Crystal Caverns - Velious Leveling Guide
Crystal Caverns is a large zone with multiple camps for a variety of level ranges. It would be difficult to talk about it all without breaking it up into more palitable sections. First up, let's take a look at the orc mines which is the huge maze nearby the East Wastes zone in. It's also the location shown on my map above.
The orcs in this location are good for players between the levels 25 and 30. The two hardest enemies you'll come by in the area are Foreman Smason (32) and Foreman Rixact (34-36). The two foremans also have quite the agro radius - if you're camping the orcs at the bottom of the pit (arguably the best spot) you'll definitely have to fight the Foremans each time they spawn.
Groups that aren't as well prepared will want to camp the orcs closer to the top of the mine as there's a lot less adds you can get up here and you're right next to the zone out incase anything does go wrong. Trust me, once you get down to the bottom of the orc mine area finding your way back up isn't easy!
Foreman Rixact: Foreman's Skull Cap
Foreman Smason: Foreman's Skull Cap
a Ry`Gorr Herbalist: Herbalist Pack, Crystal Covered Shroud, Blackened Crystalline Robe
a Ry`Gorr Inspector: Crystalline Belt
As with a lot of the other Velious enemies you'll find that a lot of Velium Ore drops in this zone. I very strongly recommend you hang onto all the ore you come across as it'll be worth selling in The Bazaar. Even if you're on a TLP server that's progressed to a much later expansion like Dragons of Norrath - this ore will still be valuable. Only once Defiant Gear is added will it start to lose value.
Moving on to the next good hunting location of Crystal Caverns, the cavernous area to the east/south of the coldain village inside this zone. You'll find the coldain village in the central portion of this zone - it's very difficult to miss considering almost all paths will lead you to it in one form or another.
Once you make it to the coldain village you'll want to take the southern most exit which will put you out by a large lake and a broken bridge, displayed on my map location below. Alternatively you can also reach this location by taking the waterfall that's shown in the northern part of the map below.
As you can see on the map above I have three different camps marked; the spiders are the lowest level/easiest camp since they don't have a very high level spread. The second easiest camp would be the Stalag terrors and finally the hardest camp is the geonids.
Depending on how many groups are in this area and/or how many people you have in your group determines where it is you'll want to camp. Lower level players will want to hang out around the broken bridge as there's about 10 mobs to pull between the bridge and the location I show in the screen shot below.
All these pulls are mostly stalag terror enemies and they're spaced out enough to not pose a serious threat with adds. If this area is too easy for you I would recommend you move into the zone a bit further; like the location show in the screen shot below just before the road splits into 3.
Click the picture to enlarge it.
The location shown in my screen shot above should stand out to you when you see it in the zone on your own screen. It's a pretty unique looking area that comes just after the small blue circle on the map above; the same location you can see the path split on the map above too.
Believe it or not this is actually one of the best locations you can camp down here since you're able to pull all three camps to one location. Another upside is there's only two stalag enemies that spawn in this area which makes it a relatively safe spot to camp. Unlike the tunnels we'll be pulling from which are just littered with enemies!
If this location is camped then the second best spot you can camp is further into the spider tunnels. Usually where the cave curves towards the large spider room in the back (it's cut off in the picture of my map above). Not many spiders spawn in this area and only one or two roam through making it the safest camp you can get in the tunnels.
As you could imagine each of the three areas I mentioned each have their own nameds that spawn there. I'm going to break apart the nameds based on where the spawn below for anyone whose interested.
Stalag Tunnel Nameds:
a stalag terror: Crystal Fiber
A terror carver: Crystal Covered Shroud
A hollow crystal: Crystal Fiber, Froststone Stein
a life leech: Chipped Velium Amulet, Blackened Crystalline Robe
Spider Tunnel Nameds:
The nameds in the spider tunnels are found all the way in the room furthest to the east.
Queen Dracnia: Sceptre of the Coldain Ancients, Crystalline Robes, Messenger of the Queen
Crystal Purifier: Crystal Lined Slippers
A crystal lurker: Spider Fang Choker, Glowing Velium Axe
A Drachnid retainer: Crystallized Two Handed Sword, Crystallized Sword, Glowing Velium Axe, Crystal Webshield
A crystal grinder: Crystal grinder
Geonid Tunnel Nameds:
That's really all there is to Crystal Caverns! This location is good up until level 37/38 which is when it'll start to drop off in EXP. For those out there twinked out and/or boxing smaller numbers you can camp the geonids all the way to level 40 for decent EXP if you'd like. It won't be worth it if you're in a full group though.
Additional Zone Information
- Crystal Caverns can be reached by clicking on the small orb that's found inside the shed behind the orc fortress. For more information on how to reach the orb and what it looks like read my How to reach Crystal Caverns Guide.
- This zone was remade during the Rain of Fear expansion pack. The original still exists on live but there is an additional level 95 - 100 version of the zone.
Crystal Caverns Allakhazam Zone Information
Crystal Caverns P99 Zone Information