Welcome to Gaia! ::

Welcome to your Guide to your DMS adventures! This guide's purpose is to explain about what to expect in DMS, and is designed so that it should be approachable for a complete beginner to the area (just because you have experience though doesn't mean that the guide may not be helpful). It should enable you to be informed about what the area looks like, what kind of enemies and quests there are, and what kind of things you can get from DMS. It does not cover recommended ring-sets and strategies, but there are links provided to some guides which do.

DMS' big public opening has become an incentive for me to tidy this guide up and tighten up on some information. I've made some minor changes. Feedback is more than welcome.

Q.What is DMS anyway?
A. DMS stands for Deadman's Shadow, and it is the most recent area to be added to ZOMG
~You can legitimately level up your rings past CL 10 using Shadow Orbs
~It's all brand new- new maps, new animated, new quests, new storyline

Q.When can we get in?
A.Area release was 11/11/11 for amulet or gem holders & it is publicly accessible to everyone as of 6/9/12.

I would like to think of this as more of a community guide than a one-man show. I'm no expert on the area (not that anyone is!Except maybe our fabulous Dev Team), and would love to get screenshots, data, hints & tips, DMS related jokes- you name it!


Relevant News
More Info on Bloodstone Amulet
DMS Open to Early Birds
Community Bar Explanation
DMS Permanently Open to Public

Maps & Images
Dead Man's Shadow is a maze, so there is no specific A-B map- but there is a series of the same rooms set up in different configurations.

Get lost all the time? I've done up a template that you can use to help mark your progress in DMS. Click on the image to view the larger image. Basically, you just mark in things as you go along, and I've added a key to some things that you may want to put on your map. Saves you from those Scooby Doo moments of running around like madmen trying to find those last couple of rooms.


Yes, I am not very arty.

The caves are in sections- in the first section most animated are CL 11, with some CL 11.5 mini-bosses (Big Dog & Night Fright). There is a second section with animated at CL 12-12.5 referred to as the green room or green maze. At the end of the Green maze, there is a section of 3 rooms called the 100% room, as your avatars are at full size (also, you are 100% done with the annoying maze). At the end of this, there are stairs to the Crypt, which is a series of 4 rooms where you fight 1st form Kamila. From there, if you click on the bell tower, you will be transported to the area where you fight Bloodlust Kamila.


Image credits to -Shiny_Tsukkomi-

How to get in
The entrance is at the gate to Dead Man's Pass in Bill's Ranch.

You can enter the area through the door that was previously locked in DMP near where you found Stoocie (or where you go through to get to the clutch crate).

Enter DMP at any level of difficulty and even though you are level capped in that instance- entering DMS will restore you to your full level (up to CL 12.0)


A few pictures of people in DMS are below. Click on a picture to bring up a larger image.








Important!There is a nasty glitch that involves part of your instance resetting (e.g just the Green Maze), under certain circumstances, which is pretty rage-inducing. There's been some confirmed trigger conditions for this, though sometimes it's not avoidable. If there is only one person in a part of the instance (e.g. yellow maze, green maze, 100% room) and they disconnect, this will frequently reset that part of the maze. We are hoping that this glitch will be prioritised on the fixing glitches list, but just being aware of some of the trigger conditions may be helpful.

Quests
It is highly recommended you are at least CL 10, with most of your rings at CL 10 before entering DMS.
This is tough guys! There's lots of other game out there if you aren't ready & I would also suggest having beaten EB before. It's not a requirement, but it should get you used to effective crewing & buff assignments.

At the entry to DMP- talk to the Von Helson twins.

They will ask you to take care of something for them. There is a different gang of vampires in their mountain & they want them out. They tell you that the leader of this group is Alastor.

*Note*- This quest doesn't appear on your current quest list

Enter the Shadow:
When you enter the first cave, you will see Deva.

She says that she would like your help & firstly asks you to kill 20 monsters. After you have done this, return to her.
Reward 3-5 Shadow Orbs

Searching the Shadow: (Requires- Enter the Shadow)
Speak to Deva again. She says that one of her associates has gone missing. She asks you to search for Kamila in the first section of the caves.- This is a series of 20 caves linked in a random fashion each time you enter. Animated are CL 11-11.5
Once you have cleared the first section of caves, you will get a PDA update saying to search for Kamila in the second section of the caves. Animated in this section are 12-12.5. This is a further series of 20 caves.
Once you have cleared the second section of caves you will reach the 100% room and get your first glimpse of Kamila. You will get a PDA update to return to Deva
Reward 5 Shadow Orbs, 1,000 Gold

The Big Man: (Requires- Searching the Shadow)
Deva asks you to speak to Alastor, as she said that Kamila's plans may be a problem for all of Gaia.


Deeper in Darkness: (Requires- The Big Man)
Alastor asks you to kill 100 minions (Vampires/Vampiresses and Werewolves) in the caves, as he wants revenge against Kamila for plotting against him.
After you have killed 100, you will get a PDA update to return to Alastor.
Reward 5 Shadow Orbs, 2,500 Gold This quest will also attune you to the door in the first cave, which will warp you straight to the green maze

Getting Bloody Ready: (Requires- Deeper in Darkness)
Alastor asks you to kill 150 minions (Vampires/Vampiresses and Werewolves) in the caves.
After you have killed 150, you will get a PDA update to return to Alastor.
Reward 5 Shadow Orbs, 1,500 Gold

Pitch Black: (Requires- Getting Bloody Ready)
Alastor will ask you to collect 25 Tissue Samples from enemies from the caves. You can get them from Night Frights (in the yellow maze), Big Dogs (in the green maze) or Counts (in the 100% room).
After you have 25 samples, you will get a PDA update to return to Alastor.
Reward 5 Shadow Orbs, 1,000 Gold

Bloodlust: (Requires- Pitch Black)
Alastor will ask you to meet him in the Crypt.

Unquenchable: (Requires- Pitch Black)
Deva will reward you for killing 50 of Kamila's minions. This is a repeatable quest. Please note that once you have completed Bloodlust (the quest), you are unable to repeat this quest.
Reward 250 Gold

Meeting & Beating Kam
This isn't so much concerned with 'you need to bring these rings' or 'you need to have these roles', as I am very much a believer in allowing people to find their own strategies, but just explaining what happens in both 1st form & Bloodlust Kam.

First Form Kamila
You meet will fight Kamila in the Crypt, which is composed of 4 rooms, called for the sake of convenience- top left, top right, bottom left & bottom right. The crew comes in top left & Kam starts in the top right screen.

When someone goes and speaks to Alastor in the top right screen, this will trigger dialogue and after that, Kamila will start sending spawns towards the crew (Vampires, Vampiresses and Bloodbats at CL 12). Once all of the spawns have been killed, it is possible to attack the coffins on the top right screen. Until the coffins are all dead, you can only damage Kamila for 5 HP at a time- they're a form of health insurance for her. Other than that, coffins are totally passive. Once the coffins on that screen are dead, you can attack Kamila. Once she loses about 1/4 HP, she will run off to another screen & send spawns to the screen which the crew is on. You need to repeat this process on all 4 screens. 1st form Kamila only regenerates HP when she attacks others, so if you can avoid annoying her until you are ready to fight her, it will make your life easier. First form Kamila has a sleep attack and also a targeted AoE attack- similar to Vampires, but much harder hitting.

Bloodlust Kamila
Bloodlust Kamila is kind of like a Night Fright- she has high health regen (500HP per 5 seconds), a sleep attack and deals high damage. When Kamila is in her standard position, the far left of the screen is safe (she cannot see you there). When she drops to certain HP for the first time, she will spawn waves of Bloodbats. If you wipe/she regenerates- don't worry, you don't have fight those bats again. The bats come from the far right of the screen, and will fly towards your crew.

Kamila spawns bats at the following HP (x1,000) 113,99,85,71.5,56,42,28, 14.5. She has 2 types of attacks- a stabby ranged attack, and a droplet AoE attack. The ranged attack also has AoE, but it's directional in the direction of the person who holds aggro. Most of the time, there will be 6 bats in a wave, but occasionally as many as 12. There have been very rare occasions where she will spawn more bats but these seem to be a statistical anomaly. There are a fixed number of bats [48], so if you get more in one wave, you should get less in a later wave.

NB At present, some servers have a glitch where Bloodlust Kamila has no bat waves. This will probably be fixed at some future date, but if no bats turn up, don't panic! It's a known error.

Levelling Up
To level up past CL 10, you need 10 shadow orbs for each .1 CL for each ring. To level past CL 11, 20 orbs are required per .1 CL. So, short of getting higher CL rings and swapping/salvaging- 12,000 Orbs will be needed to bring all in-game dropped rings to CL 12 or 13,500 for all rings. That's a lot of orbs guys! To get best use out of your upgrades, I'd suggest levelling a core set of rings up to 11 (Meat, Mantis, Hack and Wish/Bandage is pretty standard), then levelling those rings up to 12. This minimises Ring Effectiveness Distortion (there's a complicated algorithm in-game which affects how well your rings work), and means that you'll have levelled rings that you'll be using a lot. After that- use discretion, or keep orbs available to level rings as required for more challenging areas (Green Maze and Kamila).

Banners
If you would like to link to this thread, please feel free to use one of the banners below.

I have a (crummy) banner.



Much nicer banner designed by the delightful Sylfaerien



Also, a mini banner/button. Take up less signature real-estate and need a magnifying glass to read the information!



If you enjoyed this thread and have questions about Alchemy, I also have an Alchemy guide.

I think this guide will become usefull, and now it's also usefull becouse you don't need to search in the announcements to reread the info. I've already added this guide in my browsertabs, probably I will need this in the future, so keep it up! cat_3nodding .

I've updated the info, but here it is just for you!

How to get in
You can't at present, but the entrance will be the gate to Dead Man's Pass in Bill's Ranch.

Words from [ JK ] : "Fictionally, that gate where Stoocie is found is the entrance to DMS. However, due to technical limitations, this wasn't feasible. We did come up with a solution to allow players to enter from there, but that would've required another instance, separate from the current, existing DMP to allow for it to work. And this was more trouble than its worth, so we went with this route."

When the area is opened, there should be an option to enter either the existing DMP or the new DMS.