Dungeons

Finding a dungeon

Dungeon mouths stand on dry, level ground in all five lands. The world is split into squares about 94 tiles across, and 45% of those squares have a mouth somewhere inside. There are none right by where a world begins.

A mouth is set into its land in one of three ways: a doorway cut into the face of a small hill, a stairwell going down into flat ground with paving and broken pillars round it, or a small ruin with worn paving and low broken walls. Each land has its own doorway: a barrow in Woods, a mine in Rocky Highlands, a carved sandstone portal in Desert, a crypt in Haunted Wood, and so on.

Once you have explored the ground near a mouth, it shows on your map with an icon for its land. Two things help you find mouths you haven't seen yet:

• The Threat Finder: hold it up to send out a pulse that finds every dungeon within 200 tiles. Each use costs 5 of each spirit, and it wears out after 12 uses. A lair answers in red and the game tells you which way it lies.
• The Telescope: at night, press E at it and the nearest dungeon or lair you haven't found yet, within 150 tiles, is pinned on your map. It works once a night.

Difficulty

Every dungeon has one of five difficulties, rolled at random with the world (each is equally likely, and it does not depend on how far you are from the start). The difficulty is part of its name, shown in large letters as you go in, for example "Dire Highland Dungeon".

Harder dungeons have tougher creatures, more of them, more traps, more omens and better chests.

The Jewels make every dungeon harder

Each Jewel you hold makes the creatures in every dungeon stronger as well. This multiplies with the difficulty above.

The gear you find in chests also follows the Jewels you hold, so it keeps up (see Chests).

Going in and getting out

Stand at a mouth and press E to go down. You arrive at the foot of the way out: a round-headed doorway in the north wall of the first room, with a lantern hung on each side. Press E at it to climb back out; you come out just in front of the mouth.

When you open the chest in the room the dungeon is for, a second doorway comes into being in that room's north wall, so you don't have to walk all the way back.

Down in a dungeon there is no weather and no daylight; the rooms are lit by torches along their north walls. Creatures from outside never follow you down. A world set to peaceful still has creatures in its dungeons: only the open world is quiet.

Inside a dungeon

A dungeon has 10 to 14 rooms joined by passages. The first room, where you come in, is always at the south. Each land digs its own way:

• Woods: barrow halls, round and cut-cornered, with winding passages, rooms of roots, rooms full of glowing mushrooms, and now and then a grove lit by a shaft of daylight.
• Rocky Highlands: a mine, with square galleries on timber posts, store rooms of barrels and crates, and long straight tunnels with rails.
• Tundra: frozen halls with patches of ice, frost crystals that glow, and braziers of cold blue fire.
• Desert: a tomb, with cross-shaped chambers, halls on rows of pillars, rooms of sarcophagi, and drifted sand.
• Haunted Wood: a crypt, with chambers lined with coffins and chapels full of candles.

Chests

The room furthest from the door always has a chest, and opening it beats the dungeon. Each other room has a 40% chance of a chest. Which side rooms have one is rolled again each time you go in, but a chest you have opened stays open until the dungeon seals and comes back. What chests hold, and how the difficulty changes it, is on the Chests page.

Pots, barrels and crates

Pots stand round the walls of most rooms (and barrels and crates in the highland mines). Break one with a blow. Every pot lets out spirits of two different elements, picked at random:

A pot also has a 22% chance to drop one of its land's ores or woods, and a 10% chance to heal you by 8% of your maximum health. The ores and woods by land:

• Woods: Copper Ore, Wood, Beechwood
• Highlands: Iron Ore, Copper Ore, Ironwood
• Tundra: Iron Ore, Rimewood
• Desert: Iron Ore, Endurium (only from Grim up), Wood
• Haunted wood: Iron Ore, Endurium (only from Grim up), Ghostwood

Barrels and crates give the same spirits and the same chances, and also have a 60% chance to drop Wood (1, or 2 three times in ten). Torches and the tundra's frost crystals and braziers can be broken too.

Shrines

40% of dungeons have a shrine: a stone basin of water in the middle of a room. Press E at it to heal 50% of your maximum health and cure poison. Each shrine works once a visit; after that its basin is dry.

Spirit vaults

20% of dungeons have a vault room: a cluster of spirit crystals in its middle, 3 to 5 pots round its walls, and spirit dust glittering on the floor. Break the crystal for a large burst of spirits of its element (one of the land's two elements); the burst is bigger in a harder dungeon.

Traps

Traps give a warning a moment before they strike (a rustle, a swell, a trickle of dust, a sputter, a flare, a click), so you can jump, step aside or wait. Their blows grow with the dungeon's difficulty and the Jewels you hold, like the creatures'. Creatures caught in a trap are hurt too, and a kill counts as yours.

A dungeon has at most 5 traps at Breeze, 7 at Mild, 9 at Grim, 11 at Dire and 13 at Fatal.

Creatures

Every room except the first has creatures waiting in it: 1 to 3 at Breeze, 1 to 4 at Mild, and 1 to 5 from Grim up. A band of Kobolds or a swarm of Flitterbats counts as one; a swarm of Scuzz is the room's whole share. Each visit rolls them afresh.

Which creatures you meet depends on the land and the difficulty. The shares below are the chance that any one creature is of that kind. Longlegs become more common the harder the dungeon.

Omens

Some dungeons come with an omen, named under the dungeon's name as you go in. Omens are rare in easy dungeons and common in hard ones, and the harder the dungeon, the more likely the omen is a harsh one. Lairs never have omens.

The champion

One creature in a dungeon is a champion: it wears a gold crown, has gold motes rising round it and a ring of gold at its feet. Compared with a normal creature of its kind in that dungeon it has:

• 7 times the health, and it takes only half damage from your blows.
• 3 times the damage.
• 35% quicker movement and attacks, and only half the wait between its blows.
• A body 30% larger.
• Your blows land, but it only flinches on the 6th hit from a light weapon or the 3rd from a heavy one (the greatsword or war hammer). Each other player in the dungeon adds 2 more light hits or 1 more heavy hit.
• 5 times the XP and 4 times the spirits when it falls.

A champion is always a single creature, never a band or a swarm. When it falls, a chest rises from the floor where it fell: a mid chest 85% of the time, a rare one 15%.

The lock-in room

Most dungeons have a lock-in room that stands empty. Once you are well inside it, its ways out seal with walls of violet light and a horde climbs out of its floor. When the last of the horde is down, the seals lift and a chest rises: mid 85% of the time, rare 15%. Once cleared, the room stays cleared until the dungeon comes back.

A Swarming dungeon adds 3 more, up to 14.

The hidden vault

About half of all dungeons have a hidden vault: a cracked patch in a room's north wall. Hit it three times and it breaks open onto a small room with a chest inside (mid 85% of the time, rare 15%).

The dungeon map

Press M in a dungeon to see the dungeon's own map instead of the land's. It shows only what you have seen so far, and it is kept for each dungeon, so it's still there next time. It marks:

• the chests you have come across (dim once opened), coloured by kind;
• the ways out, including the second doorway once it has opened;
• the shrine (dim once used);
• a lair's boss, once you have seen it, while it lives;
• you.

Map markers belong to the land above, so you can't set them down here.

Beaten, sealed and back again

Opening the chest in the room the dungeon is for beats it. When you leave a beaten dungeon (or close the game while inside one), it seals. Its doorway shows a pale veil with turning runes, and pressing E at it tells you how long until it opens. The time is in the world's own days, so sleeping counts. See the table under Difficulty for each dungeon's time, and Lairs for a lair's.

When the time is up, everything comes back: its chests, its creatures, its lock-in room and its hidden vault. The rooms are laid out the same as before, but its omen, champion and lock-in room are rolled again.

A dungeon you have not beaten never seals. Chests you have opened there stay open; its creatures are back each time you go in.

Dying in a dungeon

If you die in a dungeon, you wake at your Goddess (the one you last prayed at) or where you first woke, with full health. As anywhere, 25% of each element's loose spirits (never what's bound into gear) stay behind as glowing wisps where you fell. In a dungeon they stay there until the dungeon comes back, so you can go down again and walk over them to get them back. Items, gear, levels and Jewels are never lost.

In online play

Tips

• The difficulty is in the name as you enter. If a Fatal dungeon is too much, leave and find another: each is rolled on its own.
• Break pots before a hard fight: one in ten heals you a little.
• Save the shrine for when you need it; it works once a visit.
• Bring a light for Lightless dungeons.
• Champions, lock-in rooms and hidden vaults all give mid or rare chests, which hold better things than the small ones.