Dead In Antares Wiki

Tribute

Marduk periodically demands a tribute from your camp. Each demand asks for a specific quantity of a specific item and gives you 5 days to respond. You can pay in full, pay half, pay nothing, or fight the soldiers sent to collect. Each choice has consequences that carry into the next demand.

How demands are generated

Each new tribute is drawn at random from a pool of eligible items. Eligibility is based on a severity counter that starts at 0 and rises by 1 every time a tribute is resolved (regardless of how you pay it). Items with a minimum severity above your current counter are not in the pool yet. Items used within the last 5 demands are also excluded to avoid repetition.

The base quantity shown in the pool table is the quantity at severity 0. Every severity level adds 7.5% to that base (rounded down), so a 50-unit demand at severity 0 becomes 55 units at severity 1 (50 x 1.075) and 65 units at severity 4 (50 x 1.30).

Item pool

All demands have a 5-day deadline. The severity range shows the minimum severity needed for that item to appear and, where applicable, the maximum severity above which it is replaced by harder options.

Item Base quantity Severity range
Ore 50 0 - 1
Carbon 50 0 - 1
Polymers 50 0 - 1
Mechanical Parts 36 2 - 4
Wires 36 2 - 4
Reinforced Textile 22 3+
Flexible Glass 22 3+
Flask 27 3+
Fatigue Powder 18 3+
Antibiotic 18 3+
Bandage 18 3+
Alloy 12 4+
Com Component 12 4+
Beverage 25 4+
Lure 22 4+
Fish Bait 22 4+
Capsule (Shield) 15 4+
Grenade (Explosive) 15 4+
Grenade (Vacuum) 15 5+
Grenade (Blast) 15 5+
Dried Fruit 20 5+
Dried Meat 20 5+
Fertilizer 22 6+
Pesticide 18 6+
Capsule (Energy) 15 6+
Grenade (Poison) 15 6+
Grenade (Flash) 15 6+
Eggs 25 6+
Vegetables 25 6+
Serum 12 7+
Capsule (Stealth) 15 7+
Grenade (Red) 15 7+
Grenade (Suppressing) 15 7+
Cooked Jungle Fungus 15 8+
Cooked River Fungus 15 8+
Cooked Mountain Fungus 15 8+

Payment options

When a tribute arrives you pick one of six responses. The table below shows what each option costs and what it triggers.

Option Cost Consequence
Pay in full with bonus Pay 1.5x the demanded quantity (rounded down). Earns 1 Mercy Token if you are below the 3-token cap. No wrath.
Pay in full Pay the exact demanded quantity. No punishment. No wrath.
Pay half Pay 50% of the demanded quantity (rounded down). Triggers punishment (1 application at default severity). Sets wrath for the next demand.
Pay nothing Hand over nothing. Triggers punishment (2 applications at default severity). Sets wrath for the next demand.
Win the battle Defeat the Guardian's soldiers in combat. No punishment. No wrath. Raises the guards level by 3 for future demands. No item cost.
Lose the battle Fail to defeat the Guardian's soldiers. Triggers punishment (3 applications at default severity). Sets wrath for the next demand.

Wrath

Paying half, paying nothing, or losing the battle all trigger wrath. The next tribute will have one of three wrath modifiers applied, drawn at random:

Wrath only affects the immediately following tribute. Once that tribute is generated the wrath is consumed.

Punishment

When a response triggers punishment (paying half, nothing, or losing the battle), one or more punishment events are applied. How many applications happen depends on the response and whether an Anger wrath modifier is active:

Each punishment application picks randomly from one of the four punishment types:

Mercy tokens

Paying the bonus option (1.5x the demanded quantity) earns 1 Mercy Token if you are below the 3-token cap. Mercy tokens can be spent on the next tribute before it is resolved:

See Guardian's Influence for the separate time-scaling threat counter that raises independently of tribute payments.