Dungeons & Lairs
Every place you go down into, who drops each one, and what is at the bottom. One dungeon is always open; 6 are dropped by named foes; the Sunken Citadel opens whenever a pinnacle dies; a rift can open beside you at any time.
Every way down
Where each one comes from, how often it appears, and whether it comes back.
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The Sunken Dungeon
Nothing drops it. One door in the ground near town, open from your first day, with no bottom.Never spent, never sealed.
always there
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the Stonegarden
Dropped by The Coilfather, a World Boss at the western sands of the Sunscour.Stands for 10 minutes, then it is gone. Anyone can walk in while it stands.
1 in 3kills
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the Broodmother's Lair
Dropped by The Broodmother, a World Boss at the dark wood of the Eastern Wilds.Stands for 10 minutes, then it is gone. Anyone can walk in while it stands.
1 in 3kills
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the Hollow Colossus
Dropped by The Colossus, a World Boss at the war-camp ruin of the Northeast Range.Stands for 10 minutes, then it is gone. Anyone can walk in while it stands.
1 in 3kills
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the Drowned Gullet
Dropped by The Tide Leviathan, a World Boss at a far isle in the deep south-west of the Sundered Sea (sail to reach it).Stands for 10 minutes, then it is gone. Anyone can walk in while it stands.
1 in 3kills
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the Quiet Fold
Dropped by The Pale Shepherd, a Pinnacle Boss at the Frozen Wastes, by night.Stands for 10 minutes, then it is gone. Anyone can walk in while it stands.
1 in 3kills
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the Sunless Trench
Dropped by The Mountain Kraken, a Pinnacle Boss at the realm’s heart, once your Vigil is complete.Never closes. It stands until the realm is remade.
every time
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The Sunken Citadel
Dropped by either Pinnacle Boss, The Drowned King or The Pale Shepherd, at level 75.Stands for 10 minutes, then it is gone. Anyone can walk in while it stands.
every time
- A rift Nothing drops it. One opens near a hero on its own, lasts about 30 seconds, and costs a Dungeon Key to breach.Another opens on its own, wherever the party is standing. opens on its own
Your run is your own
Every gate in the realm works this way. Worth reading once before the details.
| Rule | How it works |
|---|---|
| Walking in | A gate never locks. While you can see it, you can step through it. |
| Following a friend | A gate with a run already going admits anyone. They land in your dungeon, not a copy of it. |
| A second kill | Killing the boss again puts a second, entirely separate dungeon behind the same gate, beside the run already going, and gives the gate its full time again. |
| When a run ends | Once the last hero climbs out, that dungeon is gone. |
| How long it stands | Every gate but one lasts 10 minutes and then vanishes. A party already inside finishes the delve and climbs out as normal. |
| The way out | However deep you went, the ladder comes up in the home town. |
The Sunken Dungeon
The realm’s one standing door: open from your first day and unlimited in depth.
One door, near town. No boss to fell first, and no floor it stops at.
| What a floor holds | How it works |
|---|---|
| Getting in the first time | Locked until you find the Dungeon Key the Elder speaks of. Opened once, it stays open for that hero. |
| How deep it goes | No bottom. New floors open as you go down. |
| Floor level | Floor 1 is a level 1 floor, floor 10 a level 10 floor. The number on the HUD is the level of what lives there. |
| The floor boss | Levelled as though the floor were twice as deep. Floor 5 holds level 5 foes and a level 10 boss. |
| What the boss pays | 2 times the experience its level already earns. The ordinary foes on the floor are unchanged. |
| Wardens | Every 5th floor promotes its boss to a Warden: more health, a harder swing, and its own name. |
| How many foes | 4 on the first floor, one more per floor down. An elite stalker joins from floor 3, another from floor 6, another from floor 10. Sunken Caverns floors are 2 times as wide and tall, and carry 2 times as many. |
| The way back up | A climb stands on floor 1 and every 3rd floor after it. It always comes up in the home town. |
| Loot on the floor | A chest on every floor, plus potions and a purse. Every 3rd floor rolls the richer chest, and so does a cursed one. |
| Underground pays more | 40% more experience and 25% more gold than the same fight on the surface. |
| Key vaults | A rune-sealed side room, from floor 2 down, on 40% of floors. One Dungeon Key opens it; inside is the premium chest. Keys drop off the boss standing on each floor, at about the rate the vaults turn up. |
How deep is deep
How strong each floor and its boss are, by depth.
| Floor | Where you are | What lives there | The boss at the end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1The Catacombs | The Catacombs | Level 1 | Level 2 |
| 2The Catacombs | The Catacombs | Level 2 | Level 4 |
| 3The Catacombs | The Catacombs | Level 3 | Level 6 |
| 5Sunken Caverns | Sunken Caverns | Level 5 | Level 10 |
| 10The Abyss | The Abyss | Level 10 | Level 20 |
| 15The Catacombs | The Catacombs | Level 15 | Level 30 |
| 20The Inferno | The Inferno | Level 20 | Level 40 |
A floor is levelled on its depth; its boss is levelled as though you had gone twice as deep. The gap between the last two columns widens the further down you are.
What a floor looks like
The dungeon cycles through themed floor sets as you descend. Each has its own palette, hazard and regulars.
Floor twists
Every floor past the first rolls once for a twist.
- Cursed Floor mighty foes guard a richer prize 13.5%of floors
- Gilded Floor the very walls glitter, riches abound 13.5%of floors
- Swarming Floor a horde stirs, many foes, but frail 13.5%of floors
- Treasure Vault a hoard beyond counting 4.5%of floors
- No twist An ordinary floor of the depth you are standing on. 55%of floors
Rolled once as each floor is built, from floor 2 down. Floor 1 is always plain.
The boss trials
A gate that tears open where a named foe died, leading to a dungeon built for that foe. The deeper the trial, the better it pays.
the Stonegarden
2 floors down, each one built out of the same thing that killed The Coilfather, ending on Medusa.
All 3 of the boss's moves are telegraphed.
- Silencing Hexa pulse that pins everyone inside it where they stand and chips away at them
- Quaking Slama ground pound in a wide circle that stuns whoever it lands on
- Nova Bursta full circle of bolts leaves it at once. There is no gap in the ring, only distance
the Broodmother's Lair
3 floors down, each one built out of the same thing that killed The Broodmother, ending on The Thousand-Eyed.
All 3 of the boss's moves are telegraphed.
- Web Volleya short fan of web bolts thrown at whoever it is facing
- Quaking Slama ground pound in a wide circle that stuns whoever it lands on
- Chargeit commits to a straight line at where you were standing, so step aside as it launches
the Hollow Colossus
4 floors down, each one built out of the same thing that killed The Colossus, ending on The Quarry Heart.
All 3 of the boss's moves are telegraphed.
- Quaking Slama ground pound in a wide circle that stuns whoever it lands on
- Ground Slamtwo rings of shockwave burst outward, and they break on walls, so put a pillar between you and it
- Chargeit commits to a straight line at where you were standing, so step aside as it launches
the Drowned Gullet
5 floors down, each one built out of the same thing that killed The Tide Leviathan, ending on The Tide-Sired.
All 4 of the boss's moves are telegraphed.
- Undertowa ring of freezing water bursts out, and anyone caught near the middle is left chilled and slow
- Nova Bursta full circle of bolts leaves it at once. There is no gap in the ring, only distance
- Bolt Volleya fanned wall of frost bolts aimed down the line to you
- Chargeit commits to a straight line at where you were standing, so step aside as it launches
the Quiet Fold
6 floors down, each one built out of the same thing that killed The Pale Shepherd, ending on The Bellwether.
All 4 of the boss's moves are telegraphed.
- Raise Deada court of three rises to guard it, and no more will rise while any of them stands
- Silencing Hexa pulse that pins everyone inside it where they stand and chips away at them
- Nova Bursta full circle of bolts leaves it at once. There is no gap in the ring, only distance
- Radiant Smitea pillar of light drops on a marked spot and hits everyone standing in the circle
the Sunless Trenchalways opens
7 floors down, each one built out of the same thing that killed The Mountain Kraken, ending on The Trenchmaw.
The only source of permanent stats in the realm. Every hero who fought the boss rolls separately, from a pool of 7.
Clearing it remakes the realm. When the boss at the bottom falls, the realm is made anew: new land, new lairs, every gate wiped and every foe back on its feet. Finish looting before you climb out.
All 5 of the boss's moves are telegraphed.
- Undertowa ring of freezing water bursts out, and anyone caught near the middle is left chilled and slow
- Nova Bursta full circle of bolts leaves it at once. There is no gap in the ring, only distance
- Bolt Volleya fanned wall of frost bolts aimed down the line to you
- Leaping Strikeit jumps to a marked spot and lands in a burst of frost
- Ground Slamtwo rings of shockwave burst outward, and they break on walls, so put a pillar between you and it
The Sunken Citadel
The hardest dungeon in the realm.
The Sunken Citadel
3 drowned halls, then one arena. Every guard is level 200, its master's own, rather than the tier you are standing on, so there is no gentle first floor.
At the bottom stands The Drowned Archivist, the highest-level foe in the realm, fighting in 3 stances. Odds on each of its relics are in the drop table.
Rifts
A hole in the world that opens by itself, lasts under a minute, and drops you onto a deep floor for the price of a key.
| A rift | How it works |
|---|---|
| Where it comes from | Nothing has to die. It opens on its own near a hero who is above ground, on ordinary walkable land. |
| How long you have | About 30 seconds before it closes. One is open in the realm at a time. |
| What it costs | One Dungeon Key, spent by whoever breaches it. Anyone following them in pays nothing. |
| How deep it drops you | Onto a floor between 3 and 16, scaled to the party's levels. It skips the climb, not the danger. |
| Purple and blue | About 40% are blue party rifts, which stay open their full window so a whole group can dive into the same run. A purple one closes behind the single hero who takes it and sits one floor shallower. |
| What is down there | An ordinary dungeon floor of that depth. Climb out the usual way. |
| Whose run it is | Its own, exactly as a gate’s is. Diving in never lands you in somebody else’s dungeon. |
Lairs and territory
Where each fixed foe stands, how much ground it owns, and which door its death opens.
A lair-bound boss hunts you anywhere inside its own ground and will not follow you a step beyond it. Leave and it walks home and heals, so chipping one from outside its territory does nothing.
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The Hierophant
the ruined shrine of the Western Marches, and the 12 tiles around it.Opens no gate. Its signature piece is the prize.
Level 25
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The Broodmother
the dark wood of the Eastern Wilds, and the 12 tiles around it.Opens the Broodmother's Lair.
Level 65
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The Emberkeg
the cinder crater of the Emberwaste, and the 12 tiles around it.Opens no gate. Its signature piece is the prize.
Level 45
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The Hexbinder
the frozen strip of the Northern Wastes, and the 12 tiles around it.Opens no gate. Its signature piece is the prize.
Level 55
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The Colossus
the war-camp ruin of the Northeast Range, and the 12 tiles around it.Opens the Hollow Colossus.
Level 60
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The Coilfather
the western sands of the Sunscour, and the 12 tiles around it.Opens the Stonegarden.
Level 35
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The Frost Titan
the Frozen Wastes (far north), and the 24 tiles around it.Opens no gate. Its signature piece is the prize.
Level 60
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The Storm Roc
the high wilds (northeast), and the 24 tiles around it.Opens no gate. Its signature piece is the prize.
Level 55
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Emberhorn the Scorched
the Emberwaste (far southeast), and the 24 tiles around it.Opens no gate. Its signature piece is the prize.
Level 65
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The Tide Leviathan
a far isle in the deep south-west of the Sundered Sea (sail to reach it), and the 24 tiles around it.Opens the Drowned Gullet.
Level 70
The 2 opt-in Pinnacle Bosses keep no fixed lair. They rise where their own conditions are met, a shipwreck in the near reaches of the Sundered Sea and the Frozen Wastes, by night, in a ring that shrinks as the fight goes on. The Mountain Kraken wakes at the heart of the realm once your Vigil is complete.