Why do I have a certain section reserved for this one, particular zone? There are a few reasons.

1. 1. You can fight in this zone from levels 6-26
2. There is a 20+% XP gain in this zone
3. Not everybody knows about it

To me, Paludal Caverns (henceforth referred to as PC), is one of the best zones in the game. Every time I'm there I meet up with people who say, "I've never fought here before" or "I don't know much about it". Even people that know killing bandits from your mid-teen to mid-twenty levels is the ideal don't realize you can start in here as low as level 6. If you don't know all about this goldmine of experiencing and leveling, this guide is for you.

I've leveled almost all of my characters to 26 here, so I know a great deal about the zone. The purpose of this guide is to detail the best way to get to 26 in a flash hunting in PC. The guide reads as if you're starting in PC at Level 6, and then working your way up. Level indicators (i.e. "where to hunt now") are in bold so you can skim through quickly and find the appropriate section for your level. This guide assumes you are coming in from the Shadeweaver Thicket entrance. Everyone knows about Shadow Haven, and the bandit camps there; here we're looking at the possible xp-gain that most people are oblivious to. Also, the entire guide is broken down by level at the end of the guide as well for your convenience.

Just how good is the experience in PC?

Yesterday I started playing my just-turned-Level-12 Barbarian Rogue at about 8am. By 9pm that evening, she was mid-way through Level 20.

 

I spend a great deal of my time getting groups together on this side, and more than half of that is spent in /tells explaining how to get to PC from Shadeweaver Thicket. If you're looking for the way, this is it.

• Take the Shar Vahl book from the Plane of Knowledge.
• Follow the wall away from the front of the book until you reach the entrance to the city of Shar Vahl.
• Follow the road straight out, back into the zone.
• Soon the road will split, continuing straight out or turning right. A flag and a Vah Shir sentry are standing at this point.
• Take a right.
• Follow this road until you come to a great, gaping hole.
• Go into the hole.
• This is where it gets a mite confusing – you might want to print this to follow the instructions through the tunnels.
• Take the first left that you come to.
• From there, every time you see a huge boulder in front of you, you are going to take a right just before it.
• Keep on this way until the tunnel opens up into a big cave.
• Keep running and you will zone into PC.

 

Beetles & Shrooms

When you first come into PC, you will see two types of kills – Reishi's and Muck Diggers. Reishi's don't aggro at all, Muck Diggers have considerable aggro if one of their kind is being attacked. However, NOTHING HERE WILL ATTACK YOU FIRST. You can get yourself to Level 10 or 12 just running the circle around the lake. Bring your map up and you'll see it. By time you make a full circle, everything will have popped again. Note your XP gain as you go – amazing, isn't it?

You can spend your hours killing Muck Diggers or any of the odd assortment of beetles that make the lower end of PC their home. However, these beetles AGGRO! Be careful, or you'll find yourself running for the ShT zone with 4235 beetles on your tail! After about Level 10, you'll find the beetles just inside the zone line no longer give you XP. Running around the lake, you can find bigger beetles that will still give you XP.

If you don't want to fight the aggressive-beetle-aggro, kill Shrooms. The Reishi's do not aggro and are easy to outrun if you have the need. They pop quickly, as does most everything in this zone. The bigger Reishi's on this side were still difficult Dark Blue con's to me at Level 13.

The loot off of these isn't really note-worthy. The Fungal Flesh armor will sell for a gold piece or so, but the Chunk of Sensate Reishis will keep you fed for many levels to come as it is a full meal.

 

Bigger Beetles

Once you find the run around the lake isn't really doing it for you anymore, or you have one or two people to group with, it's time to move on to the area known as "The Fiend Lake". This is your first encounter with fiends, these of the Plerg Phlarg variety. We won't be killing them yet, though.

I'll share with you now the spot I've found to be golden. Open up your map. Find the tunnel that leads from the ShT zone ent, where you came in. To the right you'll see a second tunnel entrance that leads to another lake. Take that. You'll find Shrooms and Beetles to kill along the way, but they'll most likely be too low level for you now. Soon, you'll come to a ledge that slopes down to two big, fat beetles and, behind them, the edge of the lake. You, or you and your groupmates, can sit safely atop this ledge and pull these beetles up to you. Be careful about adds. The Glowing Muck Diggers are the toughest, but can give up to 4% xp in one kill alone. Some of these were still white and yellow con's to me at Level 15.

After you pull those first two, there are two more to the right that are easy to pull. Just be careful, those original two pop very, very quickly – and could come back and add aggro to any other beetles you're already pulling up the slope. That's the only real concern about hunting in this spot – watch for adds.

 

Those Nasty Fiends

If you have a group of 3 or more, you can began hunting fiends as low as Level 15. If you're at it alone or only have one other to group with, wait until Levels 16 or 17. It's always advisable, when hunting fiends, to have someone that can Cure Disease. These creatures spit a particularly damaging DOT disease spell on you known as "Spreading Crud". HP and STA tick away as long as it's on you and since fiends hit for some pretty good damage themselves, this could be very dangerous.

Fiends drop Fungal Fiend armor that sells for a few gold apiece if you're interested in loot. As nasty as it sounds, their skin is also a meal.

 

Bandits - To Group or Not To Group?

At 16 and up, you can safely start looking for bandit groups to join. The xp is a little better, and the loot is certainly moreso. However, if you don't want to shout for hours hoping to get into one, or deal with the numerous kill-stealers (this zone is notorious for them), you can continue fighting fiends all the way up to 20.

If you have a good group, and it's not hard to get one together as this zone is always full of people, you can move further into PC. There are Fatog Phlarg Fiends, which are stronger than their Plerg cousins, and give better XP (these were white and yellow con's to me at Level 17) and bigger Reishi's as well that are white and yellows, as well.

It's quite simple to level to 20+ without having to deal with the hassle of the infamous Bandit camps.

 

Bandit Bedlam

However, if you're in it for the loot and slightly-higher-xp-gain and want to tackle the bandit camps, there are a few rules that, if everyone would follow them, would make the zone a much nicer place to hunt.

1. Don't Be a Nuisance

These are weird-looking, little low-level bugs that run around the newbie area of Shadeweaver Thicket. Keep them there.

Send out an /ooc (no need to /shout, really) with your Level and Class that you are looking for a group (LFG). Such as, "Lvl 18 Warrior LFG, pst".

Or, if you really want to impress and get a better chance of picking up a good group, be creative: "15th Seasoned Rogue in dire need of a few backs to stab - looking for a few good people who feel like jabbing at the front." If you come up with a cute LFG statement that you find works, make a Hot Button and use it often.

Wait a few minutes to see if anyone responds. If not, send it out again; about a 3-5 minute wait is nice.

Don't, however, go and stand in the middle of a group to see if they notice you, or start saying "Can I join?" repeatedly. Running up and asking if they have room, very quickly, is fine – but don't stand there and get in the way. And, please, don't "help" the group out by attacking their pulls along with them.

2. Do NOT Kill-Steal

This should go without saying, and if you were the kind of person who does this, you probably wouldn't be reading this guide anyway. However, it isn't nice to sneak in and pull NPC's away from an area that is considered "camped".

True, Verant does not recognize "camps", but EQ-etiquette is that you do not take a kill away from someone, or a group of someone's that have stated they are waiting on it. This is a big problem in PC.

3. No Whining!!

Perhaps one of the most aggravating things about hunting in PC is the whiners. Every hour or so you're going to see a /shout or /ooc pop up with someone yelling "Stop stealing! B1 is CAMPED!"

While I'm as against kill-stealing as much as the next person, I do no believe it needs to be a public fight. Yelling at the person for the entire zone to see does nothing but make you look immature. Send the offender a private tell expressing your ire, or try some of the things that have worked for me in the past - read on.

Be watchful for kill-stealers, they'll either be standing close by or running around your camp looking for pops right in front of your eyes.

If you see this, say nothing. Have someone stay by them – usually a group member running around on their heels intimidates them enough so that they run away. This worked efficiently once at B1 when a player kept going into the tents and sitting. We'd stand over him, so he'd run to the other one. This went on for awhile, until he got frustrated and yelled, "WHAT?!" – and then left the area completely. No one yelled or started an argument, and none of our kills were stolen.

If someone does run up and grabs one of your kills, it is simply a matter of the entire group getting there quickly and taking it back. One player cannot pull a single target away from a group of players all around the same level. On the same night, a bandit popped and a player quickly nabbed him. I calmly told my group, "Help me get this back." We ran over, attacked and killed the bandit, and got our XP. No one said anything to the stealer, and he left without saying a word as well. Remember that sometimes, "stealing" IS an accident. Yelling and screaming accusations into the whole zone rarely accomplishes anything useful.

There are times where it is almost too bad to ignore. Two high-level characters swarmed down on a good group one evening and quickly killed everything in B2, where we'd been camped for about two hours. There was nothing we could do, and yelling helped not at all. Most of us simply left the group, rather than stay around and deal with the aggravation.

It may seem silly to give up a group and spot so easily, but remember, "camps" are not officially recognized. Unless you're an almost-same-level-as-the-jerk player killer, there is NOTHING that you can do about people like this. Set up a website to list the names of jerk players, and encourage people to add to it – others will be aware of their devious behavior. In game, however, your hands are tied. It's happened to everyone and everyone knows how frustrating is – there is never any need to whine about it to the entire zone however.

4. Be a Courteous Looter

Establish a looting system with your groupmates before beginning, or find out what their system is when you join an already established group.

Most players in PC are there for the experience, and care little about the loot. Still, ask before grabbing up everything that is lying there. Being a courteous group member is important.

5. Call Your Trains!!

Last, but most certainly not least, is to remember to ALWAYS call your trains. It is advisable to make a hot button for this with the closest zone location indicated and the creatures you are hunting given.

For example, if I know I'll be hunting fiends near the Shadeweaver Thicket entrance, I could make a hot button that reads, "TRAIN of fiends to ShT Zone!! Watch Out!!" At the least, always indicate what zone the train is headed to. "TRAIN TO ZONE!!" is appreciated, no doubt, but leaves one wondering, "Of what and to where?!"

There are three zone entrances to Paludal Caverns, and three ways people refer to them in game chat:

• SH = Shadow Haven
• ShT = Shadeweaver Thicket
• HM = Hollowshade Moor

People like to know if they need to prepared for a train of baddies falling on their heads, so please be specific about your train shout. Remember that you would appreciate the same, and act accordingly.

 

That's It, Folks

Finally, I believe the rules for hunting anywhere in the game can be likened to the Golden Rule. Here's my slightly-modified-for-gameplay-decree: "Play with others as you would like them to play unto you!"

And the most important rule when playing EQ is, always, "HAVE FUN!!"