The Underkeep located in the City of Threads just under the transformatory. This is the location of many Nerubian experiments meaning there are lots of spiders within so arachnophobes can activate arachnophobic mode to change the spiders into crabs.
There are 4 versions of The Underkeep delve:
- Escaped Experiments
- Torture Victims
- Evolved Research
- Weaver Rescue
The Underkeep Delve Overview
This section will cover things that are relevant to all versions of the delve.
Delve Mechanic
Coming soon. Was not active in Beta.
Delve Mobs
These are the mobs that we felt were worth highlighting in Earthcrawl Mines. If you have already done the another Nerubian delve you recognise them from there.
Nerubian Slasher is a melee mob who deals heavy physical damage, and who also applies a nasty stacking bleed. Make sure you kill these fast if you can.
Nerubian Threadmancer is a caster. They only cast Web Bolt, a heavy single target damage ability. They can be interrupted or line of sighted, so use this to your advantage if you need to.
Nerubian Captain is a large melee mob, who casts an absorb shield which can be interrupted. The Captain is always accompanied by some smaller Skittering Swarmers and Ankle Biters.
Nerubian Fearmonger is a melee mob who deals very little damage. However, they have a cast which will form a large circle on the ground, which if stood in when the cast finishes will fear you for several seconds.
Skittering Swarmer is a melee mob who deals light physical damage. It has a frontal charge that can be side-stepped.
Nerubian Darkcaster is a caster who also deals light physical melee damage. They cast Shadowbolt; a large single target damage hit, which can be interrupted or line of sighted.
Delve Boss
The Boss for The Underkeep is Xik’vik, who is an ascended Nerubian with void infused powers.
His three abilities are:
- Rend Void is an uninterruptible cast that deals heavy damage to anyone caught within the circle. It will also leave behind a void zone which deals moderate ticking damage to anyone standing inside it.
- Encasing Webs this is a long channeled cast that will apply the stacking magic debuff Encasing Webs this reduces movement speed by 10% and on 10 applications will stun the target for 6 seconds, you can however interrupt this ability.
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Their room will also have traps relating to which version of the delve you are in this will be explained in each section.
Escaped Experiments
The Escaped Experiments version of The Underkeep begins with a note from one of the Weaver’s agents. Clicking on the text option will start the delve. The first objective is to obtain a Pheromone Bottle. Once you click on it, it will grant you Enhanced Sight, increasing your movement speed by 100% and being able to see Failed Evolutions and Volatile Pheromone Bottles through walls as a red outline.
The second objective is to recover eight Volatile Pheromones. They are easily spotted with the red outline and are usually guarded by a small group of enemies. While collecting them make sure to keep an eye on where the Crazed Abominations are running, as these will run around the delve and deal moderate damage and knock over anyone they collide with (they appear as unfriendly mobs that can not be attacked). Once you have collected all eight Volatile pheromones you will get an Extra Action button Volatile Pheromones that lets you put a small cloud on the ground. Place a cloud in the path of a Crazed Abomination to stun it and make it attackable. You will need to stun and kill all three Crazed Abominations which will complete the delve, as the boss is not present in this version of the delve.
Torture Victims
In the Torture Victims version of The Underkeep you must free torture victims. The first objective is to kill a large group of enemies at the entrance area. Then you will need to rescue 13 prisoners throughout the delve. We recommend starting by heading up the stairs to the left to prevent backtracking.
There are 2 types of prisoners: poison and frost. The frost ones are simple; they are attackable blocks of ice that you need to kill. The poison is a little more complex. They will have multiple green crystals channeling on them, which you need to click to disable. However, the crystals reactivate after a short time, and taking damage interrupts the cast to disable them. So make sure you don’t dilly dally between crystals, or pull mobs, as that will make the first crystal reactivate before you reach the last. Also make sure you don’t run into the beams from the crystals as they deal significant damage.
After freeing all 13 Prisoners you can fight the boss. His room will contain a lot of the poison crystals, which will periodically empower him, causing him to deal significant damage but move very slowly. Just kite for 10 seconds until the buff falls off.
Evolved Research
In the Evolved Research version of The Underkeep you must confront an evil Researcher. First the Researcher will summon a Failed Ascended elite to attack you. Despite being elite, the mob does very little damage and does not have any special abilities. Then you will be ambushed by three waves of adds, which are from the standard set of mobs. When you have defeated these, the Researcher will run away and you must follow him into the next room, where there is an arena. You now need to stay in the arena and kill mobs to fill a progress bar. Once done you can proceed to the final boss room.
Weaver Rescue
In this version of The Underkeep you will be helping the agents of The Weaver. To start the delve, recuse 3 Weaver’s Agents. They are small Spiderlings frozen on the ground, surrounded by Swirling Frost traps and enemies. Kill the enemies and then carefully avoid the frost traps as you free the agents.
Once you free all three they will open the door to the right and give you the objective to destroy Black Blood Containers. These are mobs who when killed explode, after a short cast, and deal heavy damage to anything caught in the area. They do enough damage to each other to cause chain reactions if they overlap. Since you have to kill them anyway you can use them to kill nearby enemies. When the containers die they will also spawn Black Blood Ooze, which are mobs that don’t do much, but too many of them could easily overwhelm you.
The second objective is to collect Key Scrolls. There will be 3 Scroll Bearers, who when you kill them will drop a scroll on the floor which you need to pick up. Once you have filled up the bar for the containers you can move on to the boss.
In this version of The Underkeep the boss room will be filled with Frost traps. The traps will periodically empower the boss, causing him to deal significant damage but move very slowly. Just kite for 10 seconds until the buff falls off. They also cause him to occasionally drop ice swirls on the ground. Make sure you pull him near the edge so his rend Void ability is not in the middle of the room.
