Crypts

Map objectives that captains explore, burning tar and paying out materials and gems.

How they work

Crypts are objectives on the world map that captains explore. The expedition runs like any march to a point on the map.
They are abandoned and unguarded, so no army goes with the captain. Nothing there fights back.
Each exploration burns tar of the type matching the crypt's rarity: Common Tar, Rare Tar or Epic Tar. One will not stand in for another.
The higher the crypt, the harder it is to explore and the better it pays — and the more tar it takes to finish.
Finishing one gives a Clan Chest. It is the main source of wealth a clan has, so crypting is a core part of the game. A better crypt gives a better chest.
Higher levels are gated behind research at the Academy.
Event crypts and other temporary variants exist and run on their own rules, so they are not covered here.

The tar

Every exploration burns tar, and the three rarities burn three different tars: common crypts take Common Tar, rare crypts Rare Tar, epic crypts Epic Tar. One will not stand in for another.

Always march with as much of it as you can carry. Taking more tar than the crypt asks for is not waste: the game divides the tar you brought by the tar the crypt needs, and carrying a surplus is worth a further 10 % of efficiency on top.

Common TarCommon crypts

Mined at Wellspring Ruins, a kind of mine on the Kingdom Map.
Produced by the Tar Workshop.
Out of Clan Chests.
Bought with Gold.

Rare TarRare crypts

Out of Clan Chests.
Bought with Gold.

No mine turns it out and no building makes it. What you have is what was given to you or what you paid for, which is exactly why a rare crypt is not worth opening until you can finish it in one pass.

Epic TarEpic crypts

Out of Clan Chests.
Bought with Gold.

The same two doors as the rare, and the same warning with more force behind it.

Efficiency and cost

Two bonuses, two different jobs, and they are the ones worth chasing. Exploration efficiency is how much of the crypt a single march gets through. Exploration cost is how much tar a visit charges you.

Say a level 25 crypt costs 51k tar and your first march clears half of it. Raise only efficiency and that half becomes 55 %, then 60 %, and the crypt falls in fewer marches. Raise only cost and the same march charges 45k, then 35k — cheaper each time, but still half a crypt. Only efficiency shortens the queue.

Both come in a generic form and in one per rarity. The generic reaches everything; a common-crypt bonus reaches common crypts and nothing else.

Some bonuses carry a chance of exploring a crypt twice over in one visit, for the tar of a single one.

What comes out

Common crypts12

Materials for crafting equipment.

Particular crypts carry particular materials, and outside the rare and epic crypts they are the only common crypt that gives them: no other common crypt drops Enchanted Leather but the Cobra. The list below is that map.

All 12 of them →Rare crypts2

Gems, and common materials alongside them. The gems are the reason to go.

All 2 of them →Epic crypts17

Materials for crafting equipment, the same as the commons — the game groups the two together and treats them alike.

All 17 of them →

The ones that come from everywhere

Not every material belongs to a crypt. Alongside the ones a crypt carries by name there are generic materials, which drop from crypts at large.

The generic commons drop from every crypt, common, rare and epic alike.

The generic epics drop from any epic crypt; a named epic only from its own.

They are the bulk of what equipment costs. Of the four materials a piece takes, one is the set’s signature and comes from a particular crypt; the other three are usually generics.

Which is why choosing which crypt to open is worth the thought: the generics arrive whatever you do, so the only thing your choice decides is how fast the named ones come.

Unlocking

Research	Unlocks level
Crypts II	10
Crypts III	15
Crypts IV	20
Crypts V	25
Crypts VI	30
Crypts VII	35

Tips

Do not spend the expensive tars early

Rare and Epic Tar are the two easiest resources in the game to waste, and dribbling them into a crypt a third at a time is how it goes. Wait until you can finish one in a single pass.

For rare crypts that means holding off until a level 15 falls in one go, better a 20. For epic, until a level 25 common falls in one swipe. It matters most in a clan under 300M wealth, where what you spend is not coming back quickly.

Crypt for something, not for what is nearby

Decide which piece of equipment you are building next and go to the crypts that favour its materials. The nearest crypt is rarely the one you need.

And within that, take the highest level you can actually finish. A high crypt is worth more per march than a low one is worth per swipe.

Work the map in bands, not one crypt at a time

Find the distance your marches cover in ten or twelve seconds with speed-ups, and empty every crypt inside that band before moving further out. Then take the next band, and the one after.

Hunting the closest crypt each time has you crossing the map at random. Bands turn crypting into a route.

Talent points go to efficiency and cost

Those two, and nothing else. Never tar production, never tar capacity — neither is worth a single point.

The tar comes from elsewhere: a clan worth being in supplies it through its chests, the Tinman drops a great deal of it, and the Battle Pass and the game's own sales both sell it. None of it comes from your own workshop.

Efficiency gems are essential

For a crypter there is little better to socket. And do not wait on citadels to hand you the keys to rare crypts to get them — buy them in bulk from the Ragnarok shop.

More than one crypting captain, once tar stops being the limit

The richer the clan you are in, the less Common Tar behaves like a limited resource, and in time rare and Epic Tar stop being scarce too. What limits you then is not tar. It is your own time.

That is the point at which a second crypting captain, or a third, starts to pay: more marches in the same hour is the only thing left to buy.

Focus on your gear

Once the talents are spent, gear is where the rest of the efficiency comes from. Omniscience beats Tomb Raider — and is harder to come by, which is the trade you are making.

Read the random bonus on your torch too: if it increases common or rare crypts only, reroll it. You want the overall bonus, or better still the epic one.

Every lever there is, in one place

Carter's level and stars; crypt efficiency in the archaeology talents and in the Academy; crypting armour on Carter, with crypting gems and enchantments on that armour; your reserve tar; the march speed artifact on Carter alongside your march speed bonus, with its random bonus rerolled to crypt march speed.

Speed is not efficiency, but a march that returns sooner is a march you can send again.

Commonly believed

Epic Crypt Exploration and Epic Crypt Cost cut the tar spent on the Tartarus crypts in Olympus.

Tested, and they do nothing there. Only the plain Crypt Exploration Efficiency and Cost reduce Tartarus tar — and note that is not the same stat as Common Crypt Exploration Efficiency, which only touches common crypts. Carter's level and stars feed the plain one, so he helps. Omniscience gear helps only if its plain efficiency beats Tomb Raider's; its epic-crypt figure is dead weight for this.