Monk Special Training Guide

Introduction:

Monks unlock access to four different trainers once they have performed enough Iron Palm attacks (roughly 100 attacks). Each of these trainers will teach you three different attack skills of varying difficulty. These skills do not cost EXP to train and only increase in effectiveness through using them. These skills can also be chained into combos that speed up subsequent attacks and provide unique bonuses.

To unlock these attack skills you will need to visit the trainers who are on different spots on four continents and then complete several challenges.

General Overview of Skills:

• From each trainer you can learn three skills
• They are 2 round, 4 round, and 6 round skills
• Aka: Light, Medium, and Heavy
• From a base damage perspective (very rough estimate on a *good* hit):
• Light: 100 hitpoints of damage
• Medium: 200 hitpoints of damage
• Heavy: 300 hitpoints of damage
• Each skill will also provide a "special" bonus
• Furnachia: (Chance to) Apply +Dam Debuff to Target
• Very rare proc, but the target will take more damage from other attacks from your party.
• Does not actually depend on the "armour" of the target despite the description.
• Lucetium: +Avoid
• Laenor: +Hit
• Rothikgen: Area Effect

Training Skills:

Quick Disclaimer:

• You can only train one special skill path/trainer at a time. Once you start a path you need to finish it by getting all three attacks trained to 76+ before starting a new path/trainer.
• I recommend starting with either the Lucetium (+Defense) or Laenor (Lowers enemy defense) trainers since they are the most applicable to normal gameplay.
• Note: In one case I only had to train an attack to 75% vs. 76%. So if you stop seeing a skill level up when it is at 75% then you are probably done.

How to Train the Special Monk Skills:

1. Each trainer will give you a task that requires special syntax and sometimes specific Monk skills to complete
2. Once you complete that task, they will give you a new attack skill which will start trained at 50%
3. The skill's percentage will increase with use
• Initially it takes only a few hits to increase it by 1%.
• Once you hit 76% trained in a skill it will advance significantly slower though. I also don't think it will start advancing again until you have completed the third "heavy" skill training.
4. Once you advance the skill to 76% trained, visit the trainer again. They will give you a new task, and once you complete that, a new skill. 
5. There are three attack skills in total you can learn from a trainer which basically boil down to "light, medium, and heavy".
• The base time it takes to execute these attacks is 2 rounds, 4 rounds, and 6 rounds.
6. Important: When you max out your third attack skill at 76%, make sure you see the trainer to finish up their training and allow you to visit other trainers.
7. Once you have finished up training with a trainer, you'll need to start using Iron Palm again until you unlock another trainer.

Tips on Advancing Quicker:

• The quickest way to advance this is to find something to hit that won't hit you back, or to go to areas with bunches of easy to kill monsters that you can just murder. For example the Beastlands.
• For the more advanced attacks that take six rounds, it's helpful to find mobs that don't move around as much, such as in the dark castle, butterfly/bunny valleys, etc.
• You can also maximize the number of special attacks you can use in a fight by setting your parry to 51 (to slow down your auto-attacks) and your martial arts skill to 1 (which again slows down your normal attacks)

Miscellaneous Notes:

• If you reincarnate out and then back into Monks after training a skill to 100%, you will start with the skill trained to 75% instead of 50%.
• I've heard if you get a skill trained to 100% you will get a bonus to your martial arts skill, which is very helpful for newer players since that skill is super expensive.

Training from 75 to 100%:

• After you "finish" a trainer, using your special skills have a chance to improve them. Occasionally you will get a +1% after the skill successfully is used.
• I've noticed if I get a kill with a special skill, I sometimes also get the following message which also gives me a 1% improvement:
• You spring back up almost instantly!
• You get insight from your critical hit and remember it for later

Special Skill Combos:

You can chain these Monk skills together in a single fight to create special combos that can provide bonuses and/or generate new types of attacks.

Important Notes:

• For the combo to trigger, all the attacks must be successful. So if one of your attacks has a failure mode then the combo will fail and you will need to start again
• I believe there is a limited period of time for you to chain the attacks together. So you can't fire off two attacks, wait for the monster to respawn, and then fire off the third/fourth one to complete the combo.

Initial Speed-up Combo:

• Combo (any attack): Iron Palm + light
• Rounds (Time): Variable + 1
• Notes:
• If you start with your standard Iron palm attack, it will change the speed of your light attack from 2 rounds to 1 round which is really nice for initiating a fight.

Speed-up Combo:

• Combo (any attack): light + medium + heavy
• Rounds (Time): 2 x 2 x 2
• Notes:
• If you do the light/medium/heavy attack in a chain, it will reduce the time to use the medium and heavy attacks to two rounds, which is a huge time savings
• This whole combo takes the same time as one "normal" heavy attack, so it's a good one to keep in your attack rotation.
• This combo can also benefit by starting with Iron Palm to reduce the time of the first light attack to 1 round.

Talons of the Iron Bird:

• Combo: Falcon Talon Strike + Falcon Talon Strike + Avalanche Slam
• Rounds (Time): 2 x 2 x 6
• Notes:
• This special attack is added on after the Avalanche Slam hits
• Basically it does bonus damage. All my targets so far have died afterwards so I haven't been able to see if it also stuns.
• This is more the nature of the targets I've been testing on, not proof for how much damage it does. 10 rounds of combat is a lot during a solo fight so most of the monsters I'm testing on are already at low HP when it goes off.
• Success Message:
• Combo Move: Talons of the Iron Bird!
• {{ Target }} hits the ground in a shower of sizzling sparks, stunning it!

Furnachia:

Focus: [Offensive] Attacks that can apply a debuff to make targets more vulnerable to damage

Location: The trainer is in central Furnachia by the volcano and the Demon shrine.

• I found a Navigator tree to Ndoki which was "close enough" to make the trip reasonable
• This is NOT the monk trainer by the ferry. Instead the trainer is in a tunnel in the mountain.

Required Skills: Meditation

Granted Skills:

General Note For Skills:

• Occasionally after one of the Furnachia skills is successful you will get the following message:
• The thrashing knocks some of {{ his/her }} defenses loose, leaving {{ him/her }} temporarily vulnerable!
• My assumption is that these attacks don't themselves bypass armour, but when this special message occurs (which is rare) regular attacks do more damage.
• Note, the above message doesn't seem to depend of if the creature has any armour or not.
• Aka it was happening to bunnies...

Falling Boulder Strike: (2 round skill)

• Description: Does a small amount of damage and has a chance to apply a +Dam debuff to the target
• Battle Messages (Worst to Best):
• You ball up a fist and attempt to drive your elbow down hard onto {{ Target }}, but only score a glancing blow.
• This is a miss and does not do any damage
• You ball up a fist and drive your elbow down on {{ Target's }} shoulder, scoring a solid hit!
• You ball up a fist and drive your elbow down at {{Target's }} shoulder, but only bruise the muscle
• You ball up a fist and _drive_ your elbow down onto {{ Target's }} shoulder, and you feel something pop!

Earthquake Kick: (4 round skill)

• Description: Does a medium amount of damage and has a chance to apply a +Dam debuff to the target
• Battle Messages (Worst to Best):
• You make several quick kicks at {{ Target }} in rapid succession, but don't get any solid hits.
• This is a miss and does not do any damage
• Your first kick knocks {{ Target }} backwards, preventing you from hitting with the others.
• You thrust your foot against {{ Target's }} torso, getting two hits in!

Avalanche Slam: (6 round skill)

• Description: Does a high amount of damage and has a chance to apply a +Dam debuff to the target
• Battle Messages (Worst to Best):
• You grab at {{ Target's }} outstretched limbs, but miss.
• This is a miss and does not do any damage
• You grab and hurl {{ Target }} onto the ground, but it manages to land on its butt.
• You grab and hurl {{ Target }} to the ground, but he twists to land on his side

Tasks:

Task 1: Falling Boulder Strike

• For your first task, you need to go into the northwest room and split a giant boulder in half.
• To start the task, "ask dwarf about training"
• You can attack the boulder, but it will not have any noticeable effect.
• Instead, use meditation in the boulder room.
• Make sure you let the meditation run for the full length and don't stop it early.
• This will give you insight in how to break the boulder
• Type "strike boulder" and the boulder will break.
• Now you can go back to the trainer and "ask dwarf about training" and they will teach you about falling boulder strike.

Task 2: Earthquake Kick

• Next you will need to put a crack in the wall to your northeast using only your feet.
• Go into the room and for the this task you'll need to use the command "kick wall" (aka this is not the skill)
• The goal is to kick the wall 10 times in a row where each time you kick it the following message is generated:
• Some dust falls from the wall as it rocks backwards a bit
• I found this works ok with around a two second delay between each command.
• This is somewhat easy with the mud client since I just keep using the previous command and hitting enter every two seconds.
• When you succeed you'll get a "There is a *SNAP* as a new crack runs through the wall's surface!
• Go back to the trainer and "ask dwarf about training" and they will teach you earthquake kick.

Task 3: Avalanche slam

• For the final task you will need to break an obsidian table that is in the same room as your trainer.
• Don't use skills to attack the table, since the trainer will get mad and turn aggressive ... which will not turn out well for you.
• To complete this task you need to "take table" and then "drop table"
• This was super difficult for my catfolk monk since I initially wasn't strong enough to pick up the table.
• I had to turn on my Ki power of Strength, use Mind over Body for Strength, and then drop all (and I do mean all) of my carried equipment and armour to be able to pick up the table.
• Not sure if the table weight changes for different characters. Aka this might be real hard for a brownie monk to complete....
• Finally, go back to the trainer and "ask dwarf about training" and they will teach you avalanche slam.

Lucetium:

Focus: [Defensive] Successful attacks increase your ability to avoid hits.

Location: The trainer is in the southern tip of Lucetium far away from anything else.

• You might be able to take a navigator tree to teleport to Mirror Mines which is the closest area to the trainer. It's still a hike though.
• I found using the skill light feet helped since there are a lot of water crossing to get to the trainer.

Required Skills: Punch, Controlled Motion

Granted Skills:

Falcon Talon Strike: (2 round skill)

• Description: Does a small amount of damage and will increase your avoid statistic
• Notes:
• Basic success (trained to 50%)
• It increased my defense factor (as shown using parry) by 10
• In my score it increased my ability to avoid hits from "mediocre" to "above average"
• As the success message (as seen below) increased, so did the bonus it granted my defense factor. The skill % also seems to play a role as well.
• The defense bonuses are overwritten each time you use the skill, so if you have a great success and then fail the next attack you will lose your bonus.
• That being said, the bonus only lasts a couple of rounds anyways, so you'll lose it regardless if you don't keep using these special attacks.
• When looking at my battle summary logs, this increase had a noticeable impact on how often I got hit. I'm a fan of this skill!
• Battle Messages (Worst to Best):
• You attempt to vault over {{ Target }}, but are pushed back.
• This is a miss. No avoid bonus is granted by this
• You push off of {{ Target's }} shoulders and vault over her head, but can't push hard enough to get into a flip.
• You push off of {{ Target's }} shoulders hard enough to flip over her head, but can't get a decent claw in
• You push off {{ Target's }} shoulders and flip, clawing him in the back with curved fingers!

Elder Cobra Kick: (4 round skill)

• Description: Does a medium amount of damage and will increase your avoid statistic
• Notes:
• Seems to increase your avoid stats by the same amount as the light version of this.
• Battle Messages (Worst to Best):
• Your forward flip was too early, leaving you flat on your back!
• This is a miss. No avoid bonus is granted by this
• Your forward flip comes too late, and you end up merely slamming your back against {{ Target }}
• Your forward flip is a little too late, but you manage to club {{ Target }} over the shoulder with the heel of your foot

Elder Cobra Kick: (4 round skill)

• Description: Does a medium amount of damage and will increase your avoid statistic
• Notes:
• Seems to increase your avoid stats by the same amount as the light version of this.
• Battle Messages (Worst to Best):
• You hurl your twisting body feet-first through the air at {{ Target }}, but fall short and land on your side
• This is a miss. No avoid bonus is granted by this
• You hurl yourself through the air, feet first and twisting your body. You fall short, and end up merely kicking him in the face with one foot

Tasks:

Task 1: Falcon talon strike

• For this task you will need to punch pots out of the air. The challenge is since they are in the air you will need to start your punch in the main room, jump, and then have the punch land when you are in the air. Not an easy feat, so expect to do this a couple of times before being successful.
• Each time you do this, you will need to "ask catfolk about training"
• To start type: "now"
• In that room, type "use punch at pot"
• Wait a second and then type "jump"
• If your controlled motion was successful, the punch will land and break the pot before you fall
• You will always fall outside the training area, so you will need to climb back up to talk to the trainer again.
• You will also take a small amount of damage (around 10 hitpoints)
• Quick command to speed things up: "climb;ask catfolk about training;say now;use punch at pot;jump"
• Once you have sucessfuly broken the pot, go back and "ask catfolk about training" one last time and they will teach you Falcon talon strike

Task 2: Elder cobra kick 

• This task will require you to carry a very heavy pot of water through the air and deposit it to the north.
• Side note, if I hadn't read spoilers about this task I would have never been able to figure out the syntax for it.
• To start things out, "ask catfolk about training" and then say now.
• They will then give you a heavy urn filled with water.
• To do this task, "wield urn" which will take up both your arm slots
• Next, go north.
• You will find yourself in mid-air. While doing this, quickly type "flip".
• This will allow you to catch a bar with your feet and make it to the next room
• Now drop the urn, and return back to the trainer. "ask catfolk about training" to complete this task.
• They will then teach you "Elder cobra kick".

Task 3: Lions teeth throw

• For this task you'll need to pull a rope to the northwest twice without any of the poles touching you and without using your hands.
• Go Northwest. You'll need to do the next couple of commands quickly so you don't get hit with a pole. Also you will need to wait a few seconds between each command so you can't chain them together into a single command.
• Pull rope with feet
• duck
• jump
• spin
• Pull rope with feet
• If you fail, don't worry. The room automatically resets so you can try again immediately afterwards.
• Now go back to the trainer and "ask catfolk about training" to complete this task.
• They will teach you lions teeth throw.