Ancient Tech LabReport
English：Ancient Tech Lab · Locations
The most reliable source of AI Cores in the game. Each of the two labs that carry this name guarantees four cores and sixteen to seventeen Ancient Science Books — the price of admission being the Security Spiders on the top floor.
Ancient Tech Labs are ancient repositories of knowledge and robotics technology, left to mould and decay. Their place in the game can be summed up in one sentence: this is the most reliable source of AI Cores in the world.
Everywhere else cores are a matter of chance. Here they are guaranteed.
Where the two are
Two locations carry the name "Ancient Tech Lab" as their map label:
| Where | What is waiting |
|---|---|
| Westernmost stretch of The Iron Trail | You have to walk through a field of Iron Spiders to reach the door. The lab itself usually holds six Security Spiders and a single Broken Skeleton |
| Centre of the north-western peninsula of Shun | Usually packed with Security Spiders |
Three further places are the same kind of lab in the game files, but have been given names of their own:
- Narko's Trap (border of Skinner's Roam and the Iron Valleys) — the Holy Nation garrisons troops around the only ancient lab inside its own territory, specifically to stop anyone "sinning" by studying what is inside.
- Tower of Abuse (Venge) — home of the Thrall Masters, and simultaneously an Ancient Tech Lab with guaranteed Ancient Science Book and AI Core spawns.
- Island Lab (Fishman Island) — Fishman territory.
What is guaranteed
The artifacts system commits the following to these two labs — and the items sit in the containers on the top floor:
| Location | AI Core | Ancient Science Book | Engineering Research |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Iron Trail | 4 | 17 | 3 |
| Shun | 4 | 16 | 3 |
That is eight cores between them. The artifacts system guarantees only 37 AI Cores across the entire world, which means these two trips alone account for more than a fifth of the world's guaranteed supply.
Beyond the guaranteed items, the floor is scattered with high-value components and materials: CPU Units, Capacitors, Electrical Components, Generator Cores, Power Cores, Motors, Presses, Robotics Components, Skeleton Muscle, Steel Bars and Tools, plus Medical Items and Books.
These locations spawn no gear artifacts (gear budget zero), so do not come expecting Masterwork armour or a Meitou weapon. What comes out of here is research and parts.
The guards
| Enemy | Notes |
|---|---|
| Security Spider | 60 in every stat, and a single attack can connect with two characters. They are machines, so they will not eat a downed character — but they also do not leave the room, so waking up at their feet means going down again |
| Broken Skeleton | A malfunctioning Skeleton, usually alone |
| Iron Spider | 40s across the board, roaming the approach in numbers, especially along the Iron Trail |
Getting in
- No acid protection needed. Neither region has an acid rain problem; the real barrier is the spiders indoors.
- Spread out. A Security Spider's swing can catch two characters at once, so bunching up means double the damage.
- Numbers beat stats. A full squad splitting the spiders' attention works far better than two or three strong characters slugging it out.
- Going down does not mean being eaten — it means being knocked down again. Robot guards do not feed, but they also do not wander off, so "lie down and get back up later" does not work here.
If you would rather not walk, reading an Old Treasure Map has a 15% chance of marking an Ancient Tech Lab directly on your map — the highest single chance on that map's table.
What it means for the player
Finishing the research tree runs into exactly one hard bottleneck, and that is AI Cores. Cores come from three places: buying them (the three at the Scraphouse, which never restock), looting ruins at random, and Ancient Tech Labs, which are guaranteed.
So these two markers end up on almost every mid-game route plan. They are not the most dangerous ruins in the game, but they are the most direct: no randomness — walk to the top floor and the loot is there.