In Dragon Quest IX, there is a DLC quest called Tones of the Bones (Quest 177) where you have to find a grotto that contains Blight Knights. These enemies only appear in high-level ice grottoes. This page explains how to improve your chances of getting a treasure map with Blight Knights.

Treasure Map Quality

To have a chance of finding a Blight Knight grotto, you have to get high-quality treasure maps. Treasure map quality is based on the following:

• The level of your main character's highest-level vocation
• The level of the grotto where you received a new treasure map
• Your main character's highest number of revocations in a single vocation (you can revocate in Alltrades Abbey after completing the main storyline).

In other words, to get the best treasure maps, you should level up your main character as much as possible, revocate your main character as many times in a single vocation as possible, and visit your highest-level grotto to get new treasure maps.

How to Get a Blight Knight Map

Blight Knights can only appear in high-level Ice grottoes. In order to have any chance of getting a Blight Knight map, the following formula needs to add up to at least 166:

( The level of your main character's highest-level vocation ) + [ 5 * ( Your main character's highest number of revocations in a single vocation ) ] + ( The level of the grotto where you are trying to get a Blight Knight map )

If that formula adds up to a number lower than 166, you do not have a chance of getting a Blight Knight map, so you should level up, revocate, and look for a higher-level treasure map if you want to find a Blight Knight map.

Blight Knight Map Chance Calculator

How to Identify a Blight Knight Map

If you have a chance of getting a Blight Knight map according to the previous section, here are some tips for identifying whether a new treasure map might be a Blight Knight map.

For a map to have any chance of being a Blight Knight map, the name of the map has to start with one of the following:

• Platinum
• Ruby
• Emerald
• Sapphire
• Diamond

In addition, the second word in the map's name has to be one of the following:

• Crypt (10% chance of being Ice)
• World (10% chance of being Ice)
• Icepit (always ice)
• Snowhall (always ice)
• Tundra (always ice)
• Glacier (always ice)

Furthermore, the map's level has to be at least 46 for it to have a chance of having Blight Knights.

How to Tell if the Current Grotto has Blight Knights

If you have found a treasure map that meets the requirements in the previous section, go to the first floor and look for monsters. If you see any Darkonium slimes, Grim reapers, or Wight emperors on the first floor, then congratulations! You have a Blight Knight map! There will be Blight Knights on floors 13 and lower.

How to Complete Quest 177

Once you find a Blight Knight grotto, you can complete Quest 177, which you receive from Skully, a skeleton in a cave in Wyrmtail that is only accessible from the air. To complete the quest, one of your party members has to be either a Paladin or a Gladiator with at least 3 points in the Hammer skill, or has to have 100 points in the Hammer skill to be able to use hammers in other vocations. Then equip that character with a hammer and have him or her use the Heart Breaker skill to deal the final blow to a Blight Knight. If you kill a Blight Knight with the Heart Breaker skill, it will drop a Bone Chimer. When you have that item, take it back to Skully to complete the quest.