Category:Dungeons

For the in-game books that explain exactly what are Dungeons, see Guidebook for Dungeon Exploration Volume 1 and Guidebook for Dungeon Exploration Volume 2.

For Instanced Missions, see Missions.

Description

Dungeons, also known as Rath which meant "a strongly built palace" according to several books, are instanced maze-like zones filled with monsters and treasure. They are scattered all across Erinn, though none are located at Belvast.

History

Raths were originally created and used by Humans as a form of shelter from the Fomors, designed and expanded by magic to defend against intruders and/or confuse them. After the wars between the two races, the Humans stopped using the Raths, but for an unknown reason they became inhabited by Fomors.

Details

Entry to the dungeon requires an appropriate item, to be offered on the Dungeon Altar in the dungeon's lobby.
- The dropped item may be a Pass or a specific item tied to a quest.
- When a version of a dungeon is part of a quest, the drop item will usually be obtained during that quest chain.
All party mates who are also standing on the Altar's square will also enter the dungeon with you.
- Certain difficulties or dungeons may limit the amount of players that can enter the same instance of a dungeon.
In most cases, the dungeon will have a mini-map enabled. Depending on the dungeon instance, this minimap may be fully uncovered or not.
Some dungeons may have a "back door" in their lobby, leading to a Hard Mode Dungeon.
When you enter the instance dungeon lobby, a message will appear at the top of your screen listing all the people in the dungeon. For most dungeons, this just lists everyone in your party.
- This message is also seen when the player interacts with the Goddess Statue inside each floor.
In some dungeons, the minimap will display the map for the whole floor as soon as you enter the floor.
- In others, the minimap will only display parts of the map that your character has visited.
- Alternatively, the entire map may be made visible by using Awakening of Light or specific Support Puppets.

Dungeon Difficulties

There are many difficulties to a dungeon, usually containing more floors, rooms, and stronger monsters.
There are Beginner, Normal, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Abyss and Veteran, with Beginner as the lowest difficulty and Veteran as the highest.
Not all dungeons have a difficulty, and may be set on either Normal or Basic.
Some monsters only appear in specific difficulties of dungeons.

Dropped Items

To access the "Normal" version of Uladh dungeons, any item except the ones fitting the requirements above may be used.
- If you use a Dungeon Pass, the dungeon you enter will be completely instanced; even when other people drop the same pass, they will not enter your instance.
There is no limit to how many people can enter the same normal dungeon.
- Common choices are 1 Gold and low value potions.
If there is an instance of the dungeon active that used the same drop item as you, you will be added to that instance.
- This may speed your progress, since other players may have already cleared the earlier parts of the dungeon.
If the Boss Room was opened while you are not in the dungeon or on the same floor, you will not receive a key to open a treasure chest in the dungeon exit room.
- Similarily, if the amount of dungeon runners exceeds the maximum amount, no additional chests and keys will appear.

Dungeon Structure

Changes

Dungeon max party size was changed from 8 to 4, to 8 again across several updates.

As of the A New Dawn For Dungeons update:

Dungeon passes giving access to partied instances were removed.
- For instance, Barri Advanced For Three and Math Advanced for Three.
- Coill Basic, Coill Intermediate, Math Basic were added at the same update and did not exist previously.
The Basic and Intermediate difficulties of Hardmode dungeons were removed.

As of the Re:Fine update:

The Participation Timer was added.
Floor number of dungeons became streamlined. Instead of encountering stronger monsters on a new floor, players now encounter them without having to reach downstairs.
- This also means there are less Statues of the Goddess per dungeon, depending on how many floors the instances had previously.
Keys no longer require to be picked up and can be used by all party members.

Trivia

Early in the game's history, the item had to be physically dropped on the dungeon Altar.
When the game was originally released, the only dungeons were inside caves and the word "downstairs" made sense. However, it is still in use throughout the dungeon system, even in Fiodh Dungeon which is outdoors and apparently all on one level.
The purpose of the Instance Dungeon Lobby is unclear.
- Logically, the dungeon could still function if the instance dungeon lobby was removed, allowing players to go directly from the dungeon lobby to floor 1 of the instance.
- The instance lobby may be in place so players would not mistake the Statue in the instance lobby, which serves as the dungeon exit, from the Statue in the first room of the dungeon.
  - As Albey Dungeon does not have Goddess Statues, this seems the most likely explanation.

Gallery

Dungeon concept art.
An empty Dungeon pathway Dead End.
The unshaded minimap inside a dungeon.
The shaded minimap inside a dungeon; note only the first room and the corridor ahead is visible.
The very first room in a dungeon, containing a floor save statue and an upstairs path to the previous floor.
A corridor within a dungeon.
A spawn of enemies within a corridor; one of the chests in the corner holds a dungeon key.
A dungeon room containing an open chest that seals the room and spawns monsters.
A dungeon room with pre-spawned monsters.
A switch in a dungeon switch room.
A room with three groups of monsters, one of them in a rest state.
A downstairs path to the next floor.
A dungeon's locked door.
A dungeon's locked boss room door.
A dungeon's boss room.
A dungeon's reward room.