Crater Forest

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Crater Forest is a radioactive zone to the north of Mountain Pass, most frequently visited for its lucrative treemen and as a passage to the Subterranean Colony.

The entirety of the Forest is blink-blocked.

Location

Crater forest is located at the far northern edge of the Mountain Pass, past hostile yetis. It is not to be confused with the Foggy Clearing, a relatively benign and empty zone to the northwest of the Pass; Crater Forest is nearby, but in a north-easterly direction.

Blinkers who want to get to Crater Forest quickly would be well-advised to blink to the foggy clearing nearby and then walk the rest of the way. Flight mutants can land in Mountain Pass and then walk, while those who are plane-bound should land their planes in the nearby Ocean Cliffs and walk through the mine to preserve the safety of their planes.

Crater Forest can't be phased out of, but walking into the first tile of the Subterranean Colony (which is safe) and phasing works.

Mobs

• Treemen are the stars of Crater Forest; they are hostile and fairly tanky mobs that do high beat damage and a small amount (around 2-4) of irradiation damage. They give 100xp each, but scale off very quickly from about 85k down to 0xp each at 100k. Their barks sell for about $1700 to the old chinese man in Botany Bay, which also fulfills the lumberjack job, and they are worth $420 each on the Western Hunter contract.
  • 10 treemen spawn throughout the forest in total.
  • Trees completely resist grabs, it is never possible to grab a tree. The game will not even allow the grab to be attempted.
  • Trees are likely the first mob that players will fight which have respectable accuracy. About 26-28 dodge, good parrying ability or a short time-to-kill are essential to fighting them safely.
  • Treemen are one of very few mobs that do not respect musk.
  • Strangely, treemen are not actually that weak to burn damage. Taking burn damage from a weapon's direct damage typing will also put them into a frenzy, buffing their damage and accuracy.
    • Treemen will not frenzy from burn damage that comes from damage-over-time effects; if they are attacked with a shock damage weapon and set on fire, they will not derive any buffs from the resulting burns.
  • Fighting treemen will inevitably result in being covered with sap. This buffs your climb skill.
  • An inexpensive armor set for non-dodgy noobs to fight trees with is a radiation suit with armordillo jacket, pants, gloves, a motorcycle helmet, and combat boots.
    • Returning or boosted fighters looking to farm the area for money or newbie XP can shut trees out almost completely with a double-titan exosuit (and Rad-Q, if low on Endurance).
• Silicate treemen are affixed to the tile they spawn in and will not move. When engaged in a fight, they will summon all of the other treemen in the zone to their tile, which is extremely dangerous.
  • Silicates will sometimes grab onto low-level players and hold them in place.
  • Silicates are completely defenceless when engaged alone.
  • Silicates drop no barks and offer a lesser XP reward relative to other trees. They are best left alone, or saved until one is sure one has killed every other treeman.
• The Forest Heart, shockingly, is the heart of the forest. It functions as the area's boss, and drops an XP reward the first time it is killed, as well as a trophy. It is located up two climbs at the northern end of the Forest.
  • The Heart will summon any remaining treemen in the forest when it is killed, so it is wise to kill all the zone's treemen before engaging the Heart.
  • The Heart deals unsoakable damage in low amounts periodically while in combat.
  • The Heart is not hostile, but once attacked, leaving its tile is impossible until the Heart is killed.
  • The Forest Heart's tile does not allow cover.
  • Fighting the Heart as a Plant Whisperer is a very bad idea.

Features

• Radioactivity is a problem in the forest; bringing Rad-Q or a radiation suit is advised for characters with low Endurance.
• Some heat and extra rads surround the central crater of the forest.
• A lake of acidic water to the western end of the Forest. It's largely pointless.
• A tough climb at the very top of the forest tree. Who knows what's up there?