Delving
Delving is the skill of descending into caves beneath the world. Each biome has one cave that opens once the biome is fully cleared, and delving into it grants Delving XP alongside materials, gems, and rare best-in-slot gear. Delving also governs the Excavation panel, where you spend Dig Site Maps to run fossil digs.
Delving levels run from 1 to 99. Higher levels unlock deeper caves and more Excavation dig slots.
How delving works
A cave run resolves much like an expedition: it uses the same combat math (your gear plus your companion party against the cave's difficulty), fleeing works, and injuries can occur. But there are two important differences:
- Torches fuel every run. Each delve consumes one Torch — a cheap crafted item — and the torch burns whether you win or lose. Unlike an expedition, the entry cost is paid the moment you step in.
- Cave injuries hurt double. An injury from a cave takes about 60 minutes to heal, twice as long as a surface expedition injury (about 30 minutes). Cave difficulty sits between a biome's patrol and its Guardian.
Cave wins do not advance biome-clear progress and cannot defeat Guardians — clearing is done through Expeditions. Caves are purely a reward activity.
Caves and level gates
Each cave requires the biome to be 100% cleared and a staggered Delving level.
| Cave | Biome | Delving level | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunlit Grotto | Grasslands | 1 | 30 |
| Rootway Hollow | Redwood Wilds | 10 | 70 |
| Drowned Cavern | Murkwater Swamp | 20 | 100 |
| Echoing Deep | Cavern Depths | 30 | 130 |
| Cinder Vault | Scorched Badlands | 40 | 170 |
| Tidewrack Cave | Coral Shallows | 50 | 195 |
| Glacier Hollow | Frozen Wastes | 60 | 220 |
| Ashen Gallery | Ashen Peaks | 70 | 260 |
| Skyvein Chasm | Skyreach Plateau | 80 | 310 |
| Vale Abyss | the Sundered Vale | 90 | 380 |
| The Amber Door | the Sundered Vale | 95 | 450 |
The Amber Door is an eleventh cave — a deeper Sundered Vale site that opens only once you hold The Sigil (the Chronicles reward). It burns a Deeplight Lantern per delve instead of a Torch.
Rewards
Every winning delve rolls several loot layers:
- Cave materials (common) — Stalactite Chip, Glow Moss, Cave Pearl, Echo Shard. Common crate filler with decent sell value.
- Gems (uncommon) — Rough Garnet, Deep Sapphire, Ember Topaz, and Sky Opal, tiering up by depth; pure Amber income.
- Unique gear (rare, about 0.2% per win) — an uncraftable piece from every cave (eleven in all, one per cave). See Caves for the full list.
- Expedition Set pieces — the biome's set pieces drop from caves at roughly 0.8% per piece per win, faster than on patrols.
- Arena Artifacts — a biome's cave is the only source of its Arena Artifact (about 1.5% per win), the key required to challenge the Arenas. A dry streak is capped: if the artifact hasn't dropped in 20 winning runs, the 20th guarantees it.
- Dig Site Maps — caves are the best source of a biome's Excavation map (about 3% per win).
Torches
Torches are made with an early Crafting recipe (around level 5) from fernwood, fiber, and resin, producing several torches per craft. Keep a stock on hand — a delve cannot start without one, and every attempt spends it.
Excavation
The Excavation panel lives on the Delving page. Spending a Dig Site Map starts a real-time dig that delivers fossils, Delving XP, and rarely a creature skull. The number of dig slots you can run at once grows with your Delving level. See Excavation for details.
See also
- Caves — the eleven caves (including the Amber Door) and their unique gear.
- Excavation — fossil digs, also run through Delving.
- Weather — a Storm boosts Delving yields.