The Crossroads

The Crossroads is where you travel to when you want to visit Lolosia, Granemor or any of the scenic travel spots in Adventure Quest. Guardians have free access to the Crossroads anytime via the Travel Scroll in Yulgar's Inn or the Teleporter in the Guardian Tower. Adventurers though can also get travel passes from Valencia when she comes to visit every Tuesday.

Each of those travel signposts will lead you to the start of a travel quest. In addition, the "Somewhere?" sign will take you to a random travel quest and have a 1 in 4 chance of replacing the treasure chest you get at the end with a Rare Treasure Chest (for BoA pieces). Below are the six scenic spots you can visit:

Smoke Mountains
Skraeling Desert
Northlands
Kristall Reef
Dwarfhold Mountains
GreenGuard Forest

Each travel quest consists of a series of fights followed by a final battle against a boss if you are above level 30. Each battle will be against one of the natural inhabitants of that locality... the order by which you meet the monsters is predetermined when you first start the quest. If the number of minion battles exceeds the number of monsters in the locality, the order of the monsters for the first cycle will be repeated for subsequent cycles.

The number of battles is determined by your character level based on the chart and formula below:

If you are below level 30 , you will have 50% chance to meet either a small treasure chest (0 exp, 125 gold) or an animal box upon completing the series of battles. However, if you are level 30 and above, you will receive a treasure chest after defeating the boss at the end of the series of battles. The size of the treasure chest is dependent on your character level and luck as shown below:

When you first completed a travel quest, you will notice a coloured star next to the sign for that locality. This indicates to you the number of times you have completed and defeated the boss at the end of the travel quest:

A summary of the average gains of the inhabitants of each area for ease of comparison is as follows:

Technical details and equipment suggestions can be found in each of the individual sections below.

Smoke Mountains - return

Basic Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Potion Chest 0 0 0 500 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Firezard 0 60 15 50 0 120 90 120 100 90 100 100 Torch Foot 2 75 20 100 -50 120 70 140 100 100 100 100 Hell Hound 15 200 20 145 0 125 100 150 50 100 120 50 Magman 20 175 30 280 -100 110 100 150 70 70 70 70 Fire Golem 25 160 50 250 -10 140 90 140 60 90 90 90 Phoenix 26 150 35 320 -50 200 100 200 100 100 100 100 Average (6)   136.7 28.3

Boss Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Fire Cobra 35 175 40 350 -20 130 100 140 100 70 70 100 Ruby Golem 37 200 175 580 20 60 150 90 130 120 80 80 Fire Demon 50 575 75 820 -100 300 0 300 300 0 0 0 Chimera 60 562 150 630 80 100 240 240 80 100 80 200 Four Eyed Menace 63 650 200 500 60 60 150 140 60 140 60 120 Average (5)   432.4 128.0

Comments:

Smoke mountains is a very popular travel quest, especially for Guardians. Lower level guardians can use the Flame Guardian Armour to full effect. As it is dangerous and difficult in the early stages due to poor equipment, the defensive value of FGA cannot be ignored. For mid-level characters, Ice Katana's freezing ability also makes life a lot safer and allows the use of freeze-burn tactics where you first freeze a monster and then make full use of its 200% fire resistance by blasting it with fire.

The basic monsters should not be a major problem, although Fire Golem, Magman and Phoenix may be an issue with lower levels due to their high lives. Water and Ice would both work well and the pet Mogleets would also be a very useful asset here. The boss monsters tend to be a bit more problematic though. Four eyed menace packs quite a punch with its four attacks and Ruby Golem has a fair bit of resistances against water and ice. This means that the character may likely have to prepare a supplementary set of equipment.

Recommendation is to take up a multi-hit armour and just hack away with Ice Katana. The freeze effect will not only help reduce the damage you take but would also serve offensivly as you can use big fire spells to attack the monster frozen. Boss monsters dealt with in a similar fashion except maybe bringing along a wind weapon for Ruby Golems and Four Eyed Menaces.

Skraeling Desert - return

Basic Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Potion Chest 0 0 0 500 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Bandit 2 100 20 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Crabee 5 100 20 100 100 100 100 100 25 150 100 100 Stone Golem 7 120 25 140 50 110 50 50 -10 50 100 100 Brigling 10 150 30 200 100 130 100 100 80 -20 80 80 Undead Wounded 13 130 20 130 80 80 80 80 80 80 150 0 Cyclops 15 200 50 225 101 102 104 103 105 106 107 122 Shevite 18 150 20 180 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Sand Shark 25 200 50 330 80 150 110 150 80 -20 100 100 King Cobra 30 175 35 300 140 100 150 140 60 100 30 110 Average (9)   147.2 30.0

Boss Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Adalon 40 300 30 720 180 80 100 -20 100 100 -20 250 Minotaur Prime 60 625 300 740 130 100 140 100 80 100 100 90 Sphinx 61 650 175 750 50 150 50 150 150 50 50 150 Thunderbird 62 700 250 900 140 140 50 120 100 -20 90 90 Average (4)   568.8 188.8

Comments:

A very neutral place, with most monsters having 100+% in several elements. The basic monsters in this locality gives a good mix of exp and gold and the bosses are among the most rewarding among the six travel spots.

The basic monsters all have rather neutral resistances so any one of fire, water, wind, ice or light would work well to get by. The main problems might be Sand Shark and King Cobra, both with 300+ life but these can easily be handled via Ice Katana (freezes and favourable vulnerability) if you're having problems. For bosses, they are a mix of vulnerabilities and strengths but water, earth and darkness are the three best average elements to use.

If you can play for extended periods of time, I would recommend WWF + Bludrut for this area. The basic monsters are all neutral towards fire and darkness except for Stone Golem (50% fire) and Undead Wounded (0% dark). However, the high alternating damage of the combination will get the job done well within the time limits. Against the bosses, these two elements are also good pickings since every boss has weakness to at least one of the two elements.

Otherwise, a good ice weapon like Frostbite Staff or Ice Katana would get you by as they are the main weaknesses of the two strongest monsters.

Northlands - return

Basic Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Potion Chest 0 0 0 500 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Icezard 0 50 23 50 120 100 100 -10 100 100 100 100 Ice Golem 6 100 20 175 150 50 100 -10 100 100 100 100 Snow Warrior 8 150 31 180 150 10 50 0 100 120 150 100 Glayser 8 150 40 280 200 110 150 50 150 150 120 100 Two-Bears 15 120 75 220 110 60 100 20 100 100 80 80 Zeel 18 200 20 80 20 70 30 30 30 -100 30 30 Frost Giant 20 150 25 250 150 100 50 20 80 100 70 70 Average (7)   131.4 33.4

Boss Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Yeti 45 350 25 500 150 100 70 20 90 130 100 100 Ice Demon 50 375 50 550 200 0 50 -200 100 130 150 50 Tundra Reaver 54 625 50 550 200 80 100 20 90 140 100 100 Frosty the Snow Golem 55 500 50 550 150 110 100 40 100 120 130 90 Avalurch 65 625 200 880 180 70 100 -100 90 150 150 80 Centocor 74 750 400 1000 140 100 100 60 100 100 60 140 Average (5)   537.5 130.8

Comments:

Northlands is the travelling quest that has the highest gold gains per monster and consists of basic monsters that can easily be killed. Boss monsters also have the same elemental weaknesses as the basic monsters, making it easy for characters to be strong enough to handle them with minimal gear investment. Although its bosses have low average gains, the advantage is that they get killed really fast which makes up for it.

This is where the fire element shines. With the exception of Zeel, the basic inhabitants are all weak to fire and there should be no problems hitting under the minimum 20 second battle timing. Against Zeel, you might switch to a water weapon to take it down or simply just go ahead and attack with the same fire weapon.

The bosses are all very weak to fire as well, making it easy for your life a bit easier since there is no need to change weapons throughout. Using WWF with the fire-glitched Bludrut Blade would actually be the fastest solution here as you can easily do more than 200 damage per round that way. Without it, the combination of WWF (which you can get from Willow Creek) and a good fire weapon will work out well. Solar Incinerator would also put a quick end to the boss's resistance. Against Centocor, Darkness Dragon Ambush would work as well and would be faster than Solar Incinerator.

My gear recommendation here would be to use Werewolf Form (or Canine Warrior) for good fast fire damage against the basic monsters. For the bosses, spells (Solar Incinerator + Darkness Dragon Ambush) would give you a good result as well. The use of Summon Skull and Fire Vampragon would also help out those who are not already overkill for the quest.

Kristall Reef - return

Basic Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Potion Chest 0 0 0 500 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Vagaran 2 75 20 100 10 -100 100 100 100 150 120 120 Tadzard 3 100 25 65 0 -10 100 10 100 150 110 100 Snayl 4 80 30 120 90 90 130 90 90 120 90 90 Piranhas 5 100 25 100 0 50 100 90 100 200 100 100 Mermazon 15 120 50 170 110 -10 110 60 100 150 100 100 WhaleZard 15 150 30 100 100 50 100 100 100 140 100 100 Braken 35 400 50 440 50 -20 10 10 100 150 80 80 Average (7)   146.4 32.9

Boss Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Drakel Water Raider 30 200 60 540 140 50 100 50 100 150 100 80 Giant Nautoid 45 350 60 500 160 -10 100 120 100 -10 50 50 Gargel 52 500 100 680 140 20 130 90 100 200 100 100 Sea Titan 64 700 300 1000 130 -10 120 80 100 160 100 100 Average (4)   437.5 130.0

Comments:

The basic monsters in this locality has the second highest gold gains (after Northlands) and are all weak to energy, making it simply great to work out with Ionic Slasher or Talon Staff. The bosses are also weak against energy, except for Giant Nautoid which can easily be handled by a fire weapon or Solar Incinerator.

As earlier mentioned, energy is the element to use here. All the basic monsters will go down in no time. To handle the big Braken among the inhabitants, a mage or hybrid can use Purity Portal to shorten the battle time as well. The bosses can be handled in the same way, except for Giant Nautoid which has heavy vulnerabilities against fire.

My recommendation would be any multi-hit armour with a good energy weapon. For Braken and the boss monster, using spells if you are a mage or hybrid will greatly hasten the battle as Purity Portal is hands down the most powerful damage dealer currently.

Dwarfhold Mountains - return

Basic Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Potion Chest 0 0 0 500 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 The Bloatt 5 120 26 135 100 130 100 100 100 150 100 135 Windzard 7 110 20 100 100 100 -100 100 100 150 50 50 Skyhunter 15 120 25 150 120 110 50 110 120 110 90 100 Young Minotaur 15 150 35 200 120 100 140 100 100 100 80 80 Dwarf Warrior 19 200 35 480 90 180 120 80 70 180 100 100 Griffin 25 250 20 280 80 200 80 100 75 150 100 90 Bright Sunray 26 150 35 180 80 80 80 80 80 80 -700 150 Average (7)   157.1 28.0

Boss Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Iron Golem 42 300 35 350 60 170 170 130 50 20 80 80 Cyclops Defender 56 625 120 630 100 100 100 120 80 100 70 140 Behemoth 65 625 200 980 90 90 200 90 70 180 90 90 The Roc 72 825 300 1000 120 90 -20 120 130 110 100 100 Average (4)   593.8 163.8

Comments:

Dwarfhold Mountains is fairly neutral (except for wind and light) as well but consists of some fat and slightly more tedious monsters like Dwarf Warriors. It has the highest overall experience gains and some decent gold gains but time-wise might lose out to some of the other travel areas.

For the inhabitants, energy and water are the two main elements to use. Slightly behind would be fire and ice. Mostly weak and fast to kill monsters, there is still two monsters to handle -- Dwarf Warrior (480 life) and Griffin (280 life). Fortunately, both have heavy weaknesses to two elements and in particular they are vulnerable to energy... think Purity Portal for mages and hybrids.

Boss-wise, this is a total mix of elements. The bosses largely have a strong weakness (except for the roc) and you may want to prepare a good mix of weapons to handle this travel quest.

No real recommendations except to get ready a decent selection of weapons from different elements for this travelling spot. I would not recommend it though, despite its apparently good experience gains.

GreenGuard Forest - return

Basic Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Potion Chest 0 0 0 500 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Deathwood 2 60 21 50 200 -10 100 100 100 100 50 100 Wasp Swarm 4 100 20 80 110 100 150 100 100 100 50 100 Zzott 4 100 20 100 100 140 90 110 100 -50 90 90 Arroc 4 100 23 75 110 90 90 90 100 110 90 90 Mud Golem 6 110 20 175 50 120 100 110 10 10 100 100 Gnarl 8 170 20 120 150 -30 90 110 110 100 60 100 Forest Demon 20 225 45 200 100 100 100 100 0 100 0 0 Grizzle 25 200 30 200 80 150 80 80 70 -50 80 80 Demon Tree 25 250 40 170 120 -50 100 100 100 100 50 100 Average (9)   146.1 26.6

Boss Monsters:

Monster Lvl Exp Gold Life Emerald Golem 30 175 150 230 80 80 160 80 90 90 90 90 Gorarog 36 200 75 320 90 70 150 150 70 100 100 100 Greater WarBeast 50 500 70 550 60 100 100 100 100 60 110 110 Death Knight 66 800 150 475 60 50 60 50 80 60 100 -100 Average (4)   418.8 111.3

Comments:

Similar to the Moglin Forest challenge area, the denizens of the forest all have relatively low life but no significant weaknesses too. In addition, there is the Forest Demon with varying defences which can be quite amusing and irritating to watch. Experience gains are average but gold gains is quite poor here.

Fire, wind and ice would generally work well against the inhabitants and killing them within the minimum battle period should be no problems given their low life. The bosses ar a bit more tricky. The two weaker bosses (emerald golem and gorarog) are both low life with large weaknesses but the two stronger ones (WarBeast and Death Knight) all have very little weaknesses. In fact, Death Knight is only neutral towards Light.

For bare mininum preparations, I would suggest taking along a good wind weapon and either sunburst or a good light weapon to handle the Greater WarBeast and Death Knight.