2021-03-15
Written by: Bosst
Views: 8741
Alchemist Quarter is one of the most mysterious places, not only in Yalahar but in the whole Tibia. As no fansite ever published any comprehensive research about this place, we decided to do it ourselves and spent there a few weeks. The results exceeded our expectations – we have found lots of strange mechanisms, objects, allusions and perhaps an unfinished quest.
Stay close and keep your weapons ready. Let’s descend into the chaos of Alchemist Quarter.
The city of Yalahar consists of the inner city and 8 quarters – we will focus on the Alchemist quarter. Now it’s destroyed and inhabited by various mutated or even demonic creatures, but it wasn’t always like that.
In the past, Alchemist Quarter was a place where scientist of Yalahar performed their experiments and tests. It probably looked normal, like other civilized parts of the city. Unfortunately, one of the experiments got out of control and caused an enormous explosion which turned the whole quarter into ruins. We can read about it in this book. But, the destruction of this part of the city wasn’t the worst thing that happened. Now, there is no single human being living there – mutants, monsters and demons had taken over the place.
NPC Iriana sums it up. Detailed transcription of her can be found here.
Player: Alchemist
Iriana: I doubt that a single alchemist survived the catastrophe. There was a huge explosion which caused a chain reaction. Nowadays, it’s an infested and burnt down quarter in which it is more likely to meet a mutant than a human.
The area is quite large and there is a lot to explore both on the surface and underground. But what interests us the most are the labs underneath the explosion crater.
The surface is severely destroyed. Ruins are burning and ponds of acid can be spotted everywhere.
Let’s see what the people of Yalahar has to say about Alchemist Quarter, or maybe we should say, Alchemist Crater? 
Undoubtedly, most of NPCs are scared of the area, we know that exploration of this place may pose quite a challenge.
Armed with this knowledge, we are ready to proceed further.
The situation which caused the explosion and its aftermath are based on the Half-life game series storyline. There are multiple hints which lead to this conclusion.
In one of the rooms, we can find the crowbar and specific note. While at first, it doesn’t seem to be any suspicious, it’s the first hint of what inspired Cipsoft to create this place and its lore.
Gordon Freeman is the protagonist of Half-Life (video game). He is a physicist working at the Black Mesa Research Facility. One of the experiments which Gordon is assisting with causes an explosion. The facility gets destroyed, most of the staff ends killed and the portal to another dimension, full of hostile creatures is opened. Sounds familiar yet? Gordon’s first weapon is the crowbar and Kleiner is Gordon’s mentor and co-worker, specializing in teleportation research.
It looks like the whole quarter, especially it’s centre was based on Black Mesa Facility. One of the most mysterious things that we can find there is the teleport, or maybe portal to another dimension, described above. Here is how it looks in Tibia:
According to Half-Life’s storyline, this portal in Alchemist Quarter should also lead to other dimension and this is the cause of nightmarish creatures presence in the ruins. It seems that scientists were researching the ability to connect two worlds and then something went wrong. All demons, nightmares, plaguesmiths and destroyers crawled out of this portal to Tibian reality. This dimension doesn’t seem to be connected to the one we visit in the last mission of In Service of Yalahar Quest, but who knows?
The portal in Alchemist Quarter may also be leading to the home of the mysterious demonic entity called Variphor. This powerful demon is mentioned multiple times in Tibia’s lore and also has some connections with Yalahar. We are not going to focus on Variphor in this article, as he deserves his own, separate publication, but it really fits the story well. Let me just quote a part of the first Yalahar Update Teaser, from tibia.com:
„There, they quickly established this city with the help of their minions and pursued their quest for knowledge and science. During their research, they stumbled across an entity that seemed to be living in a place that existed somehow between worlds, somehow between existence and non-existence. They decided to name this entity Variphor.
Their initial thrill to have discovered something that spectacular was soon replaced by fear. Variphor was vicious by nature and had gained enough power to influence the Yalahari in a negative way.”
We would probably know much more, as there is a big library placed deep beneath the surface. Unfortunately, all books got destroyed in the catastrophe.
Undergrounds of Alchemist Quarter are not entirely destroyed. There are strange machines and installations which were used to conduct odd experiments. We encourage you to test these machines yourselves. Perhaps there is something more into them, maybe some hidden functionalities.
Slime generator
This is the first device we are going to analyze. It requires 2 switches to operate. The first one spawns slimes, and the second one washes it off. Once every few dozens of tries there is a chance for a Defiler to appear. Energy bars make it impossible to attack the monster or to be attacked.
It then requires 2 tries to wash the monster off the platform.
What is the purpose of this? And does spawning Defiler change anything in the nearest area? There is no answer as of now.
Tortured Hunter
The second experiment is just a few sqms north of the 1st one. There are an ant-hill and a hunter behind the energy fence. Ants seem to climb over the hunter, which looks like some kind of torture. We can notice the trap door under the hunter and supposedly it should open when we pull the lever. Strangely, the lever doesn’t work. We have tried to pour oil and other liquids over it or use a crowbar and other tools/weapons to make it move. No results. Maybe it will be you to discover the way to fix it.
Mutating device
This one is really interesting. We have a cave rat and an orc behind the energy bars and 2 switches. They both stand on trap doors.
There are also 2 levers that seem the mutate the monsters – rat into mutated rat and orc into bog rider.
But the things are getting even more strange – the orc is not just a random one. He reveals his name to us (Krashnak) and is conscious of what may happen to him. Interesting fact – Krashnak is an orc from the Lord of the Rings universe. We have an interesting allusion here.
Mechanics here are strangely detailed and complex. Are they only for decorative purposes? I don’t think so. Two sqms in close proximity to the orc, generate his sounds. You just have to step on them.
One more curiosity. Mutating the monsters and waiting a bit causes the cave rat and the orc to spawn again on the same sqm. Pulling the lever makes both monsters disappear.
Here is our favourite machine. The real cherry on top.
We researched all the possible sources and fansites to check if it was analysed in the past. The answer is – no. There are some single comments and barely anyone even know how to turn it on.
Basically, there is a stone pedestal to the right, where you should put the specific item. Our research leads to the conclusion that only organic items work (made of or at least containing the living matter). Then you should stand on the special tile to the left (though it’s not necessarily required) and pull the lever. It will turn us (transmutate) into a specific monster for 30 minutes.
Walking through the energy field placed at the entrance of the dungeon clears the transmutation effect, so theoretically speaking we are not able to show up on the surface while being transmutated.
Why theoretically? It’s been like that for many years, but now we have the temple teleport scrolls, that allow us the leave the dungeon being transmutated into rotworm – which is not possible through any spell, item or event. Or blightwalker – also quite unusual monster, unavailable through creature illusion spell. Try it out and surprise people in depot.
It took us many hours to test hundreds of items, but here is the list of confirmed transformations we were able to find. Remember that there might be more. Each new monster will be a small discovery so give it a try! Watch out for a single plaguesmith in the same room.
Are there any hidden monsters or even bosses which we can turn into, using this machine? Can we use it to transmutate items into something else? What is the purpose of creating something that cool, in an abandoned place? Game devs left us with more questions than answers. 
Not everyone knows that you can go one level down (using levitate spell) to specific holes in Alchemist Quarter. Their purpose is unknown, but we can find some unrottable bodies there.
We contributed with these 11 sqms to Tibiamaps.io map exploration project (kind regards to Mathias Bynens), as they were not revealed yet. This is a good example of a small, yet valuable discovery after many years since the implementation of the area.
Alchemist Quarter and the city of Yalahar overall, are packed with secrets, allusions and hidden content. If you feel a bit bored of leveling or training, we encourage you to pack your backpack and try to discover the undiscovered. This is our first publication since we officially joined the Fansite Programme. If you liked it, and you haven’t visited our site before, then please check the rest of our articles – there is a lot more of such stuff.
I mentioned it in one of our articles, but let me say it once again – we are sitting on top of the iceberg of mysteries. Let’s find and solve them all.
Are you with us?
Sources:
https://tibia.fandom.com/wiki/Arthei%27s_Descent_into_Vampirism_I_(Book)
https://tibiamaps.io/map#32368,32198,7:1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(video_game)
https://tibia.fandom.com/wiki/Variphor
http://tibiacommunity.com/alchemist-quarter-the-transmutator
| Name | TC Amount |
|---|---|
| Sabin Rene | 1000TC |
| Cavaleiro Kyon Efusa | 600TC |
| Anonymous | 550TC |
| Hegal | 500TC |
| Pala Thebs | 250TC |
| Acolyte Rain | 250TC |
| Vall Astaoldana | 150TC |
| Parrilla | 100TC |
I love how articles uncover more content in Tibia and help me understand Tibian universe better.