Sarcophagi in Sacred Underworld

[Sethi22 413]

So we've been hard at work in the past few days with Sir @alfchaval, and all our hard work resulted in the beautiful Sarcophagi Wikipage he wrote: https://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred:Sarcophagus

(Well to be honest, I was the one doing the hard work, running from sarcophagus to sarcophagus, he only wrote the Wikipage...)

So the thing is: if you just randomly open a sarcophagus you come along in Underworld, you'll likely end up with all the others being opened as well, when you get there.  But as mentioned in the Wikipage, there is a strange bug (?) going on. So if you go to the Fungi Hillock Mines (Where Gargaduk takes you if you let him accompany you), you'll find two sarcophagi inside, one on the upper level, and one on the lower. If you open the one on the lower level first, near the burning spiders, you can open the one on the upper level twice! Even though it looks like it's already opened, you can click it twice and get all the runes and set items inside. Furthermore, afterwards you can go to the one located in the Bear cave in the Valley of Tears, and open that one twice as well! So that's 1+2+2=5 openings (instead of the 1 you would get otherwise!)

The one on the upper level of the mines and the one in the bear cave are the only ones that can be opened twice (but only if you start with the one near the burning spiders!) The rest can only be opened once.

Now if you don't get too greedy and (after the lower level one) only click the upper level one once, you can go and find all the others that can only be opened once clickable (like the one in the Hornet cave for example), so that's 1 near the spiders + 1 on the upper level + 1 of the others, that's 3 so far. Now after this, you can't click any of the remaining "one openers"  any more, but you can still go to the Bear cave for the one you can open twice, resulting in the same number of total openings, that is 5. 

So after all our hard research and work, this is where we're at now. But for me, it feels like we're still missing something! At the Wikipage, there are 6 sarcophagi, and so far, we could only get 5 openings as the maximum. So I decided to start this important thread, asking all the veterans I've come across lately: @Dax, @Lindor, @Patroclo Picchiaduro, @VilyaTheWhite, what they knew of this strange phenomenon? 

First of all: are these 6 all of the sarcophagi? And have you found a way to get more than 5 openings? Maybe I'm the only one who finds all this intriguing, and nobody else cares about it, that's ok. But if any of you (or anyone else) knows, or finds something new in this matter, please let me know!

edit: omg, and @Schot! How could I forget our main button pusher-map creator? He must know, right?

 

Edited March 8 by Sethi22

[gogoblender 3,647]

I saw just a wee while ago that beautiful page go up in Wiki and gave a grateful acknowledgement on the work...

 

And now you say there's more? You're such sleuth AND slave-driver  to the truth Sethi...  Let Sacreds truths be revealed...

revealiooooooo!

gogo

[alfchaval 223]

5 hours ago, Sethi22 said:

(Well to be honest, I was the one doing the hard work, running from sarcophagus to sarcophagus, he only wrote the Wikipage...)

Ok, you can take the credit if you want, but then I will not tell you about another sarcophagus I found when I was searching for them walking around the map.

[Sethi22 413]

Nooooooo! I'm nothing, less then nothing! It was all you, master Alf! Please share it with me!

(Ok Gogo, you can come as well... Although I haven't mentioned you as a veteran, because you confused left clicks with right clicks once and I think you haven't played Sacred 1 for a decade at least, but all right, you're a veteran too. (Sort of... )

Edited March 9 by Sethi22

[alfchaval 223]

In the cave near the Arachnophobia sidequest.

[Sethi22 413]

Well, Alf made some great discoveries, and this time, it was really all him! I had nothing to do with it at all! He already got to 9 openings!!! You need great determination and a healthy, organized mind to achieve something like this, not a junk like mine! I tried too, but by the time I got to stage 3 or 4, I usually forgot where I came from, or how many times I had clicked. No wonder I couldn't get above 5! I guess I should have written it all down... 

We have to give short names to each one now, because it's getting complicated:

So in the order they appear now on the Wiki, the names will be:

Burial chamber - Crypt - Hornet - Altar - Spider - Druids - Bear

So here are his great findings so far:

7 openings:

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Altar

9 openings:

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Druids -> Altar -> Altar

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Bear -> Altar -> Altar

 

Edit:

These were his last words so far, but  I tried one of the 9 routes (wrote down where I was this time), and it didn't end there, I got to 11!  You always have to go back to the altar once. So it's like this:

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Druids -> Altar ->Bear ->Altar ->Altar

11 openings from 7 chests, that's 22 beautiful runes if you saveload each one until it gives 2 runes, 110 runes in the 5 difficulty levels!

Edit2: Wow I haven't even been to the Burial Chamber yet, I forgot. Well then I guess it will be 13 openings, 26 runes, 130 in total!

Edit3: Yep, 13 it is!

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Druids -> Altar ->Burial chamber ->Altar ->Bear ->Altar ->Altar

 

Can anyone beat 13?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9 by Sethi22

[gogoblender 3,647]

6 hours ago, Sethi22 said:

Well, Alf made some great discoveries, and this time, it was really all him! I had nothing to do with it at all! He already got to 9 openings!!! You need great determination and a healthy, organized mind to achieve something like this, not a junk like mine! I tried too, but by the time I got to stage 3 or 4, I usually forgot where I came from, or how many times I had clicked. No wonder I couldn't get above 5! I guess I should have written it all down... 

We have to give short names to each one now, because it's getting complicated:

So in the order they appear now on the Wiki, the names will be:

Burial chamber - Crypt - Hornet - Altar - Spider - Druids - Bear

So here are his great findings so far:

7 openings:

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Altar

9 openings:

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Druids -> Altar -> Altar

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Bear -> Altar -> Altar

 

Edit:

These were his last words so far, but  I tried one of the 9 routes (wrote down where I was this time), and it didn't end there, I got to 11!  You always have to go back to the altar once. So it's like this:

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Druids -> Altar ->Bear ->Altar ->Altar

11 openings from 7 chests, that's 22 beautiful runes if you saveload each one until it gives 2 runes, 110 runes in the 5 difficulty levels!

Edit2: Wow I haven't even been to the Burial Chamber yet, I forgot. Well then I guess it will be 13 openings, 26 runes, 130 in total!

Edit3: Yep, 13 it is!

Spiders -> Altar -> Crypt -> Altar -> Hornet -> Altar -> Druids -> Altar ->Burial chamber ->Altar ->Bear ->Altar ->Altar

 

Can anyone beat 13?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love it... all the code words...I love crypto movies and code breaking, look at the way they names affixed you have created look... like data streams running down the page...omgod... the Matrix...!!

.,, hidden figures

 

[Sethi22 413]

5 hours ago, gogoblender said:

 look at the way they names affixed you have created look...

 

Of course I haven't created those names! I was running around like a madman from sarcophagus to sarcophagus without any proper plan!  Alf created those names! He's the mastermind behind all this, I just posted it, because he's a smooth, but covert operator. Likes to work secretly in the dark, writing Wikipages,.. And I thought maybe others could be interested in his findings.

Edited March 9 by Sethi22

[gogoblender 3,647]

18 minutes ago, Sethi22 said:

Of course I haven't created those names! I was running around like a madman from sarcophagus to sarcophagus without any proper plan!  Alf created those names! He's the mastermind behind all this, I just posted it, because he's a smooth, but covert operator. Likes to work secretly in the dark, writing Wikipages... And I thought maybe others could be interested in his findings.

firstly ..hugs for alf  cmon no squirming!  ...

its a beautifully intricate piece of workmanship... I mean.. is it really thought from the get-go to have been a super-puzzle thats this many layers deep?  Look how the puzzle is being deciphered 20 years later.. whaaaaaaaaaaaa...

What do you think were in the devs' heads when they were making this... were they trying to create a puzzle that is its own worth... is this a kind of ...farming place?

These devs sure had good brandy with them when they made this game? or maybe ... A b s i n t h e ...

gogo

[alfchaval 223]

I don't expect a longer path that the one that opens 13 sarcophagi, but I'm checking all posible paths one by one, this is a part of the file where I keep track.

40 minutes ago, gogoblender said:

What do you think were in the devs' heads when they were making this... were they trying to create a puzzle that is its own worth... is this a kind of ...farming place?

My guess is that the behaviour of the sarcophagi was going to be different, you had a button that spawned/activated one specific sarcofagus and you could open all of them in order, but that was not finished or was discarded but they forgot to chance part of that behaviour. There are so many unfinished things in Underworld that I don't think it's intentional.

Anyway, this is a great find, I couldn't find anyone talking about this strange behaviour, and it's not like people didn't know about the existence of the sarcophagi,

[gogoblender 3,647]

2 minutes ago, alfchaval said:

I don't expect a longer path that the one that opens 13 sarcophagi, but I'm checking all posible paths one by one, this is a part of the file where I keep track.

My guess is that the behaviour of the sarcophagi was going to be different, you had a button that spawned/activated one specific sarcofagus and you could open all of them in order, but that was not finished or was discarded but they forgot to chance part of that behaviour. There are so many unfinished things in Underworld that I don't think it's intentional.

Anyway, this is a great find, I couldn't find anyone talking about this strange behaviour, and it's not like people didn't know about the existence of the sarcophagi,

sooo ...here's a question! if the specific Sacred Dev who created this part of the game were here.. would he be allowed to speak about whether its finished or not? or what they had in mind when they were creating this? Or would information like that be covered by their NDA? Does an NDA cover intent... makes me wonder.. about how long they would have to protect a "cover up" of running out of time etc... 

 

gogo

[Sethi22 413]

Well invite one here, Gogo! You buy the absinthe, and then let's see what he divulges!

Edited March 10 by Sethi22

[alfchaval 223]

All paths checked.

Wiki info updated.

[gogoblender 3,647]

19 hours ago, alfchaval said:

All paths checked.

Wiki info updated.

Bravo and well done!

… lol  alfchaval … We are only at the 20 year mark here now for sacred… If your team keep going the way you are, there won’t be any mysteries left within the next year … underworld wiki is soon on its way too solution

.😄

giogi

[gogoblender 3,647]

On 3/10/2025 at 4:31 AM, Sethi22 said:

Well invite one here, Gogo! You buy the absinthe, and then let's see what he divulges!

Now this would be an interesting quest itself wouldn’t it to first of all track down who’s there that was connected to this and then get a nice understanding of what was in their mindset when they’re putting the puzzles together I don’t think it’s ever been documented anywhere yet
 

😍

gogo

[Sethi22 413]

Well, whoever did this had bad intentions! Oh, the time it takes to run this 13 path! (I was dumb enough to do it on foot, a fast horse would have come in handy, but I'm bonded with my beautiful (yet slow) heavy war horse and I didn't want to sell it for something like this). And I did the running invisible, with the waterform dark elf set, so I could run past everybody without fighting. Imagine doing all this, fighting your way through the horde... 

But see what I mean when I say, he's a covert operator? He's all business, this Alf! "All paths checked, Wiki info updated..." That's it! If I hadn't posted it, nobody would ever find it, unless they specifically searched for it on the Wiki. Unbelievable!"

Edited March 11 by Sethi22

[gogoblender 3,647]

1 hour ago, Sethi22 said:

Well, whoever did this had bad intentions! Oh, the time it takes to run this 13 path! (I was dumb enough to do it on foot, a fast horse would have come in handy, but I'm bonded with my beautiful (yet slow) heavy war horse and I didn't want to sell it for something like this). And I did the running invisible, with the waterform dark elf set, so I could run past everybody without fighting. Imagine doing all this, fighting your way through the horde... 

But see what I mean when I say, he's a covert operator? He's all business, this Alf! "All paths checked, Wiki info updated..." That's it! If I hadn't posted it, nobody would ever find it, unless they specifically searched for it on the Wiki. Unbelievable!"

@alfchaval a… I agree Sethi … Alf this has become kind of a sacred underworld  guide. You can actually add that in the title if you’d like and I can move it into the collection of guides for underworld  if you think that’s a better place for it we also have a new REDDIT… And I could make an announcement there as well bring attention to the work here at DarkMatters that you have documented for the wiki

😍

gogo

 

[VilyaTheWhite 152]

On 3/8/2025 at 1:50 PM, Sethi22 said:

So we've been hard at work in the past few days with Sir @alfchaval, and all our hard work resulted in the beautiful Sarcophagi Wikipage he wrote: https://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred:Sarcophagus

(Well to be honest, I was the one doing the hard work, running from sarcophagus to sarcophagus, he only wrote the Wikipage...)

So the thing is: if you just randomly open a sarcophagus you come along in Underworld, you'll likely end up with all the others being opened as well, when you get there.  But as mentioned in the Wikipage, there is a strange bug (?) going on. So if you go to the Fungi Hillock Mines (Where Gargaduk takes you if you let him accompany you), you'll find two sarcophagi inside, one on the upper level, and one on the lower. If you open the one on the lower level first, near the burning spiders, you can open the one on the upper level twice! Even though it looks like it's already opened, you can click it twice and get all the runes and set items inside. Furthermore, afterwards you can go to the one located in the Bear cave in the Valley of Tears, and open that one twice as well! So that's 1+2+2=5 openings (instead of the 1 you would get otherwise!)

The one on the upper level of the mines and the one in the bear cave are the only ones that can be opened twice (but only if you start with the one near the burning spiders!) The rest can only be opened once.

Now if you don't get too greedy and (after the lower level one) only click the upper level one once, you can go and find all the others that can only be opened once clickable (like the one in the Hornet cave for example), so that's 1 near the spiders + 1 on the upper level + 1 of the others, that's 3 so far. Now after this, you can't click any of the remaining "one openers"  any more, but you can still go to the Bear cave for the one you can open twice, resulting in the same number of total openings, that is 5. 

So after all our hard research and work, this is where we're at now. But for me, it feels like we're still missing something! At the Wikipage, there are 6 sarcophagi, and so far, we could only get 5 openings as the maximum. So I decided to start this important thread, asking all the veterans I've come across lately: @Dax, @Lindor, @Patroclo Picchiaduro, @VilyaTheWhite, what they knew of this strange phenomenon? 

First of all: are these 6 all of the sarcophagi? And have you found a way to get more than 5 openings? Maybe I'm the only one who finds all this intriguing, and nobody else cares about it, that's ok. But if any of you (or anyone else) knows, or finds something new in this matter, please let me know!

edit: omg, and @Schot! How could I forget our main button pusher-map creator? He must know, right?

 

My knowledge ends and starts at skins so I can't be of much help here

[Hooyaah 3,236]

Don't look at me either, I'm certainly not that sarcopha guy.

[Sethi22 413]

45 minutes ago, Hooyaah said:

Don't look at me either, I'm certainly not that sarcopha guy.

Sorry for not mentioning you Gandalf, you told me once, that you were a Sacred 2 player. I've  never met you  down here, in 1. (Or have I?) By the way, I've never met Alf up there in Sacred 2 either...

[gogoblender 3,647]

6 hours ago, VilyaTheWhite said:

My knowledge ends and starts at skins so I can't be of much help here

lol, oh...and as if Skins was such a smaaaaaaal thing...  

Good seeing you Vilya, thanks for coming down to...

 Sacred tales of the Sarcophagus!!!...

(almost said esophagus...jusssst... almost  )

gogo

 

[VilyaTheWhite 152]

20 hours ago, gogoblender said:

lol, oh...and as if Skins was such a smaaaaaaal thing...  

Good seeing you Vilya, thanks for coming down to...

 Sacred tales of the Sarcophagus!!!...

(almost said esophagus...jusssst... almost  )

gogo

 

Well you could say im retired lol 

[Hooyaah 3,236]

22 hours ago, Sethi22 said:

Sorry for not mentioning you Gandalf, you told me once, that you were a Sacred 2 player. I've  never met you  down here, in 1. (Or have I?) By the way, I've never met Alf up there in Sacred 2 either...

Indeed, to travel between the two Sacred worlds (One and Two) requires a time machine. In order to post here today, it was necessary that I employ a stationary mass, temporal displacement unit. It is powered by two, top-spin, dual-positive singularities which, when properly balanced, produce a standard, off-set Tipler sinusoid. Oh, and yes you met me here before, yet it will have happened in the not to distant future.

 

[gogoblender 3,647]

20 hours ago, Hooyaah said:

Indeed, to travel between the two Sacred worlds (One and Two) requires a time machine. In order to post here today, it was necessary that I employ a stationary mass, temporal displacement unit. It is powered by two, top-spin, dual-positive singularities which, when properly balanced, produce a standard, off-set Tipler sinusoid. Oh, and yes you met me here before, yet it will have happened in the not to distant future.

 

My goodness Hooyaah.. all that tech and units...

why not just opt out for a magic carpet instead...

oooh voluminous luxury at our toes

gogo

[Hooyaah 3,236]

7 hours ago, gogoblender said:

My goodness Hooyaah.. all that tech and units...

why not just opt out for a magic carpet instead...

oooh voluminous luxury at our toes

gogo

 

Rommel, that magic carpet ride was already taken, kind sir.

Besides, extreme Physics is what I find entertaining, my good friend.