THE CARTOGRAPHER

• ELITE
• THE MOON
• PHASING

THE CARTOGRAPHER is a named elite on THE MOON, a place of ghosts.

It senses you through walls and drifts straight through them; the dead do not respect stone.

He charts a landing site that will not hold still — tunnels where none were, the map changing underneath the pen. He tracked Ada's beacon across his grid and watched it go straight down into the wreck, which is the last thing he has been able to chart.

Where you meet it

THE MOON

It is placed by hand on THE MOON and waits at its post until you come close.

What to know

• HOVERSHas no legs and never touches the floor — it drifts over it, casting its shadow down.
• PHASINGWalks through walls and hunts you through them.
• THE ENTRANCECloses at 125/s until it has said its piece, then fights at its own pace.
• WHAT IT WAS CARRYINGNothing. It has no pockets, and never had wages — a kill pays in gear, not in coin.
• WHEN STRUCKIt comes apart in ectoplasm. A blow that overwhelms it bursts it, and the goo it was holding together goes everywhere.

Mechanics

Every dangerous move is telegraphed — it roots, it winds up, and you get the beat you need to be somewhere else.

• BLINK STRIKEIt roots for 0.8s first — the longest tell it has — and then it is not where it was. It arrives 28 from where you were standing WHEN THE TELL STARTED, already swinging for 75% of its contact damage across 32. It will do this from as far out as 260. Because the spot is fixed at the tell rather than at the arrival, a hero who keeps moving is met by a mob swinging at empty floor. Once every 9.5s.
• SEEKER VOLLEYIt roots for 0.7s first — the bearing LOCKS on where you were standing — then 2 bolts leave in a 20° fan, reaching 220 at 84 a second, each carrying 50% of its contact damage. They STEER after you, which is what makes them different from every other shot in the game: standing still does not work and neither does a sidestep. They turn slowly enough to be outrun, and a wall between you and them ends it. Once every 9s.

What it drops

Every kill pays one medkit, one repair kit and one XP scroll.

Its drops roll 30% better on the rarity ladder than the level's ordinary loot.

Guaranteed pieces by rarity: 1 magic. A rarity the monster's own level has not unlocked yet is skipped, so the same fight pays better on a harder rung.

Always drops

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What it says

Spoilers for this fight, covered until you ask for them.

What this scene is part of — everything said and found around it — is its chapter of the story.