Treasure Guide: Ores, Relics & Loot

Every cut you make at the Vermilion House workbench is a gamble between a fat payday and a pile of worthless rubble, and that tension is exactly what makes the Abyssal Lapidary treasure hunt so addictive. A single Abyssal Lapidary treasure can be a flawless gem worth hundreds of dloons, a relic that buffs your entire shop, or a flake of native gold — but only if you read the stone correctly before the chisel lands. This guide breaks down where treasure hides, which tools protect it, and how to squeeze maximum value out of every rock you drag to the bench.

What Counts as an Abyssal Lapidary Treasure

New lapidaries tend to fixate on gems, but the economy in Fathomholm pays for far more than shiny stones. Ore can conceal relics, precious metals, mineral fragments, and even living growths that a photographer will happily buy off you. Before you start smashing rock, know what you're actually hunting.

The key insight: an ore chunk you'd otherwise discard for being low value may still carry a relic or an anomaly. Sorting ore purely by gem hardness means leaving a portion of your Abyssal Lapidary treasure behind on the discard pile.

New to the shop? The ore appraisal and faceting loop is the core of every profitable day, so learn it before you chase locked doors.

Read the Stone Before the Chisel Lands

Every rock has a hardness rating and a toughness rating, and your chisel carries matching ratings of its own. The relationship between those numbers decides whether you carve cleanly, waste durability, or fail completely.

That single rule prevents most beginner disasters. If a gem inside the ore sits two levels above your chisel, you cannot damage it — crank the chisel down and chisel freely around it. As soon as your tool gets within one level of the gem's hardness, every swing risks a fracture.

Watch the breakage percentage shown on the ore. It climbs as you work, and it climbs faster on tough stone. The moment the gem you want is exposed, stop chiseling, put the tool down, and click the ore with an empty hand to collect the loose pieces. Hesitating "just to be sure" is how a 200-dloon spinel becomes a handful of fragments.

Also hunt for stress nodules — the darker, more resistant patches in the rock. Breaking one triggers a chain reaction that shatters the same mineral across a wide area. On a low-value ore that's a free speed-up; next to a gem you care about, it's a disaster.

Match the Tool to the Stone

The point chisel is your workhorse, but it is not the answer to every rock. Vermilion House stocks several tools, and each one solves a problem the chisel can't.

Two maintenance habits protect your Abyssal Lapidary treasure more than any skill point. First, repair tools at the tool repair bench whenever durability bottoms out — a broken chisel mid-cut is how gems get cracked. Second, upgrade at the tool station. Raising a chisel's hardness rating is cheap, and it unlocks cleaner cuts on mid-tier ore immediately.

Relics: The Best Treasure Is Often Buried

Relics are the most valuable thing you can pull out of a rock, and they're the easiest to destroy if you rush. Buy or borrow a relic compass, hold it over the ore, and follow the pointer until it locks on. Once the relic is visible, chip the surrounding mineral away and switch to longnose pliers.

If the game tells you the relic is "embedded too deeply," keep breaking the surrounding stone — pliers only work on a properly exposed find. Damaging the host gem raises breakage, so use the lowest chisel setting that still bites.

Relics earn their keep in the exhibition area behind the reception desk. Each one placed in a relic cabinet grants a permanent effect on the shop.

The same process applies to anomalies. Point the camera at the ore; if the viewfinder flashes, shoot the film and sell it to the photographer who visits the shop. Plucking living tissue with pliers is also possible, though the ornamental value of the growth disappears once it's removed.

One warning: working abnormal minerals raises awareness, and high awareness blurs the line between reality and history. The deeper you carve, the stranger Vermilion House gets — and that's before you've opened a single sealed door, which requires a gold license anyway.

Faceting Turns Raw Ore into Real Money

Raw gem value depends on three things: net weight, purity, and damage. Faceting is where you convert a decent find into a serious payout, and the cut you choose changes the multiplier.

Faceting runs on timing. Precise cuts build flow, and once the meter is full, a good or perfect cut drops you into flow mode, where you simply click rapidly without timing anything. Spend early skill points on flow gain efficiency and flow streak length, and you'll be landing S-rank cuts without blinking. Grades in the S and A range are the difference between a gem that pays for the day's dues and one that pays for a tool upgrade.

Do not cut blindly, though. A commission that asks for raw ore won't accept a faceted stone, and cutting a gem that a client wanted untouched wastes both the stone and the appointment slot.

Licenses, Commissions, and Steady Income

Commissions are the most dependable source of Abyssal Lapidary treasure in the early game. Each one lists a mineral type, sometimes a cut shape, and a minimum quality; deliver through the hatch to the left of the reception desk. Satisfied clients spread word of mouth, which raises reputation and ultimately unlocks your next license tier.

Shop allure matters as much as reputation here — filling display cases with valuable ore and relics pushes allure up, and the guild assessor won't approve an upgrade without it. Once your license improves, merchants open new supply lines, so keep your appointment list current.

The tea merchant is worth a stop before a long work session; the buffs are cheap and stretch your day further. Reading books from the bookseller is another low-cost way to bank skill points without spending bench time.

FAQ

How do I find relics hidden inside ore? Buy a relic compass and hover it over the ore — it points straight toward buried relics. Once exposed, extract with longnose pliers, then display the relic in a cabinet for a permanent shop bonus.

Why can't my chisel break this rock? Your tool is two levels below the stone's hardness or toughness. Upgrade the tool at the tool station or switch tools; a hammer handles high hardness with low toughness, while a gouge suits the opposite.

What's the safest early Abyssal Lapidary treasure to chase? Commission gems. Copper-license clients pay a bonus on top of the stone's value, and a table cut adds 50%, so a modest spinel becomes real income without the risk of a high-awareness delve.

Does faceting always increase a gem's worth? No. Damage from careless chiseling lowers value, and a square cut adds no bonus at all. Use the table cut when value matters, and save shape-specific cuts for commissions that require them.

Build your day around one habit: identify the stone, match the tool, expose the treasure, and stop before greed cracks it. That rhythm turns a struggling copper workshop into a shop that can afford every upgrade Vermilion House has locked away — and gives you a real shot at collecting your own jewelry-and-relic empire before the abyss notices you've been digging.