Steps of Madness

Steps of Madness or SoM is a static dungeon in northern Omni Forest. Added to the game in 2001 as a Halloween treat, players originally needed a special teddy bear (the object of a separate quest) to enter. When SoM was made a permanent fixture, the teddy bear requirement was removed.

With the addition of Patch 17.9, the dungeon has been newly updated to scale the monsters down in healthto even out the challenge for all players and loot was added or updated.

Players in teams are advised to be of level 30 or higher, and a level of 50 or higher is recommended for solo play.

Getting There

There are about two ways to get to the Steps of Madness: the easy way and the hard way.

The Easy Way

Added in the 17.9 update, there is a new face in Newland City; a strange Nanomage who floats near the western gates named Zyvania Bagh. If you talk to her, she will be willing and eager to tell you about the revelations of the Neleb and the Steps of Madness. If you can talk politely with her for long enough, she will offer to teleport you to the entrance of the dungeon so you can start your own 'journey of enlightenment'.

The Hard Way

The hard way is much harder than the easy, well... at least for Clan characters, because you need to go overland from your faction's closest city and there is no clan city that is close to Omni Forest. Omni Characters can easily reach the dungeon by leaving Omni Entertainment via one of the East exits and traveling slightly north east. Clan characters need to do one of two things: either they can start in the Athens and travel down through both East Stret Banks areas, Milky Way, and Pleasant Meadows to Omni Forest, or they can risk it all and take the grid to Omni Entertainment themselves. If they are cautious enough, Clanners can make it out of the city alive.

Walk Through

Traveling north from the Omni-1 Entertainment east gate, players will come upon a path composed of parallel rows of standing stones. The path leads to a large rock with what appears to be a living eyeball in it. The eyeball eerily rolls around and watches the players approach. Access to the dungeon is afforded by right-clicking the eyeball.

Players are then teleported into a winding system of caverns occupied by nightmarish creatures with equally horrific names (which nevertheless resemble metaphysicist bots). Most of these mobs drop items unique to SoM.

Childhood Horrors

Spider monsters in level 30 range, large spider in the 45+ level range which drops fear forged blade and aracnid ether.

Cavern of Sanity

Figments of Imagination

Cavern of Hatred

Pulsing Hatred which drops nervjolter and Tidal ether

Caverns of Disassociation

Roving eyes, detached psyche, fragment of sanity which drops ether and loving hands. Jealousy drops essence of jealousy. Notum habit drops Neutrino Flash, Ether and sometimes dark dreams.

Caverns of Madness

Neleb the Deranged

neleb 70 thief of reason 65 betrayer of memory 65

The final boss, Neleb the Deranged, is a painfully thin male who fights with great speed and strength. He also uses nukes and drains liberally. His drops feature unique items as well, including his nano-circuit robe (a must-have for all heavy nano-using professions), his notum battlerod and the [Cortex of the Executioner] (a head implant that buffs critical chance, sneak attack and aimed shot). As a result, his spawn is heavily camped. He is guarded by four to six of the higher level mobs, so taking him on will likely require one or two teams operating cooperatively.

Maps