DS4: Ancient Digsite
Overview:
This Dungeon is the first place you will find materials needed for the Hellstone Forge. It is highly recommended to have AT MINIMUM fully enchanted netherite armor and forge level items such as the Aether Blade, with the True Aether Blade being the best due to it's whirlwind ability to help knock enemies back. A bow will be critical in this dungeon due to some ranged battles, especially during the boss fight. Consider bringing friends with you to complete your journey as this dungeon proves to be much more challenging than the previous ones. If you attempt dungeon difficulties higher than the base difficulty, you will need Tier II or higher forge equipment to survive.
- Difficulty: Hard
- Lives: 3
- Time Limit: 45 Minutes
- Group Size: 1-4 players
Dungeon Mobs
You can expect to encounter a variety of new mobs in this dungeon.
Husk
These creatures are slightly stronger than your average zombie, however they are quite slow. When attacked, they gain a small fleeting speed boost. Just like vanilla husks, being hit by them will give you a small hunger debuff.
Mummy
Slow, high health, inflicts hunger and slowness when hit by them.
Ancient Skeleton
This enemy, like most in Ancient Digsite, is rather slow. However, they make up for this in being ranged, throwing bones at players.
Ancient Pharaoh
Tanky miniboss that shoots tornadoes at players as well as cursed sand along the ground that seeks you out.
Fire Sprite
Fire Sprites are a lot more difficult than the Forest Sprites encountered previously. Unlike the Forest Sprites, Fire Sprites do not lose health upon hitting you. They do slowly lose health over time, but it is still very slow. Fire Sprites, upon hitting you, can set you on fire, dealing fire damage.
Hellfire Archdemon
The boss of the dungeon. This boss has 3 phases and all are ranged battles. The Archdemon deals significant damage, and some attacks can be near one-shots if not dodged. Most of time time you can tank the first hit, but your armor is weakened for 6 seconds afterwards which can result in the next hit being deadly.
Boss Loot Table: (Hellfire Archdemon)
Note: The boss tier is determined by the number of players in the dungeon. Each player increases the boss tier by half a level.
Guaranteed Drops
| Item | Quantity |
| Shard Dust | 5 (100%) |
| Fiery Essence | 2 (100%) |
| Hellstone Ingot | 1 (100%) |
| Experience Points | 2000-3000xp |
Loot Rolls (Amount of loot that the loot tables below will drop)
This table shows how many "rolls" you will have in each loot pool. You gain additional rolls for fighting higher tier bosses. Each roll is one instance of loot being chosen from the below table at a weighted random. More rolls mean more chances for rare loot!
| Boss Tier | Resource Rolls | Treasure Rolls |
|
Tier 1 |
40 |
1 |
| Tier 2 | 80 | 2 |
| Tier 3 | 120 | 3 |
| Tier 4 | 160 | 4 |
| Tier 5 | 200 | 5 |
| Tier 6 | 240 | 6 |
| Tier 7 | 280 | 7 |
| Tier 8 | 320 | 8 |
| Tier 9 | 360 | 9 |
| Tier 10 | 400 | 10 |
Resource Pool (Items with a higher weight are more likely to be rolled)
The boss will pull loot drops from this table depending on the number of rolls. The weight of each item in the table determines how likely that item will be chosen during each roll. Higher boss tiers will grant you more loot rolls in this table. (Total Weights: 319)
| Item | Weight |
| Obsidian | 100 |
| Gold Ingot | 90 |
| Lapis Lazuli | 80 |
| Diamond | 50 |
| Shard Dust | 45 |
| Netherite Scrap | 6 |
| Fiery Essence | 5 |
| Hellstone Ingot | 3 |
| Netherite Ingot | 1 |
Treasure Pool (Hellfire Chest)
(Items with a higher weight are more likely to be rolled)
| Item | Weight |
| Infernal |
1000 |
| Arcane Netherite | 400 |
| Mana Generator | 100 |
| Mana Crystal | 90 |
| Nether Essence | 50 |
| Infernal Focus (Green) | 40 |
| Infernal Focus (Blue) | 40 |
| Infernal Focus (Red) |
40 |
| Hellfire Wand |
20 |
| Hellstone Blade | 20 |
| Hellstone Bow | 20 |
| Hellstone Helmet | 20 |
| Hellstone Chestplate | 20 |
| Hellstone Leggings |
20 |
| Hellstone Boots |
20 |
To determine the probability of obtaining an item, you must divide that item’s weight by the sum of all other weights.
Dungeon Guide:
Upon starting the dungeon, you will immediately be greeted with a variety of enemies (See Dungeon Mobs above) with husks being the most prevalent. Some are found along the edges of the path and require you to be a little closer for them to spawn. There are multiple sandstone structures along the path, some containing Desert Crates or chests. Once you have traveled past the fossils, you will encounter an Ancient Pharaoh. It's tornado attack sucks you in and it can do a decent deal of damage.
You will notice that around where the Ancient Pharaoh spawned, there is a pyramid entrance. This is the Pyramid Challenge and each party member gets one life to complete it. If you die in the Pyramid, you are booted out and cannot re-enter. Right clicking to start the challenge will warp the entire party inside, so make sure all members are ready before starting. The Pyramid is very difficult, with various turns and dead ends leading to dangerous enemies. There is also an optional parkour section for a bonus crate. The last stretch contains a large amount of mobs to defeat before you can get to the crate at the end. Upon breaking the crate, each member gets a +1 to their lives and can then go through the portal to leave.
After the Pyramid, you will run into the dig site. There are various chests and crates hidden in tents and mining pits. At the very end of the path is a large pit that looks to lead into the Nether. You will see a ward that is being protected by multiple shields around the pit that must be broken before the seal can be destroyed, triggering the boss to be summoned. Several high level enemies surround this pit so be ready for fighting. You will also find several Hellstone Ore scattered around the pit, but beware of the demons.
Guide written by: MaleahTries