User:Athlon/Athlon's Labyrinth Lover's Handbook

DISCLAIMER
NOTE: kept for historical purposes. The labyrinth was changed and updated to take advantage of new building standards in May 2013.

Note: much of this guide is opinion-based, but the information about eq and locations of mobs are true, and even most of the opinion stuff can be confirmed by just about any player who's been playing for over a year.

This guide assumes you know at least how to get into the labyrinth. I'm sorry, I am not going to give you directions, mostly because the directions don't seem to be the same every time I go in. In general, you start out at level 1, and you enter stairways to get in to other levels. The stairway to level 2 leads down, but the stairs to level 3 and 4 lead up, and the stairs to level 5 lead back down. There are some trick stairs that take you to the previous instead of the next level. Try and have a summoner ready in case you're wrong. Otherwise you might have to navigate he previous floor, and it is very possible you will be in a completely different location than when you entered the level the first time around. This guide will mainly talk about mobs, tips, and other general-purpose stuff that you should know. The first section talks about the maze part of the area, ad the last part talks about what happens when you get out. Quick note of caution: Also, every floor has 1 room with a down exit. Don't take this down exit, or you will land in a pit that, when you come back up out of it, leads you back to level 1. What a misadventure! OK, enough with the navigation; let's talk mobs.

Mob groups
The labyrinth is home to many, many mobs, but they can be classified into a few main categories. Most of them die quickly, but they do award good xp, except the insect mobs, which are there just to annoy the hell out of you.

Hydras
Every floor contains hydras. Level 1 only shows you 4 and 5 headed hydras, but level 2 opens up the 6 headed and removes the 4, level 3 opens up 7 and 8 headed, and level 4 opens up 9 headed, pyro and cryo hydras. Level 5 does away with all types except the 9-headed, cryo and pyro hydras. Hydras, except the pyro/cryo hydras, are relatively easy to kill and don't hit too hard. On the other hand, pyro and cryo hydras breathe fire and ice at you, respectively. It is important to have breath save ready when you hit level 4, because they may come up on you by surprise. Plus, the boy scouts say "be prepared", so just do as they say so they don't annoy you. Oh, and hydras don't grow extra heads.

Gorgons
Gorgons only show up on level 1, and are quite easy to kill. Nothing much to say here.

Giant Red Ant
Giant red ants inhabit all levels of the labyrinth. They have nearly 100% null magic res; all spells that you throw at it will fail utterly except harm. So hit it. It's really really easy to kill. But it's annoying. So you should want to kill it even more because of that fact.

Giant Black Scorpion
level 3 introduces to you giant black scorpions, which aren't much harder than the ants and don't have any of that annoying null magic res. Go to town.

Bugbears
Bugbears show up beginning at level 2. These only attack you if you have charisma below about 16. They are very weak, and easy to kill, but if you are attempting to bloodmist another mob and a bugbear wanders into the room, it will slaughter all your bloodmist demons. Kill it and be done with it.

Minotaurs
Minotaurs are men with the heads of bulls. They first show up on level 3, and never really disappear until you exit the maze. THey hit fairly hard, and take a bit of work to kill, but look on the bright side: They give great xp to a soloer or even a small group of midlevel players.

Animating entities and their friends
All the following mobs have very little in common except that their deaths always bring out the animating entity inhibiting their former bodies.

Animating entity
Almost always a cap while soloing, but very annoying. These entities cast harm, have pretty high hp counts and hit medium hard. Luckily, it's not really resistant to anything, except magical damage.

Gray Ooze
The bane of necros, this mob spams earthquake, which usually is the death toll for skeletal minions. other than that, they have very few hitpoints and die quickly. Avoid them at all costs if you are a necro though, or have tons of dragon teeth on hand.

Yellow Ocher
This one likes to spam hand spells at you, and like the ooze, has only a few hit points. Kill it quick or avoid it; I usually avoid it because I just can't be bothered with the entity that lies in wait if I kill it.

The Creeper
This annoyance mob wanders outside the labyrinth. Kill or retreat past it; nothing interesting loads on it, but it usually does give a cap when you kill it.

Mindflayer
This mob shows up on level 1 in one of the sealed passageways. It's fairly hard to kill, and likes to steal away your mana. After killing it, take the crystal ball on the ground to complete the mindflayer deed.

Treasure seeker
Easy, not even worth talking about, or killing. He won't steal gold from you or anything.

Quickling
An annoying nuisance, but quick. It likes to hit you really fast. It also flees when hurt. Chase it around, and once you kill it, grab its quicksilver ring, which is just about the nicest piece that loads in the maze. The filthy nuisance is also a cap.

Invisible Stalker
This is a fame mob, and inhabits level 4. However, it's racked to the level 2 fame rack, so go figure. Its condition doesn't show up, but it has about the same amount of hp as the minotaurs, so you should be okay. It has a bit of null magic res too. Best of all, it's always a cap.

Paladin
I don't know what he thinks he's doing in the labyrinth but he's easy to kill nevertheless. He loads a blade of blessings on death which isn't too good compared to modern weaponry. It was probably better when the labyrinth was newer. Or it may have just been dented; lots of old eq has been dented recently.

Jeb and Jub, the Ettyn
Another one-hit wonder that shows up on level 3. It has a fair amount of hp, more than even the minotaur, and hits hard. it also loads 2 pieces of headgear when it dies, because it had two heads to begin with. Fun.

Wizard
Ah yes, the advanced trainer for level 32 mages. also wanders around level 3. He is invisible, so make sure you have detect invis up. Not hard to kill either, and loads a sorta inferior ring and a rather pointless wand of lightning that hums and gives away your location if you try to hide. Move along... next ...

Gelatinous cube
Not sure about whether it's on the fourth or fifth level, but if you see it, avoid it at all costs. This thing hits like a truck and has tons of hitpoints. I've only fought it twice and the second time I died. It doesn't even load anything good upon death.

Isha the dark elf
Another easy kill. She loads some low level breath save by 15 pieces and a scroll of lightning bolt or something ... who really cares because it sucks. Either way, she's on level 4.

Fire elemental
A dweller of level 5, this mob spams flamestrike at you, but at least it doesn't breathe. It is easy enough to dispatch and loads a flaming cape upon death that sucks for its level and binds. Well unless it randoms (I just found a remarkable version on the ground recently).