Lost Zones | Wayfinder Wiki

Connections

Connections are Key Items with strong ties to a location. They can take the form of an object or something more abstract such as a memory or an experience. These items can be found by exploring the Highlands outside of Skylight, obtained through Quests or collected from other Lost Zones you have already unlocked. One such Connection you obtain early in the game is the Codex Ember, which directs you to the Codex Halls of the Aurelien Monastery.

Gloom Breaches

Gloom Breaches or simply Breaches are sheets of Gloom energy that serve as entrances to Lost Zones. Breaches can only be found in the Highlands, so you will need to venture outisde the safety of Skylight to find them. Breaches are often found in their original locations, from before the Gloom ravaged the land and tore these locations asunder. Each Breach leads to different Lost Zone and can only be entered with the use of a Gloom Dagger.

Gloom Dagger

The Gloom Dagger is a mysterious and invaluable tool crafted and refined by Omen and Lord Halar. With it, Wayfinders can channel their power to not only cut through the Gloom, but also harness its energies to reshape and control the chaos within. It is obtained early in the game over a series of Main Story Quests which sees the player crafting their own dagger from a piece of Gloom Shard.

Expeditions in Wayfinder

Expeditions are typically the base activity conducted in a Lost Zone. During Expeditions, your goal is to explore and find the zone's Anchor — the heart of the zone that grants strength to the Gloom. Destroying the Anchor will destabilize and weaken the Gloom, allowing you to return to safety through its Breach or the Gloomsphere.

Before finding the Anchor however, you will face various Enemies that will attempt to hinder your progress as you explore the procedurally-generated halls and rooms of the Lost Zone. Defeating them grants XP to both your active Wayfinder and your equipped Weapons. Expeditions are also a major source of materials and other resources such as currencies scattered throughout.  Exploration is highly encouraged during Expeditions in order to gain the maximum amount of rewards upon completion, as well as to complete objectives for Quests.

While on an Expedition, a three-segment progress bar appears at the top of the HUD, with each segment separated by a Treasure Chest Icon. This progress bar fills as you uncover sections of the zone's map, defeat enemies, upon treasure chests and complete other objectives. This bar dictates the amount of rewards you will obtain upon the zone's completion.

What are Hunts in Wayfinder?

As you embark on Expeditions and complete Quests, you may unlock the ability to craft Gloomtraces — Essences of particularly powerful enemies. These will allow you to take on Hunts using the Gloom Gate in Skylight. Each Gloomtrace is unique and leads to a different opponent. Crafting them requires various types of materials and resources, typically tied to or obtained from Enemies fought in Expeditions to the same zone.

Unlike Expeditions which have a large exploration component, Hunts are focused solely on Boss Encounters in arenas within Lost Zones.

These encounters may involve complex mechanics that require strategy and cooperation with other players in order to overcome. Completing them is a key component of certain Quests and other objectives, and they can provide powerful rewards as well. Like Expeditions, Hunts can be done repeatedly in various settings once unlocked.

Rating and Difficulty

After completing a Lost Zone, you are awarded a rating out of three stars based on how well you did in the run. Your rating is affected by a number of things including the amount of enemies defeated, treasure collected, number of times you have fallen in combat and more. 

Each Lost Zone has a number of difficulty settings that can be unlocked: Sphere 1 (default), Sphere 2, Sphere 3 and Sphere 4.

Completing a Lost Zone with a 3-star rating will unlock the next difficulty tier, providing tougher challenges with stronger enemies that have more health and deal more damage. While enemy threats are increased, so are the rewards earned. Before embarking on more difficult versions of Lost Zones, be sure to check out the Power Rating and Party Size recommendations in the Gloomsphere menu to ensure a successful mission.

Imbuements and Mutators

Early on in the Main Questline, players will unlock the ability to apply Imbuements onto their Gloom Dagger. Imbuements are consumable items that can be equipped at the Gloomsphere before embarking on an Expedition or Hunt. These items create Mutators that apply a plethora of effects that modify a Lost Zone, its enemies, hazards and events. These effects include fire bombs randomly spawning as you explore, forcing you to perform an evasive maneuver or causing enemies to drop toxic pools that cause damage-over-time upon death. While these effects make Lost Zones more difficult, they also reward players with increased XP gains and rewards.

There are five types of Imbuements, with each one providing a base effect. As you make more progress, you will be able to upgrade your Gloom Dagger to have more Imbuement Slots, allowing you to apply multiple Imbuements at once. Different combinations of Imbuements will result in a wide of variety of Mutators that can greatly affect the events, mechanics and rewards of the Lost Zones you travel to. Try different combinations to learn what Mutators work best for your current goals and objectives.

Co-op and Matchmaking

All Lost Zone activities are open to Co-op with other players. Players can form a squad with up to two other friends in order to better tackle Lost Zones and objectives. Matchmaking is also available for both Expeditions and Hunts, allowing players to join others with similar levels or progression. Players will also have the option to tackle Lost Zones solo.

Multiplayer is highly encouraged due to each Wayfinder's specialties and each player's specific builds which may fall under the standard Tank/Healer/DPS trinity found in similar titles. By working together with others, you may discover tactics and strategies that may allow you to more effectively and efficiently complete objectives and attain your goals.

Additionally, when players fall in combat while in a squad, they are given a short window where they can be revived by their teammates in order to continue the encounter which can make progression significantly easier without having to resurrect at checkpoints in the case of Expeditions or repeat the entire encounter in the case of Hunts.