Vampire Facts & Myths

I would like to take a moment to post a few of the facts I have studied and tested in relation to Desmodus Bats and their spawns. I never attempted to do any of this prior to the initial fix after they were first implemented, so the information here, hopefully, is pertinent.

Okay.. for starters, the camps do spawn in an exact order. As Dustyspheres said before, the cycle resets itself every 27 hours. I have not yet been able to establish the "first" camp on the spawn chart, but I have found at least six others. Upon finding one camp in my spawn chart, I am able to set up a somewhat accurate (not as accurate as I would like, but it has served me well) prediction as to where to find them next and when. It's hard for me to explain my spawn chart so that others could put it to good use, but I will tell you this: write down your locations and times! This is very important information.

When your server goes down, your chart resets. This can be frustrating at times, but all you need to do is re-establish your location on the spawn chart and continue from there. For example, Widow's Peak (S) is the first verified slot I have on my spawn chart, so while I was seeking the bats, I would camp out at Widow's Peak (S) and check back every 20 minutes.. when I finally found the bats, I was back on schedule. If all servers go down at once, the charts all start over at just about same time and on the same schedule. I tested this several times between Hodstock and Castle Lightwolf servers last week. Bats were simultaniously up on both servers in several spots I tested, although Castle Lightwolf's spawn times were a few minutes ahead of Hodstock.

There is a definate chart, we just have to fill in all the slots. In order to do this, we have to know exactly how many camps exist. I was guessing on 27 camps, one spawns sometime during an hour, but I believe I proved myself wrong when I discovered that the camp in Widow's Peak (NE) spawns exactly 5 minutes after the natural de-spawn time in Collonridge (E).

A camp stays spawned for 40 minutes from spawn to de-spawn, give or take a few seconds. There is only one exception to this, and I will go into details in a bit. Camps spawn in-game during daytime & night time. They do not spawn only at night time, nor do they disappear when the sun rises. They spawn on pretty much an exact schedule. Let's say you're running, looking for bats and you spot a camp. Hail Desmodus Bats! You see the diseased little flock in the distance, flapping their wings, taunting you. You run as fast as you can, start to buff and POOF, they're gone. Like a sick practical joke. Fear not. Simply look at a reliable clock and write the time down. Subtract 40 minutes from that time and congrats, you now know the spawn time for that camp. A little calculating by adding 27 hours and you're set. In fact, get there 5 minutes early and you will see them spawn before your very eyes. Just hope the server doesn't go down!

Now for the good stuff. How many of you have spent a long time letting a lionwere or gatorwere smack you, hoping for infection just to get back and still.. NOTHING!? Well, Desmodus Bats provide us with a slight relief in that. I say slight because their method is both a blessing and a curse. It can make things oh so hard and yet soooo simple if you're lucky and know what to look for. Once I figured this information out, I had two Vampires on seperate servers within hours on the same day.

Desmodus Bat infection doesn't work the same way as Lycanthropic infection. There exists a single bat spawn capable of ending this all, and there's only one way to tell which one it is. It hits slightly harder. You find this bat, you kill it and congrats. The camp instantly de-spawns, so do all the other bats and the corpse of the bat you killed never even touches the ground. Guess who's a vampire? Should be anyone in the group that was flagged by Greddy. Now both of my characters that became vampires were under Lv60, so it was a bit easier to tell which bat hit harder. Since I haven't tested it on a Lv60 Character, it's hard to say weither or not it will hit you harder. It should, and it should be noticably enough. Even if only a couple points more per hit. For those who have fought as many as I did, you'd know that their hits are fairly consistant with unbroken gear and buffs.

Here's what makes this information a bit of a downer.. not all camps you come across will have the bat capable of flagging you in the initial spawn. Here's how I weeded out the good bat from the fakes.. I pulled every bat, one by one after buffing, seeing if any hit harder. If one hits you harder, keep it targeted and run if you are unable to take constant hits/ don't have a healer present. after they zone, run back and you will still have the winner targeted. Take him out and if he was one of the "infectors" everything will despawn and you should be flagged and ready to speak with Grindle. If none of the bats are hitting you harder, chances are you'll have to make the infector spawn. You'll notice that the instant you kill a bat, weither you loot it or not, another will spawn in it's place. Having a friend to help you keep track of the new spawn when you kill one helps. Just keep killing a bat spawn and taking out the new ones that spawn in it's place and an infector could spawn instead. The faster you kill, the faster you spawn, the more likely you get a winner. So there are two ways a camp de-spawns.. 40 minutes after the initial spawn or when you kill the infector. If you despawn the camp by killing the winner, I'm pretty sure the camp would still respawn when it was originally scheduled to 27 hours later. Of course, if my theory is correct, why would you care when they respawn? You're already a Vampire! Unless you were trying to help others of course.

Standing there and getting hit doesn't work, at least not for me. As I said it's more like a flag than infection, and it all depends on killing that one bat. I know this seems like a lot to take in all at once, but I didn't study this as much as I did to let the information rot with me. I'm not trying to say I know everything about Desmodus Bats, or that this is exactly how everything works. I'm just sharing with everyone what worked for me and I hope this information can help anyone out still hoping for a Vampire or two. As I come across more camps, I will try to figure out where they come into play on the spawn chart and perhaps one day fill in all the blanks. So, if any of you come across a camp, especially a few camps in a row, please post when and where so I can try to see where they fit into the schedule. The servers are a bit off because of the downtimes today but all information can still be used. Thanks in advance, and happy hunting!

Guardian Forest(NW) east of northern gob camp

Guardian Forest (NE) right outside Freezeblood Berzerker Camp on hill

Guardian Forest (SW) east of lower gob camp and east/southeast of treant camp without stones

Guardian Forest (C) north of white faced mobs and possibly SW of Elders

Guardian Forest – East of the northeast Treant camp in valley

Collinridge Cemetery (E) square hill with flat top, maundering soul located there, divided wall around hill, bats on west side of this hill, this hill is West of Jerek N’ Toxis

Collinridge Cemetery(W) just up road from entrance to cemetery (E) outside somewhere

Collinridge Cemetery(N) along river on north side close to tower with 2 Dragoons in it

Widow’s Peak (E) first hill NW from gatorwere NPC camp, spawn on SW side of hill, you can see road to the West

Widow’s Peak (NE) right by big rock next to gnoll camp

Widow’s Peak (S) next to mountain right in middle of 4 very large towering stones

Burial Mounds (N) no info

Burial Mounds (NE) close to camp where Takshir craftsman for 43 Broyce Sandstalker quest is, face slightly NE, go to hill just ahead, camp is in center part of this zone????

Burial Mounds(S) no info

Burial Mounds(SE) no info

Burial Mounds (SW) near greymoon cemetery

Jethro’s Cast- 3 or 4 different camps, unsure of exact quadrant spots

Jethro’s Cast (E) on NE side of a mountain, camp is SW from there around this mountain

Tomb of Kings (NE) from entrance to ToK, face and run north, cross sandy desert to grassland, continue straight to hill with fog covered T stone and mossy dead tree on ground to the stone’s left. Behind tree is cave

Tomb of Kings - outside somewhere

So, to start the chart:

Below, I am showing connected spawn locations that show 4 locations.

These spawn locations show where bats spawn and then the next spawn location.

I don’t know what order these groups should be in time wise, in other words the Guardian Forest spawn could be before the Widows Peak spawn. Hopefully someone will be able to correct this.

Gathering the info showing a spawn location and then an immediate spawn of the next location will help build this chart. So if you know of at least two connected spawn locations, please add them.

Widows Peak and Collinridge are connected:

Widows Peak (NE) for 40 mins, then,

Collinridge (E) for 40 mins

Guardian Forest and Jethro's Cast are connected:

Guardian Forest (near lower gob camp) for 40 mins, then,

Jethro’s Cast (E on NE side of a hill) for 40 mins

One thing that needs to be confirmed though, is; if the infected bat is killed before the 40 minutes and the camp de-spawns, is the 40 minute timer still in effect? In other words, does each camp cycle for 40 minutes no matter what?