The far lands: beyond Ape Mountain

In short: The second world past the desert road -- a canyon, the fairy plains, the serpent zone and the Sky Maze -- laid out from level 42 to 130, with the way in and the way home.

Past the five cities the map keeps going. Three regions chain into one another, each for a higher band of levels, and this guide walks them in the order you will meet them. Distances are real: these places are walked to, and the walk is part of the design.

The Far Canyon and the Fairy Lands (levels 42-120)

Where: walk out of Desert City into the further desert and keep going -- the Road Guide at the desert's northern edge opens the old road. Some weeks the Wandering Guide in Twin City is going this way too. For whom: levels 42 to 120, depending how far you walk. The way home: the road works both ways, and the Adventure Zone's northern swirl drops you on Ape Mountain.

Beyond Ape Mountain lies a second world: a canyon, a wide plain, old woods and the caterans' camps. It was always drawn on the map -- there was simply no road into it. Now there is one.

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The long desert road

The proper way in is on foot, out of Desert City. Cross the further desert to its northern edge and you will find the Road Guide standing where the old road comes out. He opens it; from there five stages of road lead north, each a swirl at the far end of the last:

The road climbs as it goes, so turn back when it starts biting. Every swirl on it works in both directions -- you can always walk out the way you came.

The road ends at the Fairy Plain, and from there the whole second world is open.

The shortcut

There is no paid ride into the canyon: this chain is meant to be walked, and the road above is the way in. The one exception is the Wandering Guide in Twin City, whose single weekly road sometimes runs here -- worth asking him on a Monday. A city gate scroll gets you home from anywhere in the chain.

What lives where

The plain is the crossroads: the canyon lies south of it, the woods north, and the packs get stronger the further you walk from the southern road.

Why it is worth the walk

• It fills the 42-78 gap with open country instead of city fields -- room for a party to spread out, and no competition for spawns.
• The Adventure Zone is on the same road, so a levelling character has somewhere to grow into.
• Nothing there is instanced or gated: no quest, no key, no minimum level. Walk in and fight.

The Adventure Zone (levels 102-117)

Entry: take the long desert road into the Far Canyon, then walk south to the swirl at the canyon's southern end (see The Far Canyon). Exit: the swirl at the north of the zone, which puts you back on Ape Mountain. For whom: levels 102-117, solo or -- much better -- in a party. Reward: the fastest serpent grinding on the server, plus the usual high-level drops.

The Adventure Zone is a canyon overrun by serpents. It is built for party hunting: the packs are dense, they respawn quickly, and every corner of the map is worth fighting in. You arrive in the middle of it, and the deeper you walk from the arrival point, the bigger the serpents get.

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Who lives where

The canyon is split into four territories, one species each -- so you always know what you are walking into, and a party can pick ground that matches its level.

Each species keeps to one camp -- a single solid stretch of ground rather than packs sprinkled across its whole territory. Between the camps the canyon is empty, so you always know which camp you are standing in and you never meet two kinds of serpent at once. The ground around both portals is kept clear too -- you will not be jumped the moment you land.

Hunting here

• Bring a party. Every member standing near the kill earns a share of the experience, and the packs are large enough to keep four people busy. A high-level friend pulling a low-level one through here also earns virtue points -- see the virtue guide.
• The packs are worth clearing. A camp is thick with serpents and refills continuously, so a party that keeps moving in a circle never runs out of targets. Walk out of a camp and the canyon goes quiet -- that empty ground is where you rest, not where you hunt.
• Watch your potions. These serpents hit hard for their level, and there is no shop or warehouse inside the canyon -- stock up in Ape City before you come.
• Getting out: the swirl in the north-west arm sends you back to Ape City. The way you came in also works.

The Sky Maze (levels 123-130)

Levels 123-130 — the last ground in the world, and the only place with monsters worth fighting once you pass the Ice Crypt. Three floors, each harder than the one below. The way in: the Frost Warden in the Adventure Zone, then the Ice Crypt.

For a long time the world simply stopped. The strongest thing anyone could go and kill was an IcySerpent of level 122, and a character above that had nothing left in reach — which made the longest climb in the game the emptiest one. The Sky Maze is the answer to that.

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Getting there

1. Reach the Adventure Zone (from Ape Mountain).
2. Find the Frost Warden and let him open the road to the Ice Crypt.
3. The crypt has two swirls: one takes you back to the Adventure Zone, the other up into the Sky Maze.
4. Each floor has a swirl onward and a swirl back. Nothing here is a teleport — you walk it.

The Ice Crypt is worth knowing on its own: it holds over a thousand IcySerpents of level 122, and until now nobody could get to a single one of them.

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The floors

Every floor is a maze of narrow walkways over open sky, and the packs sit in the wider chambers. The ladder rises with distance from the stairs, so the walk in is the difficulty curve.

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What to expect

These are not the monsters you left behind. A SkyTyrant hits for up to 6,000 and carries the most health the game can give a monster — nothing above it exists, or can. Properly geared you will take four or five of its blows before you fall; poorly geared, rather fewer.

That last part matters for how the floors are built. Health has a ceiling, so from level 125 upward the monsters get harder by hitting harder and being better armoured, not by taking longer to kill. Bring defence, and bring potions: the drops here are the best healing and mana tiers in the game.

They are aggressive, and they see a long way. There is no strolling through the Sky Maze.

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Why come here

• It is the only place your level is worth full experience. Past level 122 everything else in the world is far enough beneath you to pay a fraction — what to fight explains the rule. Here, and only here, a monster at your own level exists.
• The rare stream scales with monster level, so these are the best odds in the game for a Meteor, a DragonBall, or a +3/+4 stone — see drop rates.

How our version differs

The Far Canyon and the Fairy Lands (levels 42-120):

• In the original game this chain had no entrance either -- every swirl in it points outward, which is why it went unused for so long. The long desert road that opens it is ours.
• The Fairy Plain's inhabitants are our choice, picked to bridge the woods and the canyon. In the original the map was empty.
• The Meteor Zone and the two zones past it are sealed in the original data -- no swirl leads in or out of them. The Pass Guide on the western edge of the plain (and his opposite number on the other side) is ours, so that corner of the world can be walked to like everywhere else.

The Adventure Zone (levels 102-117):

The Adventure Zone is not a classic Conquer Online map -- it is our own hunting ground, built on the terrain of the canyon beyond Ape Mountain. The serpent ladder (Serpent, Senior Serpent, Alien Serpent, Basilisk) follows the classic serpent line, but their territories, density and respawn rate are ours, tuned for party play. If the zone feels too thin or too crowded, say so on the test board -- it is a single setting for us to change.

Where to find them