Cypher of the First Ones Overview: A Zereth Mortis Quality of Life System (2024)

The Cypher of the First Ones is a new unlockable system in patch 9.2which is unlocked in Zereth Mortis but whose combat effects work acrossall Shadowlands zones. While extremely powerful, these combat effects willnot work in dungeons, raids or instanced PvP, making them exist for fun,rather than something you need to be competitive in a group setting.

Inside the northwestern most area of Zereth Mortis is the Exile'sHollow, where the Cypher Research Console is located.

Unlocking the console and your personal robot helper, Pocopoc, is donein the third campaign story chapter, which you can do soon after entering ZerethMortis. You can also unlock it instantly on alts by choosing the skip dialogueoption of Tal-Inara when starting the Zereth Mortis questlines in Oribos.

You use the new Zereth Mortis currency, Cyphers of the First Onesto unlock the various nodes displayed in the picture. You can have multiple researcheshappening at the same time, as long as they respect their individual prerequisites.Your current total amount is displayed in the currencies tab and at the top rightof the research console UI.

You can also open this window to check your progress on a given research itemusing the following macro, but be aware that you must be at the consoleitself to start researching anything:

• /run C_Garrison.GetCurrentGarrTalentTreeID=(function() return 474 end)
• /run OrderHall_LoadUI() OrderHallTalentFrame:SetGarrisonType(111, 474);
• /run ToggleOrderHallTalentUI();

There are four types of research: Metrial,Aealic, Dealic,and Trebalim. We will explain each of them andtheir sub-research nodes in their own sections of the guide below.

Cyphers of the First Ones drop from multiple activities in Zereth Mortis:

• Storyline campaign (125 from chapter 3 quests, assuming youdid not skip the intro);
• Looting rare mobs and treasures (~4 per kill / treasure);
• Puzzle Boxes (15 for the one-time introduction quests, ~3 for each box solved);
• Interacting with one of the three Echoed Jiro NPC types (~4 per interaction,once per day);
• Doing daily quests (~15 per completion);
• Weekly world boss Antros (~80 per kill);
• From the weekly quest Patterns Within Patterns (~140 per completion).

Due to the many sources available, it is possible to spend a lot of timefarming Cyphers of the First Ones every day, but the most significant sourcesare the daily quests and weekly activities, with the rest coming as more of abonus while you are running around the zone doing the quests.

Due to their significant Cyphers of the First Ones cost and the time thatsome nodes require to be researched, an unlocking order can be helpful in orderto get the more powerful nodes as quickly as possible.

Your priorities may vary, as there is no Raid / Mythic+ / PvP player powerinvolved with the Cypher nodes, but nodes such as Altonian Understandingcan speed up your research significantly by unlocking items such as Improvised Cypher Analysis Tool,and are thus useful to pick up quickly.

Here is our suggested order for the quickest start with this system, withquick explanations for the reasoning behind each node:

1. Metrial Understanding (5 Cyphers, instant research, prerequisite for next node);
2. Cachial Understanding (45 Cyphers, 1h research, allows you to complete daily puzzle boxes for more Cyphers);
3. Creatian (25 Cyphers, 5 sec research, enables a buff that improves Progenitor Essentia drops when gathering or looting treasures and allows you to get extra Cyphers of the First Ones from the first Echoed Jiro interactions of the day)
4. Aealic Understanding (45 Cyphers, 18h research, prerequisite for next node);
5. Altonian Understanding (160 Cyphers, 5d 18h research, unlocks Improvised Cypher Analysis Tool);

After this point you have all the essential nodes for speeding up Cyphers of the First Ones and Progenitor Essentia farming and cantake any of the other nodes at your leisure.

One particularly interesting option for collectors is Dealic Understanding,which allows you to take control of Coreless Automa all around Zereth Mortis.These are necessary in order to collect some of the treasures available. Also, itunlocks the Synthesis Forge, which can be used to create pets and alsomounts once you have Sopranian Understanding unlocked through theProtoform Synthesis system!

The Cypher Equipment Level information at the top of the researchconsole UI is a measure of how many Cyphers of the First Ones you have usedfor unlocking research nodes thus far, and affects the item level Cypher geardrops at, from 233 at 1/6 to 252 at 6/6.

Special effects such as the one previewed above are present on some of thegear that drops in Zereth Mortis. There are three types of effects, andyou can only equip one of each:

• Pocopoc Harmony powers enhance your robot companion's ability to findtreasure, combat abilities or improve its energy management;
• Personal Melody powers are quality of life features, allowing you toself-resurrect, move faster or jump to a nearby spot;
• Battle Rhythms powers improve your combat abilities, decreasing damagedealt and increasing damage taken by your target, granting you a powerful socketeffect or periodically dealing damage to your target.

The type of effect you can get depends on the slot and armor type and thereare three kinds of power per slot. While all of them are useful in their niches,Battle Rhythms tend to be the most useful while soloing hard content, withthe special socket being especially powerful once you can socket Cypher Enhancementsinto it with an advanced research.

This research enables Pocopoc and allows you to interact with lore nodes allacross Zereth Mortis. It also allows you to research the sub-nodes belowit.

This node allows you to interact withvarious puzzles caches across the map,which reward Cyphers of the First Ones when solved. Often, solving one ofthese caches is the objective of a world quest, and you can ask Pocopoc to warnyou when there are caches nearby, or to solve one instantly for a high energycost.

There are multiple types of caches, each of which is a different type of puzzle.We will be explaining the logic on how to solve each of them in thePuzzle Solutions sub-section below, buttheZereth Mortis Puzzle Helperaddon will allow you to solve puzzles in a simple way;it will generally be slower than just solving the puzzles yourself onceyou are experienced with them, however.

This power has four ranks and allows you to activate Echoed Jiro statuesfound in Zereth Mortis. There are three types of buffs you can get from thesestatues depending on the statue type:

• Echoed Jiro Genesii grant Gift of the Genesii, which translatesinto better odds at Progenitor Essentia when looting treasures and gathering.
• Echoed Jiro Creatii grant Gift of the Creatii, which give you3% extra movement speed every time you kill an enemy, stacking up to 15 times.
• Echoed Jiro Nascii grant Gift of the Nascii, which reduces youraggro range and stacks twice.

Echoed Jiro statues are spread all across Zereth Mortis, butyou can only use the south-west statues with rank 1, and progressively unlockthe ability to use all the statues in the zone.

This power allows Pocopoc to automatically seek out nearby Echoed Jirostatues, also marking them on the minimap.

Once this node is researched you can access a new cypher UI interface tocustomize Pocopoc's appearance.

As you can see in the screenshot, there are multiple rows which allow you tocustomize Pocopoc's appearance details to your heart's content.

Because the Cachial Understanding puzzlescan be hard to understand, we have explained them in depth alongside examplesolution images below. As a reminder, you may also make use of theZereth Mortis Puzzle Helperaddon to assist you in solving these, though once you are experienced you will befaster doing them manually!

In the Cantaric puzzles, the objective is to power down all of the nodesby toggling whole lines on and off within 7 moves. You can solve this type ofpuzzle by identifying lines arranged in an equal fashion and toggling all of thembefore moving on to differently arranged lines, as shown in the picture.

In the Mezzonic puzzles, the objective is also to power down all of thenodes, but you do this by clicking individual nodes, which toggles the status ofthe node you clicked and also that of the directly adjacent nodes in non-diagonaldirections.

As shown in the picture, the strategy is to push the active nodes to the corners,and ideally always in the same direction, as it is much easier to fully extinguisha set of nodes in the corners, which you will need to do eventually in order tofinish the puzzle.

In the Fugueal puzzles, the objective is to select three icons that eitherall share a pattern or do not share any pattern. There are four characteristics tolook out for: the shape in the center, how many shapes in the center, the shapeof the border, and how many borders.

These puzzles can be quite difficult, as most combinations will fail due toonly partially matching one of the four criteria. First of all, it can bequite hard to distinguish between single border and double border, the bestway to tell is to look for any dark spaces between light in the border, as thatwill mean it is at least a double border node, and triple border nodes are quiteeasy to tell apart from the rest.

Once you figured out how to always distinguish the borders, the mental strategythat worked best for us is to think of it like the Mists of Tirna Scithe shapelabyrinth: match two compatible nodes first and then look for the type that willfit as 3rd. If there is none, try a different combination and repeat until youget a match, which usually makes the rest of the puzzle trivial!

In the Glissandian puzzles, the objective is to create long lines ofsame-colored tiles by swapping the position of existing tiles. In our examplepicture, the puzzle was completed with that single swap, which created a hugechain reaction. As long as you keep creating matches with your swaps you willbe done with this puzzle in no time.

In the Toccatian puzzles, the objective is to swap around the circlesin order to have none of the connecting lines crossing each other. The ideal wayto do this is to try and create shorter lines with your swaps, which are easierto limit to a small zone in the game area.

This research allows you to interact with Enhancement consoles located in thefly path hubs of Zereth Mortis. By using Pocopoc energy, you can gettemporary enhancements from the consoles, or permanent sockets for Cypher gearonce more research has been unlocked.

Unlocking this node allows you to start the Jiro to Hero questlinebeginning with the quest Broken Circle, which eventually unlocksOlea Manu as a vendor who sells Improvised Cypher Analysis Tool,and a new daily quest. As getting 50% extra Cyphers of the First Ones isa huge research boost, this is one of the highest priority nodes to rush early on.

By leveling this node, you will be able to have the effect of 3+ Enhancementsactive simultaneously.

Ranking up this node reduces the Pocopoc energy cost of Enhancements, allowingyou to get more of them in a shorter time frame.

Each rank on this node increases the time your Enhancements last further.

Researching Elic allows you to socket the non-rare Enhancement powers intoCypher gear with special sockets, making those powers permanent while in theShadowlands outdoor zones and Oribos.

Once you unlock this node, Pocopoc can be commanded to take control of corelessautoma all across Zereth Mortis. While most of these are only usefulas combat allies, there are a few who can help you reach special treasures, suchas the Automa circled in orange on the picture below.

This node also allows you to access and use the Synthesis Forge, located tothe south of Pilgrim's Grace, the right-most flight path town area aspointed out in the map below. With this forge, you can create new pets and mountsexclusive to Zereth Mortis through the Protoform Synthesissystem.

Researching Sopranian Understanding allows you to create mounts in the forgeas part of Protoform Synthesis, and also unlocks extra questlines anddaily quests around Zereth Mortis.

Corial allows Pocopoc to mark Coreless Automa you can interact with inthe minimap. Pocopoc will also become able to track small treasure chests andspecial Herbalism and Mining nodeswhich can be harvested without profession requirements, with the downside thatthese are typically placed in elevated places that are difficult to reach withoutflying.

Destrian increases the combat power and health of controlled Coreless Automa.

Allian increases the duration and reduces the cooldown on Coreless Automacombat abilities.

Enrian increases the energy regeneration rate of Pocopoc. Energy is used toopen puzzle boxes, generate enhancements, control automa, and other Pocopoc-relatedactivities.

Trebalim is all about enhancing Pocopoc's combat abilities, allowing it tospecialize into DPS or healing.

This node allows you to control special Coreless Guardian vehiclesaround the area which can be piloted by multiple players.

This node's first rank increases Pocopoc's damage during Aggressive combatfocus by adding a damage-over-time component to his offensive ability. The secondrank adds a 6-second silence to this ability.

Suplim's first rank augments Pocopoc's Supportive combat focus by making hishealing ability also create a large barrier on the target. The second rank causeshis healing ability to stun nearby enemies for 3 seconds.

The final node, Maxlim, increases Pocopoc's maximum energy.