Crypts

Crypts are the engine of your account. They drop the gear and gems that make every captain stronger, which in turn makes every other system more efficient. A player who skips crypts falls permanently behind. This page explains how a crypt resolves mathematically, where each unlock actually reduces your Tar bill, and how to set Carter up for it.

How a crypt resolves

Each crypt has three parameters:

Health. The total damage required to fully explore the crypt.
Damage. The progress made per march (per hit).
Cost. The Tar required for one exploration attempt.

A hit is a single march against a crypt. The number of hits needed to clear it is Health ÷ Damage, rounded up to the next whole hit (you can’t land a partial march), and total Tar spent is hits × Cost. In a Level 35 Epic Crypt, for example, one hit equals a fixed amount of Tar, and the clear budget is fully determined by how many whole hits your Damage lets you land.

Efficiency bonuses and the rounding trap

Crypt Exploration Efficiency (from research, talents, gems, enchantments, and titles) increases Damage per hit. A 100% efficiency bonus doubles Damage, halves hits, and halves Tar.

The system rounds hits up to whole numbers. A bonus that takes required hits from 6.36 down to 6.20 still rounds to 7. Same Tar. Only when your cumulative bonus drops the required hits by a full integer does your Tar-per-crypt actually decrease.

This means leveling Carter, socketing a 15% efficiency gem, or unlocking the next research node can show zero change in Tar until you cross the next whole-hit threshold. Gains are discrete, not continuous. Plan upgrades as stacking effort toward the next breakpoint, not as linear improvements.

Tar is the real budget

Tar is the only resource crypt runs consume in volume, and nothing else consumes Tar meaningfully. The entire crypt loop optimises Tar-per-drop:

Crypt Exploration Efficiency (research, talents, gems, enchantments, titles): reduces hits via higher Damage. Threshold-gated, per above.
Crypt Exploration Cost (research, talents): reduces Tar per hit directly. Continuous, not threshold-gated.
Chance to Explore Twice (research): a second exploration on the same Tar spend.
Tar Workshop + Tar Production / Cap research: supply side. Upgrade the Workshop more than the default target (City Buildings) if you crypt often. Tar is labeled “Torch Oil” in some server localisations; it’s the same resource.
Ragnarök Fenrir shop: crypt keys and tar bundles are the main event-source top-up. See Ragnarök.

Cost reductions always pay out. Efficiency reductions only pay out when they cross a whole-hit line. At parity between the two, prioritise Cost for guaranteed return and Efficiency when you know it will cross a threshold.

Obtaining Carter

Carter is summoned at the Altar of the Summoning Circle in your city. Elite Summoning Scrolls come from daily quests and the Triumph Challenge shop; batch to 10 before summoning, single-scroll pulls waste rate. Carter fragments arrive from three places:

Summon Mastery: Carter events convert Elite Scrolls directly into Carter fragments. Save scrolls for these windows.
Academy Archeology research rewards.
Ragnarök Jörmungandr shop sells purple fragments; buy these once Fenrir and clan chests are covered.

See Captains → Unlocking Captains for general fragment strategy.

The Carter build

Carter is the only captain you use for crypts; the captain-level notes live in Captains. The crypt-relevant settings are:

Gear: Tomb Raider early on (start blue/purple, aim for red/gold), crafted at the Forge. Switch to * Omniscience* once Lv15+ Epic Crypts open; it cuts Tar consumption and makes rare and epic crypts affordable.
Gems: Amber, matching the gear rarity or one step below. Amber carries the Crypt Exploration Efficiency bonus and is the single most effective Tar-saving investment per slot.
Enchantment: Pioneer on every slot that accepts one.
March speed gems: a trade-off. More crypts per day at the cost of per-run efficiency. Use only if march time is your hard bottleneck, not Tar.
Artefact: Torch of Olympus is best-in-slot and directly boosts crypt clearing (won from Trials of Olympus). Until it drops, slot the War Drum as a stopgap; it extends march range so Carter can reach farther crypts. Artefacts require G4 to equip.
Level: Star 7 and high XP as early as possible. The fastest XP route is soloing epic monsters (Arachne especially); supplement with the XP chests from the Ragnarök shop and with regular crypt runs. Fragment events and Ragnarök purple fragments feed stars. Level high enough to clear your target crypt in a single march; multi-trip runs waste Tar on every re-march. If you are still below Hero 20 and plan to spend, the Absolute Domination pack is designed for exactly this captain-XP burst; hold it for Arachne windows.

Carter level vs. crypt level

A rough progression map. The numbers assume no external buffs. Match Carter’s level to the crypt tier, gear rarity, gem rarity, and enchantment rarity below; pushing ahead of the row typically wastes Tar.

Carter level	Crypt level	Gear	Gems	Enchantment
0–50	Lv5	-	-	-
50–100	Lv10	Blue	Green	-
100–150	Lv15	Purple	Blue	Green
150–200	Lv20	Orange	Purple	Blue
200–250	Lv25	Red	Orange	Purple
250–300	Lv30	Gold	Red	Orange
300 (cap)	Lv35	Gold	Gold	Red or Gold

Research path

Crypts live in the Archeology branch of the Academy. Archeology is the only branch that stays on red priority across every phase of the game. From the Academy Research plan:

Milestone	Node	Target	Unlocks
0	Crypt Exploration Efficiency I	Lv10	-
0	Crypt Exploration Cost I	Lv10	-
1	Crypt Exploration Cost I	Lv6	Crypts III / Epic Crypts (Academy 15)
2–3	Crypt Efficiency II	Lv8	Crypts IV (Academy 20)
4	Chance to Explore Twice II	Lv10	Crypts V (Academy 25)
5	All Crypt Efficiency/Cost nodes	Lv8–10	Crypts VI (Academy 30), VII (Academy 35)

Epic Crypts become accessible once Crypts III is unlocked and drop materially better gear materials; push Crypt Exploration Cost I to Lv6 as soon as Milestone 1 allows.

Hero talents

Run a dedicated Crypt preset (see Hero Talents) alongside your VP/Combat and Growth presets. Max these first, in Archeology:

Crypt Exploration Efficiency
Crypt Exploration Cost
Bonus Experience in Crypts

Swap to the Crypt preset before sending the day’s Carter runs, then swap back.

Stacking bonuses before a run

Crypt Efficiency stacks from several independent sources. Before sending the day’s marches, check that every lever is active:

Premium title set to Crypt efficiency / march speed. The Premium title is interchangeable, so swap per activity and switch back when you’re done (Events & Boosts).
Personal bonus: ”+” icon → Personal → activate Crypt efficiency. Free, and the single most commonly missed buff.
Hero talents: Crypt preset equipped (not VP/Combat or Growth).
Captain: Carter set at the moment the march launches. Unlike Aurora/Farhad/Helen, crypt captains do not snapshot a bonus onto a queued job; they apply at march time.
Watchtower (30-day gold activation): reveals crypts, monsters, and mines on the world map. High-level crypts outside your default view will not appear until the Watchtower is up.

Daily practice

Plan runs against specific materials you need, not random crypts. Gear and gem drops depend on crypt type.
Craft at blue or purple minimum; low-tier gear wastes the run.
Send Carter every day, including during VP events. Skipped crypts are a permanent strength gap, not a deferred one.
Match Carter’s level to the crypt so clears happen in one march.
Activate any Crypt Efficiency personal bonuses before sending.

Common mistakes

Skipping crypts to chase a VP window.
Random crypt selection (wrong material drops).
Crafting Tomb Raider at green or grey.
Socketing March Speed gems when Tar, not march time, is the bottleneck.
Expecting linear Tar savings from every efficiency gain. See the rounding trap above.
Levelling Carter past Lv300. His crypt bonuses are capped there; further XP is wasted.