The Blight

The Blight is the sickness that has taken the island. It breaks out in new places every hour, it sends creatures after players who wander alone, and its biggest monsters wait in the arena for anyone brave enough to pay for the fight.

Everything you take from it is paid in Blight Fragments, and fighting it opens the Virulent path in your skills.

At a glance#

Where you meet it#

The hourly Blights#

Every hour a Blight forms somewhere on the island. Chat names the grid square and the map shows a BLIGHT marker. Five minutes later it breaks out under a purple dome. Hold E at the concentration in the middle to siphon it while the creatures come at you in waves. When the window closes, everyone who took part is paid.

It is the main way to earn fragments. The whole run, with the numbers, is on Blight Events.

Hunters: the Stalker and the Mimic#

Two creatures do not wait to be found. They come for players who have gone quiet.

• When the Stalker arrives you see: Something out here has your scent.
• Neither one comes while a patrol helicopter or a Bradley is within 180 m of you, and no more than three hunt at once on the whole server.
• The Stalker turns unseen in smoke, drops spikes under you, throws F1 grenades and heals as it is hurt. Its full card is in the Bestiary.

Tip: A "player" at a monument who walks straight at you without a word, wearing exactly what you wear, is not a player. Shoot first.

Mini bosses: Robert and the Rider#

Two mini bosses fill up on their own as the server plays. Each has a hidden meter from 0 to 100:

• The meter fills faster the more different players are active, and it levels off, so a full server is fast but not instant. A place (a monument or a patch of open ground) only counts for 15 minutes before it goes cold for an hour, so farming one spot stalls it.
• When a meter is full, chat announces the boss and a marker goes on the map. It arrives 5 minutes later, with reminders at 3 minutes, 1 minute and 30 seconds.
• Only one mini boss is out at a time, at least 45 minutes apart, and never within 200 m of a live Blight. One that nobody kills wanders off after 30 minutes.
• Robert swings a mace, shocks everyone near him and keeps throwing up short-lived wooden walls around himself. Explosives hurt him the most.
• The Rider rides a horse and roams. Get close and he freezes you, shocks you and drops spikes under you.

Their full cards are in the Bestiary. What they drop, and how luck changes it, is on Gear Luck.

Arena bosses#

Five Blight bosses wait in the arena: World Breaker, The Heretic, Brood Mother, Warden and the Corrupted Juggernaut. You buy a fight with fragments at the arena (/buyboss), bring up to eight friends, and fight it inside the ring. Prices, rules and every boss are on Bosses & the Arena.

What the bosses call in#

Big Blight creatures call for help when you get close:

• The Blighted: basic Blight soldiers in hazmat suits with machetes, 120 health. About 1 in 5 is Frenzied: much faster, fast enough to catch a sprinting player.
• Reapers: the Corrupted Juggernaut calls them three at a time.
• Animals: wolves, boars, bears, polar bears and even chickens, depending on the boss.
• Vehicles: the World Breaker calls in Chinooks full of scientists, a patrol helicopter and a Bradley.

Blight Fragments#

There is one kind of fragment, the Blight Fragment. It is a real item in your inventory: a human skull with the Blight's skin, named Blight Fragment.

Where fragments come from#

• Kills outside a Blight do not drop fragments.
• The Fragment Hunter skill on the Virulent path adds up to 30% to every Blight payout.
• If you are dead, asleep or offline when a Blight pays out, your fragments wait and arrive the next time you are up.

What fragments are for#

They buy arena boss fights (/buyboss). Each boss has its own price, from free to 50 fragments. See Bosses & the Arena.

• /fragments tells you how many you carry.

Warning: Fragments are an item, so they drop with your body when you die. Bank them in a box (or your vault) and only carry what you are about to spend.

Tip: Fragments work the same for everyone, so a group can pool them and send one player to buy the fight.

The Virulent path#

The Virulent path is the Blight's own branch of your skills (/st). It opens at skill level 20, and you spend ordinary skill points on it.

Virulent Edge is the root: every other Virulent skill needs it first.

Mastery: kill and learn#

Every kill of a creature type counts toward your mastery of it, and it carries over between wipes.

Type /codex (or /knowledge) to see your kills and tiers. The game tells you each time you reach a new tier.

Solo or group#

Solo

• Pick the Blights where you can see the edge of the dome. The waves come from all sides, so keep the concentration between you and the newest wave.
• Farming alone for a long time brings the Stalker. Keep a weapon ready, not just a tool.
• Brood Mother has the least health of the arena bosses, but her animals snowball. Read her card before you pay.

In a group

• Everyone who siphons is paid for their own seconds, and everyone gets the end bonus for their own kills. Take turns on E while the others clear.
• Arena fights take up to eight. Each extra fighter adds 10% to the boss's health, so bring the people you need, not everyone.

Commands#

Related pages: Blight Events · Bestiary · Bosses & the Arena · Night Zombies · Gear Luck · Progression