The five objectives
Recover treasure
Hit a minimum treasure value quota and bring it home.
Retrieve a cylinder
Recover a metal cylinder — the key objects tied to K'n-yan.
Cleanse the corruption
Purge corruption sites and close what's opening.
Exploration
Find forts, logbooks and resources. Found forts expand the map and act as waypoints deeper in.
Special descent
The Story-tier finale: go down into the Mound itself.
Sample contracts
Tiers run Basic → Mid → Advanced → Legendary, with Story contracts driving the hunt for the Mound itself. Reward values are only documented for a few Story contracts so far.
| Contract | Tier | Objective | Rewards | Issued loadout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bring back riches from the jungle | Basic | Recover treasure | — | Arquebus (old), Longbow, Machete |
| The jungle lives | Basic | Recover treasure (Prowler active) | — | Arquebus ×2, Pistol |
| Mysterious Artifact | Mid / Adv / Leg | Retrieve a cylinder | — | Arquebus, Crossbow, Pistol |
| Armed to the Teeth | Mid | Recover treasure | — | Arquebus (old) ×2, Pistol (old) ×2, Axe ×4 |
| The Portal | Mid | Cleanse the corruption | — | Halberd ×2, Sword ×3, Helmet ×4 |
| The Spartans | Advanced | Recover treasure | — | Spear ×4, Breastplate ×4, Helmet ×4 |
| Marksmen Incursion | Advanced | Recover treasure | — | Crossbow ×4, Recurve Bow ×4, Bolts ×4 |
| Guns and Glory | Legendary | Recover treasure | — | The full black-powder arsenal |
| El Comendador | Story | Recover treasure | 900 treasure · 40 tokens · 300 XP | Pistol (old), Machete ×2, Sword |
| Finding the Logbook | Story | Recover treasure | 1750 treasure · 30 tokens · 500 XP | Musket (old) ×2, Axe, Sword |
| Find a fort at Scarlet Flower Woods | Story | Exploration | — | Crossbow ×2, Longbow ×2, Machete |
| Find The Mound | Story | Exploration | — | Musket, Axe, Machete, Breastplate ×4 |
| The Mound | Story | Special descent | 100 tokens · 4000 XP | Full weapon pool |
Treasure sell values
The appraiser aboard the Tempestad pays by tier. Overfilling a contract's quota by 20% and 50% each earns an achievement — greed is literally rewarded.
| Tier | Examples | Sell |
|---|---|---|
| Legendary · Tier 5 (Orange) | Metal Idol Skull, Metal Idol Totem | 560–840c |
| Epic · Tier 4 (Purple) | Metal Idol Octopus, Metal Idol Frogman | 360–540c |
| Advanced · Tier 3 (Blue) | Idol Dagon, Chalice Face | 240–360c |
| Mid · Tier 2 (Green) | Sculpture, Cáliz, Chalice | 144–216c |
| Basic · Tier 1 (White) | Artifact, Chalice, Medallion | 80–120c |
| Notables | Bottle of Wine 240–360c · Treasure (metal object) 360–540c · Huemul Meat 80–120c · Music Tablet & Sacred Figures 60–90c · Huemul Hide 60–90c · Dead Bandurria 24–36c · Tulu Metal Coin 12–18c | — |
Contract gear has different names to the shop
This trips up everyone who tries to look something up mid-run. The gear a contract issues you is labelled with internal names that don't match the shop or this wiki. If you're holding something the armory has never heard of, this is why:
| On the contract | What it actually is | Look it up as |
|---|---|---|
| … Old (e.g. Machete Old) | The Aged tier of that weapon | /weapons |
| Small Sword Old | Aged Serpent Hilt Smallsword | /weapons/aged-smallsword |
| Pole Hammer Old | Aged Polehammer | /weapons/aged-polehammer |
| Smelling Salts | Ammonia Salts — the field revive | /items |
| Bullet Pack Small / Big | Gunpowder charges | /items |
| Arrow Pack / Bolt Pack | Arrow and bolt bundles | /items |
| Healthpack | Healing consumable (bandage / ration tier) | /items |
The important consequence: contracts overwhelmingly issue Aged-tier weapons, not finished ones. That is exactly what the Weapon Upgrade Anvil exists for — tokens turn the loaned Aged gear into the real thing, which is why the token economy is tied to contracts rather than to the shop.
Contracts can force a boss
Tier is not the only thing that decides how hard a run is. Some contracts carry a fixed boss encounter regardless of tier — a Basic-tier treasure run can still be flagged with a unique Prowler. Read the whole contract before you assume Basic means safe.
One number we won't assert:our El Comendador entry lists 40 tokens, while the community codex currently lists 16 for the same contract. The XP figure (300) matches in both. We don't know yet whether that's a patch rebalance or a recording error on one side, so we're flagging the disagreement rather than quietly picking a winner.
How the loop pays
Loot converts to coins at the appraiser and to XP at expedition's end; thirty explorer ranks gate the better shop weapons. Contract rewards also pay tokens — a second currency for special gear that expires after one expedition, so spend them on the run you get them. Finding a fort mid-expedition expands the map and gives your next runs a foothold deeper in; the Story line chains from wrecks and logbooks all the way down to the descent into the Mound.
Where to next
Which treasures actually pay, and the runs that waste your time.
What the issued loadouts are worth, plus every shop weapon with damage and rank locks.
The habits that keep a crew alive past the Basic tier.
How contracts feed your rank, and what rank 30 gets you.
The overfill bonuses reward greed — here's the full list.
Where each contract sends you, region by region.
Contract questions
How many contracts are in The Mound?
Community counts put it around 132 contracts across Basic, Mid, Advanced, Legendary and Story tiers. Each contract fixes the weapon pool your crew can take on that run.
What are tokens in The Mound?
A reward currency from contracts, spent on special equipment aboard the Tempestad. Token gear expires after one expedition — use it or lose it.
What sells for the most in The Mound?
Legendary (Tier 5) metal idols — Skull and Totem — at 560–840c each, then Epic (Tier 4) idols at 360–540c. The standout oddity is the Bottle of Wine at 240–360c, the only high-value item that stacks — two in a slot is 480–720c, which can beat an Epic idol (360–540c) outright. Flat prices you see quoted elsewhere (700c, 450c) are the midpoints of these ranges.