for him? Have I purchased or found a map of my own to dig up? Am I hunting with friends, hunting with strangers, or going solo? I'll try to cover some of the different possibilities.

Let's check our skills first and make sure they are similar. If your skills are different than mine, you'll hunt differently to accommodate your strengths. Mine currently are:

• 95 Magery
• 90 Eval Int
• 98 Meditation
• 60 Resist
• 93 Cartography
• 95 Lockpicking
• 85 Music
• 84 Provoke
• Int = 100, Str = 75, Dex = 50

I'm still raising lockpicking and cartography so I can do L5 treasure maps someday. I'm giving up a little meditation and resist to do that. I'm also still raising provocation and lowering music a little. I use my magery against solo monsters, but use provoke where I can to save on reagents and mana. I met another treasure hunter once that dropped Eval Int and Meditation, and uses Macing and Tactics instead. He's still a mage / bard / treasure hunter, but also a warrior. While that sounds effective, I'm more comfortable fighting as a mage. Your template of skills will affect your fighting style. Don't use my stories here as a how-to manual, but rather modify the examples to fit your style.

First, I check my backpack for the tools of my trade. Enough reagents? I carry 100 of each, and often use 60 or more mandrake and black pearl during a L3 treasure hunt. Map? Shovel or Pickaxe? Enough lockpicks? Sextant? Food? Apples for my horse? Invisibility item?

First things first, I have to decode the map. To get an idea of where in the world the treasure is buried, I check http://uo.stratics.com/thb and use the various map archives to get the exact coordinates. If it's difficult to determine precisely which location it is, I also write down the ones closest to it. Sometimes I have to dig in two or three places. Some people use UOAutoMap with treasure locations. I've tried that too, but I prefer to be in full screen mode and use my sextant.

If I'm hunting with friends or family, they may be tolerant if I lead them on a journey to go find the treasure. My first treasure hunts could take 45 minutes to get to the site. That gets old when what I really want to do is dig up treasure. I carry 7 runebooks now, with sites marked all over Britannia. The town and dungeon runebooks I bought, #3 is mage shops, provisioners, and vendors. #4 is my lockpicking locations for skill. #5, 6 & 7 are all treasure hunt sites. I don't have to walk more than a couple of screen now to get to any place in Britannia. My customers appreciate my preparedness when I'm the hired treasure hunter.

Now, the treasure hunting party can be 1) my own map with friends, 2) my own map solo, 3) another warrior's map. If you're friends or solo, how you set up your party is your individual preference. If I am for hire, though, my client may be on his first treasure hunt. I must be partied with him - and I make him aware that since I'm decoding the map, only I and my party can loot. He must be partied if he wants to look in the chest and loot. I suggest he assemble a hunting party, and choose his party carefully. He can invite warriors on the treasure hunt without bringing them in the party. I use this option for those warriors that are strangers looking for skill or curious about a treasure hunt. They can kill monsters and loot their gold, but they won't be able to open the treasure chest.

If I am for hire, I suggest that the client hire his own party of friends, and we only party with those he trusts. Since I also have friends and family I hunt with regularly, I offer to hire them if my client doesn't have a party. Never do I offer to create a party for him made up of strangers I don't know. Should one of these strangers ruin the treasure hunt, my client will never hire me again.

Here's a bad example: on a L3 t-hunt once for hire, my client hired strangers for the hunt. After the initial spawn was over, the client identified a silver broadsword of power in the chest. Suddenly, the sword disappeared out of the chest - and so did the guest mage he had hired. The most valuable part of the treasure stolen from under our noses. I still hunt with this client, but if I had hired the mage, I would have felt obligated to repay my client for my poor choice in warriors.

Up front, I work out my fees with the client. Fees vary by client - one pays me the gold in the chest, loots what he wants, and I get the rest. Another pays me gold and gems, another 1/2 gold + second best magic weapon in the chest. At the end of the hunt, if I don't feel it was profitable enough for me (or I didn't get along with the client), I don't do treasure hunts with him anymore. If he has a lot of maps to do, he'll want to keep me happy, too. Since I'm not hired for my muscle (my strength is only 75), my friends or my client do the looting. I get my share at the end when we divide it up near the bank.

If this is my first treasure hunt with this party, I explain these basic things to them:

• On the last dig of the chest, all hell breaks loose. Since all the spawn will target me instantly, I'm going invisible. My party will have to fight the spawn for the first few seconds alone.
• Nobody opens the chest until I say it's safe. L2 chests and up are deadly trapped. I've had to res dead clients that didn't pay attention to this step.

OK, I have the map, loaded my backpack, located the spot, and I have my hunting party. Time to gate everybody to the location. I jump in last, making sure my client goes before me. I don't want to arrive at my destination without my client or party. After all, since I have a rune, I can always gate again or recall.

First we clear out the local spawn. Then I cast Reactive Armor. I find it more helpful than Magic Reflect here since there's a much better chance of physical damage to me in the 1st seconds of the initial spawn. Then I gather my party around me and cast Arch Protection. I feed my horse, then I eat some fish steaks.

Is there water nearby? A safety net for treasure hunts is to park a boat nearby, unlocked with the planks open. During the spawn, we can lead the monsters toward the boat, then double click the plank and pop on board. Now the spawn can only do magical damage. While this simplifies a treasure hunt, it has its disadvantages. One, it's easy to get used to having a boat nearby, so when a boat isn't available it seems more difficult. Two, I've had people just passing by take my boat for a joyride in the middle of the hunt. I keep the key in my backpack so they can't really steal the boat, but it's a pain fetching the boat back.

Next, I mark a temporary rune about 3 steps away from the chest. Not on the site itself, because the dug-up chest will block your recall. Even though my first gate may have brought us to within a few screens of the site, it is ever so helpful to have a rune to the exact site. I call my temporary rune "T-Hunt" and drop it in my runebook. The biggest advantage for me is in case I die. I can get res'd, hopefully from a wandering healer or a party member. I click the button on my fully charged runebook (no regs needed) and recall to a bank. I gather quickly 20 of each reg, heal myself, cast reactive armor, meditate, and recall right back to the treasure hunt. If I'm on an island with no healers, I think as a ghost I can summon a help menu to transport me to a town, but I haven't tried this yet. This rune also comes in handy when I solo a map because I can't carry all the loot, and I can't store it on the boat because it's not locked. A quick recall to the bank, deposit 5k in gold, recall back and I'm in business again.

Ah. Deep breath. The exciting part is coming. I double click my shovel. I target my map. I target the ground. I fail to find any treasure. Rats. I have to dig around a little until I find it. Ah, now I've got it. Dig, dig, dig, dig....

At this point of the treasure hunt, I have to watch out for myself first. I'm no help to any party member if I'm dead. I'll cast heal on a damaged party member when I can, but I don't forget I need to stay alive. On the very last dig of the chest, I put the invisibility item on. I'm successful about 95% of the time, and getting my timing better all the time. Sometimes an ogre lord gets 1 hit in first (whew, that reactive armor saved my life again!) or worse, a fire elemental was able to get a explosion cast on me which reveals me again. Usually I'm invisible though, and the four monsters of the spawn just stand there.

While invisible, I drag off their status bars. If I'm in a party, the monsters have started targeting other warriors so it's a little easier. I provoke monster #1 onto #2, going invisible again if I fail the provoking, or if #3 and #4 notice me. Then provoke #3 onto #4, and start relaxing. The worst is over. I keep them provoked, finishing off the winners with ebolts, blade spirits, or energy vortexes.

Your party isn't just standing by during this time. They are using their own skills to clean up the spawn. Others are provoking, using their swords, casting their ebolts. It's especially easier if somebody brought along a pet dragon. If the spawn is extra tough, that boat comes in handy as a safe place to retreat and heal.

OK, the spawn is killed off and looted, and it's quiet again. I ask everybody to stand back, then I pick the lock on the chest and cast Telekinesis to spring the trap (since the chest is almost always under a tree, using a LastTarget macro helps). Loot slow at this point and kill off the spawn one by one.

When the chest is empty, put something back in and wiggle it around. More monsters will spawn one at a time; the monster loot on an L3 hunt will give you more gold than the chest will. And the monsters give fame, karma, and sometimes another treasure map, too. On one particularly successful treasure hunt, an ogre lord spawned after the chest had been emptied. Beside his usual 500-700 gold, he had a plate mail of invulnerability on him.

Ah, the hunt is over. Time to fetch my boat and gate everybody back to the bank. I give a spare ID wand to the host and let him divide up the loot and collect my share. Hey, I don't suppose you have another L3 treasure map, do you? 8)

Sphyr, Treasure Hunter of Lake Superior