User:Tanetris/Mythical Kodan Caches

Intro

Hi everyone! You might remember me from such guides as So You Want To Gear a Character. This... Is not as useful as that. Sorry. But it's fine. So what this is about is Mythical Kodan Caches in Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. If you don't have Janthir Wilds, you don't care about this! Maybe you will someday, in which case feel free to come back. This page'll still be here, probably.

The Basics

If you're familiar with Mythical Kodan Caches, you can skip this section. When riding your Warclaw mount, you'll find that your skil #2 is a Sniff skill. This sniffs out nearby creatures and, in Janthir Wilds maps, also sniffs out special caches which appear as a little grey chest icon on your minimap. Some of these are Major Kodan Caches (or Mursaat Ruins Caches in the new map), which have models and nameplates that can be found and opened even without sniffing them out, though you do need a Kodan Cache Key to open them. Don't worry about those, though. Then there are little dirt mounds (which may or may not be visible depending on the terrain) with no nameplate. When you walk over these while mounted on your Warclaw, your skill #2 will swap over to Uncover. Use this skill, and your Warclaw will dig up either a Lesser Kodan Cache, Minor Kodan Cache, or Locked Mythical Kodan Cache which goes into your inventory.

The Locked Mythical Kodan Caches are the good ones, but as the "Locked" part of their name indicates, you will need a Kodan Cache Key to open them. These keys are sold by the Unusual Coin Vendor in each Janthir Wilds map for that map's currency material. There's a limit (shared between all the vendors) of 21 full-price keys, plus 4 half-price keys if you have Janthir Explorer Proficiency mastery.

The Somewhat-Less-Basics

Even if you know about Mythical Kodan Caches generally, read this section, as I'm going to cover some common misconceptions. Also I'm just going to call them Mythics from now on.

The maximum number of Mythics you can get per day is 5: 3 from Lowland Shore, 1 from Janthir Syntri, and 1 from Mistburned Barrens. But most days you aren't going to get 5.

I'm going to focus on the 3 Mythics in Lowlands, which I refer to as "East", "Mid", and "West". The "East" Mythic has about a half-dozen possible spawn locations in generally the southeastern portion of the map, "Mid" has about a dozen possible spawn locations in generally the middle portion of the map, and "West" has about a dozen possible spawn locations in generally the southwest portion of the map. For every map IP, there will be one dig spot among East's possible spawn locations, one for Mid, and one for West*. The dig spots on the same map IP will be the same for all players, and the results of digging that spot will be the same for all players. BUT. It may not actually be a Mythic. And whether it's a Mythic or not, you cannot dig again within that pool of spots, even if you change map instances. So if you're on a map where the East dig spot is a Lesser/Minor, there is no way for you to get an East Mythic that day. I've experienced 2-Mythic Lowlands commonly, 3-Mythic and 1-Mythic Lowlands about equally occasionally, and rarely 0-Mythic Lowlands. Syntri works similarly, where if its single Mythic's ~14 spawn locations yields a Lesser/Minor instead, there's no way for you to get a Syntri Mythic. Same for Mistburned Barrens as well.

I consider this a poor design decision that punishes the people who are actively looking for Mythics and benefits people who sit back and wait for the Mythics to be called. But I don't work at Anet, so moving on.

It's worth knowing that you can dig up a new day's Mythics as soon as daily reset happens without having to change maps or relog. If you're still in the same IP that you dug up before reset, they'll still be in the same spots as before reset.

Lowland Shore

So let me show you my route. It's over there, to the right. It starts at Astral Ward camp (you can waypoint there or take the Astral Portal from Divinity's Reach if you've done the first story mission), moving east into Bjorn Thicket and then circling around to head west toward Cragged Upland. The bright green lines are a very, very rough estimation of the route, and the little File:Mythical_Kodan_Cache.png with white circle backgrounds are the dig spot spawns. You might see some other dig spots along the way; these aren't important. Feel free to dig them up if convenient. They won't affect the Mythic hunt one way or the other. Also note that the Unusual Coin Vendor for Lowland Shore is at the start there, just northwest of the waypoint, if you want to buy your keys here.

East

The first 6 marked spots (4 to the east of Astral Ward Camp and the first 2 to the west of it) are East Mythic spawn spots. They're all pretty straightforward. It's your option whether to cross the river to the east of moon camp and pass through the Timber Cave, or cross further to the west. Do what makes you happy. Once you've dug up a cache (hopefully a Mythic) from one of the indicated spots, you can move on to the Mid spawns.

Skitter Steppes's speech is annoying

To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to stop Skitter Steppes from sending his whole spiel to your communicator if you pass too close to the Hunt down the rampaging reindeer event. It won't stop no matter how far away you go. I hate his voice. If the communicator had a block list, he would be top on it.

Mid

Mid starts at the spot south of Tundra Steppe, not far west of the last East spot. For the next spawn location near Amphibian's Knot, the dig spot is at the bottom right by the water, but I actually recommend just going straight to the bridge and looking over the side. If the spot is there, you should be able to see the dirt mound pretty clearly (in which case you can hop down, dig it up, and then move straight on to the West section). But assuming it's not, head across the bridge take the Bouncing Mushroom up, and the next spot is north and then west, just at the entrance of the little cave that passes underneath the vista. Once you check that and then the next one, the path keeps heading southeast because there's another Bouncing Mushroom you'll want to take, then swap into gliding at the peak of the bounce to head north. The next several are pretty self-explanatory... For the one northwest of Autumn's Vale Waypoint, it's on a little ledge that looks like a red spot on the map; afterward you'll want to Skyscale or Springer up to the ledge, then onto Deft Lahar's Abode and further up to the next one before swapping back to warclaw. If you still haven't found a Mid by the time you've gotten to Mire Switchback, not to worry... That next one in Coursing Upland? That's a Mid spawn location too. I know, it looks like it'd be with the Wests, but nope, that's still Mid. Of course once again, if you've already dug up a cache (hopefully a Mythic) from one of the Mid spots, skip the rest and move on to West.

West

Which means that West starts with that spot almost directly east of Journeykin Outpost Waypoint. Now there's an oddity with West. You see the spot that's pretty much straight south of the waypoint, and then another spot just barely northwest of it? There are actually two possible spawns on the northwest one; one is a possible Mythic, but the other is completely unrelated. So in this case, and this case alone, if you dig up a non-Mythic in that spot, keep going to the other spawns. Don't ask me why, I have no explanation. But if it is a Mythic, or you dig up from one of the other West spots, you're done with Lowlands.

Janthir Syntri

So hopefully you've gotten at least 2 or maybe even 3 Mythics from Lowlands and now it's time to move on to the next map. Syntri! As stated before, there is only 1 possibly Mythic in this map. All it's spawn locations are in the northeastern section of the map. You can once again see the rough route I take in that image over to the right. I will note that, unlike Lowlands where you can usually see the dirt pile model fairly easily, they tend to be either difficult to make out or outright hidden underneath the terrain in Syntri, so even if you don't see a dirt pile around, give a sniff at each spot. I'll also note that for the spawn east-northeast of The Fourth Bloodtree, there's an unrelated non-Mythic dig spot that can spawn just a little southeast of it, close enough that they can be easily confused. So if you get a non-Mythic there, finish up the last couple spots just to be safe. Otherwise everything's pretty straightforward? I go southwest to northeast, but you can go the opposite if you like. I'm not here to judge.

Mistburned Barrens

As I am writing this, it's still about a week since the release of Repentance which added Mistburned Barrens to the game, so further information may develop. The numbers are ordered based on the route shown on the map and described in greater detail below, starting at Alliance Staging Ground and then working roughly southwest-to-northeast. Also while I note credit to where I first learned of spots, I have personally verified Mythics at each of these locations:

1. (with thanks to User:Lacryma and User:Tery3065) At the top of the walls around Alliance Staging Ground, almost directly south of The Obsidian Rise POI.
2. (found with the very patient assistance of User:Lacryma) At the top of a tall pillar along the border between South Barrens and The Golden Lake, almost directly north of Lakeside Watch POI, at the northeast corner of a large purple spike.
3. (found with the assistance of several guildies helping me map-hop) Atop the western wall of Presenting Grounds, a bit above the previous one, next to some moss-covered rubble.
4. (found by User:DiegoDeLaHouska) Above the archway between Presenting Grounds and The Laboratory, on the western side of the northernmost purple spike.
5. (reported by Tufte on Discord) In the northwest section of the room with Forge of the Blood Phenom on the ground floor, in front of the large rock sticking up from the ground.
6. (found by User:Vm0d) Just northeast of The Gilded Approach POI, also in Grand Athenaeum, on the ground floor.
7. One level up from the Grand Athenaeum Mastery Insight and slightly east, just on the other side of the nearby pillar
8. Directly west of the Grand Athenaeum Mastery Insight, on the same level, up against a thin pillar
9. Up on a ledge west of and up above The Veiled Library POI in Grand Athenaeum. If you're in the right place, hovering the POI on the minimap should say it's below about 6200 away (give-or-take 100 depending exactly where you stand on the platform).
10. (reported by u/bluespider1 on Reddit) On the bridge with the mastery point that crosses the Valley of Agony, at the southern end, up against the southeastern corner of the large purple spike at the top.
11. (found by User:DiegoDeLaHouska) In Nexus of Moonlight northeast of the Ruin Outpost POI, up on the cliff near the Juvenile Janthiri Bee.
12. (reported by u/terriannek on Reddit) In the northwest corner of Hidden Sacrarium, on the walkways one level up from the Search-and-Rescue Challenge NPC.
13. (reported by u/Talysn on Reddit) Northeast of Yagon's Gift POI in Seer's March. Only accessible during the 5-minute window after successful completion of the Survey: Into the Valley of Agony event chain. This spot can, however, be safely sniffed from a ledge north of the valley, just southeast of a large tree, marked with a Sniff icon on the map.

I will preface all of this by saying that you should check the status of Survey: Into the Valley of Agony first before you get started. If it's just finished or nearly so, you should head straight to Yagon's Gift to take advantage of the safe window for #13. If it's not quite finished yet, you can safely check from the marked Sniff point outside the Spectral Agony (just southeast of the large tree near the ledge) to know if you need to hang around or not. Similarly, if at any point during the rest of the route you see the north survey's finished, immediately head there and check. If it is #13, great, you're done. If not, head back to wherever you left off and continue from there (or to Alliance Staging Ground and start normally if you hadn't started yet).

Also, if you don't have a Skyscale, head to the #No-skyscale workarounds section for the first part. You'll be rejoining us up here when you get to spot #5; I'll leave a handy paragraph break for you to find.

So assuming skyscale, you're gonna be spending a lotta time on it: From the Alliance Staging Ground waypoint, go up a level and to the south, to the Mursaat Mirror (but don't use it). Southeast of the mirror, you should see a pair of purple jade spikes, one larger one that starts at about your level right next to a higher-up one atop a column. Ascend that column, then south to the next column with another spike. Spot #1 is on the east side of that last spike. From there, on your skyscale fly south-southeast toward an extremely tall column standing alone with a large purple spike atop it. At the top of that column in the northeast corner is spot #2. Now skyscale eastward over to the large wall to Presenting Grounds and climb up atop it. The large open area, not the cracked beams above. Spot #3 is by the opening between two pillars with some mossy rubble. Looking to the east, across the courtyard, you'll see a gate with purple jade spikes sticking up from it. Skyscale over to the northernmost spike, and spot #4 is just in front of it. From here, hop down and head east into the large room with Forge of the Blood Phenom. Spot #5 is in the northwest section of this room on ground level, in front of the fairly obvious rock sticking up there. We now rejoin the skyscaleless.

Okay, everyone should be at spot #5. From here, exit the room back to the west and skyscale/bunny up a level to a road that leads north. Follow the road north and then east through The Unseen Passage, then turn north into the open archway just before the Mist Surge (the thing that looks like an updraft), crossing The Gilded Approach to spawn spot #6 on ground level. Back on your skyscale/bunny, ascend the various beams west to the level just above the mastery insight for spot #7, then hop down to the mastery insight and across a small gap to #8, then bunny/skyscale back up to spot #9 (or just look down at the level below you for #8 as you go from #7 to #9). Head north across the series of similar ledges to the corner of the building, then skyscale northwest to the green ledge with trees and up onto the southern end of the bridge for #10 (or warclaw-air-hop then bunny).

You'll get a look at the progress of Survey: Into the Valley of Agony here. If it says "The spectral agony in the valley has dissipated for now", as mentioned earlier, you want to head straight to #13 while it's safe and come back to the rest after. But assuming not, from the bridge, you want to skyscale/warclaw-air-hop southwest to the grasy ledge with trees at the northwest corner of Nexus of Moonlight and #11 (there should also be a Juvenile Janthiri Bee here if you happen to need to tame one). Skyscale/warclaw-air-hop northwest over the Valley of Agony to the western side before turning north. A little east of Valravn's Vigil, on the ground level, is a small cave that heads into Hidden Sacrarium; head through and then skyscale/bunny up to the walkways just above you for spot #12. If still nothing and you haven't already checked Yagon's Gift at some earlier point, go back out of the cave and head alllllll the way east (Rollerbeetle for zoomies if ya got it) to check that Sniff point. If you see a Detected Treasure down there, help out with the event chain to make the agony go away and collect your mythic faster!

Hopefully you found a Mythic at one of these spots. If you dug one of these spots and only got a Minor Kodan Cache, as said in the Somewhat-Less-Basics section, you're screwed for the day, blame Anet. If, however, you didn't find a dig spot at any of these locations, let me know on the talk page or on Discord because that means there's another spawn location lurking somewhere.

No-skyscale workarounds

Well I hope you at least have a Bunny with High Vault. To start with, head east from the Alliance Staging Ground waypoint down some stairs and use your bunny to jump up onto one of the beams above you, then bunnyjump again up onto the northern wall. Just west of you you should see a Mist Surge (the thing that looks like an updraft, but works on Warclaw). Use that to ascend to the level above where there's a Mastery Insight. Turn south and warclaw air-hop across the gap to another column with a purple jade spike, then follow the wall further south to another column-with-purple-spike. Spot #1 is on the east side of that last spike. We're now going to do #2, #3, and #4 in reverse order, so from here, jump down to the southeast and follow the road south and as it curves east into Presenting Grounds (Rollerbeetle if ya got it to go fast). The road takes you through one archway with stairs, then a small courtyard, then finally stop just on the other side of another archway with stairs from #4. Bunny-jump to the next level up north of you, and up further, further, and further until you're at the large purple spike where #4 is. From here, warclaw-hop northwest to atop the northern wall of Presenting Grounds, bunny-jump up a bit further onto the western wall and pass through the open archway. Head south along the wall, bunny-jumping up once again, and just a bit further south will bring you to #3. If you look east from here, you should see another purple spike sticking up out of a tall pillar. You can glide from here as long as you have Advanced Gliding mastery and lean the whole way, or you can Warclaw air-hop. Either way, #2 is at the northeast corner of that spike. After that, jump down (either on warclaw or save yourself with a glide at the last moment, don't die to fall damage) and head alllllll the way east to Forge of the Blood Phenom. Spot #5 is right in the northwest corner of this room by the large rock. You can now rejoin the main walkthrough at the 2nd (technically 4th) paragraph. The one that starts "Okay, everyone should be at spot #5."

TacO Markers

For those who know how to do such things, I've placed the POIData for TacO markers for all three maps on User:Tanetris/Mythical Kodan Caches/TacO.

But why though

The primary benefit of Mythics is that they are guaranteed to contain Mursaat Runestones, whereas every other type of cache only has a chance at them. Admittedly, Mursaat Runestones are relatively cheap on the TP, and you only need them if you want to make Janthir Wilds legendaries (Klobjarne Geirr or the upcoming legendary backpack). Otherwise they're a good source of Unusual Coins and some extra loot for not much effort once you know what you're doing.

Should I use keys on Major Kodan Caches?

Look... I'm not your mother. If you want to, I'm not here to stop you. I personally don't. Make your own decisions. Mursaat Ruins Caches in the new map are the same deal.

I have been corrected at length on this matter, both on Reddit and on Discord. Okay. They're worth the keys. I'll open ones I come across while doing other things. I'm still not going hunting for them. And I'm still not your mother.

If you have End of Dragons masteries

Jade Bot: Personal Waypoint can be extremely handy around the various Janthir Wilds maps, as the Empowered Beehives in Lowland, Bloodstone-Empowered Beehives in Syntri, and Mistburned Beehive in Mistburned will instantly recharge the 10-minute cooldown, assuming you have the relevant masteries (Lowland Beehives for Empowered, Janthir Explorer Proficiency for Bloodstone-Empowered, and Mursaat Mirror and Movement for Mistburned). Useful in Lowlands if you drop one in Cragged Upland to quickly get back across the gorge once you find your Mid dig spot, or in Mistburned to quickly get back to your spot if you need to break off the route to hit Yagon's Gift. Just as a general tip.

See also

• Detected Treasure/Locations research
• Lowland Expertise

Special thanks

• User:HeroineDark, whose marker pack was invaluable for learning where dig spots in Lowlands & Syntri were
• User:Lady Elyssa, whose marker pack was also helpful, and whose guide to making marker packs I really, really tried to follow, but failed miserably at through my own incompetence~
• The assorted users who shared the Mistburned Barrens mythics they knew, as variously named above
• Various people in the [wiki] guild who let me taxi on them to check multiple map instances, and are just generally supportive of this kind of nonsense
• All the comments on the Reddit thread during the extremely early version of this guide
• Everyone who's ever sent a kindly message about User:Tanetris/So You Want To Gear a Character