Erebus Tears

An Erebus Tear is a breach in the world itself. It rips open somewhere in the overworld mine, floods the ground around it with shades and wraiths in waves, and only closes when the Tearkeeper at its heart goes down. Seal it and three Erebus Crates fall out of the sky for anyone quick enough to take them.

Unlocking tears

Erebus Tears unlock at Fund tier IV. Until the community funds it, tears don't open on their own.

When and where one opens

• Roughly every 3 hours, with at least one player in the overworld. A breach never opens unattended.
• The site is real standing ground down in the mine, well away from guard posts so the watch can't join the fight.
• Never inside spawn or any other safe zone, and never within 24 blocks of one.
• Opening is announced network-wide with the coordinates, and modded clients get a beam ping on the breach.
• The world drops to night while a breach is open, and comes back to day when it closes.

Ask Nyx or open /events for the next one (see Tracking the next one below).

The mark

Every breach bears one boss's mark, rolled when it opens and announced with it. All four marks are equally likely. The mark renames the Tearkeeper and gives it a signature ability in that boss's colours:

The fight

• 5 waves of shades and wraiths spawn in a ring around the breach.
• Waves get bigger as they go, and the share of wraiths climbs with them.
• Waves can bring melee shades, archers and Frost, Flame or Storm mages, like the packs in a Polis run.
• A wave rolls over once a quarter or fewer of it is left standing.
• The final wave spawns the Tearkeeper at the centre with its own boss bar. Killing it seals the breach and clears whatever is still standing.
• Requiem Powder does not clear tear shades, so every wave has to be killed.
• Stand within 64 blocks to count as a participant and see the boss bar.

There is a hard 60-minute timeout. An expired tear closes unsealed and pays no crates at all.

Tiers

A tear runs at a tier from I to VIII, set by the season's level cap rather than by who shows up:

Tier drives the difficulty of everything inside and the crates. A higher tier pays a richer crate and unlocks drops the lower tiers never pay. The Usurper jewel is rarer from low-tier tears than from high-tier ones. Erebus Crates no longer hold uber keys: those come from the Sacred Way.

Sealing it

Sealing calls down 3 Erebus Crates, landing within about 15 blocks of the breach on ground you can stand on. The crates are the entire payout, and they belong to nobody. Landing the killing blow on the Tearkeeper gives you no claim on them.

Tracking the next one

• Nyx stands with the other quest guides at spawn and keeps the Breach Watch. Talk to her for the time until the next tear, the tier it's expected at, where a live one has opened and how far into its waves it is, and how many breaches you've sealed.
• /events carries a live countdown alongside the rest of the timed events.
• /tear is staff-only.

Quests

The Breachbound quest line is built around tears: killing Tearkeepers, culling tear shades and sealing tears, including tears of tier IV and VI or higher. It ends with the Breachlord title.

Opening one yourself

Two items force a breach without waiting for the timer:

• Fortune's Dice has an Erebus Tear side that opens one for the whole server.
• The Erebus Splinter, found in some loot boxes, opens a tear on the spot.

Neither works over a live breach. Only one tear is open at a time.

Version history

v4.0.0 (Map 4)

• Tears now unlock at Fund IV.
• Tear waves bring archers and Frost, Flame and Storm mages as well as melee shades.
• Requiem Powder no longer clears tear shades, and it is not used up when nothing in range can be cleared.
• All four marks are now equally likely.
• Erebus Crates no longer hold uber keys. Uber keys come from the Sacred Way.
• Usurper (renamed from Gravecall) drops half as often from Tier III tears, climbing each tier to unchanged at Tier VIII.
• The Wounds of Erebus quest line was replaced by Breachbound.