The Deep
No bottom and no victory: one fight a floor, as deep as your build can go.
How it opens
Once you have played a run, the title screen shows a "The Deep" row under the Daily Descent. Diving takes the full game; on the free game the row wears a lock. Tap it, pick a hero ("Who dives into the Deep?") and tap Dive.
A dive keeps a save slot of its own, beside your descent's: "Continue" on the title goes on with the descent, and the Deep row goes on with the dive and shows the floor it reached.
A dive
- One fight a floor, from floor 1. It is the floor's last fight, so its elites and bosses stand where a descent has them.
- Strata of 10 floors, each ending in a boss. The first stratum's is the run's floor-10 boss (the Tallyman, the Rat King or the Old Sow), the second's its floor-20 boss (Mother Brine, the Drowned Organ or the Hermit), the third's Avarax. Past floor 30 the three depths take turns, each stratum drawing its own boss from that depth's, and every depth's enemies come mixed.
- Every stratum is laid out like a depth: a chest and a shrine on its third and sixth floors, in either order, the forge on its ninth, merchants on the rest, and an altar after its boss.
- No Tally, forks, Wardens, forge orders, treasures, Greed or trials. There is no victory on floor 30, and a death's gold goes to no hoard.
- Tap the floor label for the boss notice of the boss that closes the stratum; on its last three floors it gives the verdict, and it opens by itself before his fight.
Twists
From the second stratum each has a twist. At the altar after a stratum's boss you choose the next stratum's, one of two: the first is dealt from an order the run's seed draws, each of the 9 once in every 9 strata, and the second is drawn for that stratum. Tap one to choose it and hear what it does; you can change your mind while you are at the altar, and if you choose nothing the first holds. The stratum's chapter card says the twist, and the top bar names it; tap it to hear it again.
| Twist | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ironhide | Enemies have double armor, and pay 50% more gold. |
| Gold Fever | Enemies pay double gold, and have +30% health. |
| Bloodlust | Enemies deal +30% damage, and drop items twice as often. |
| Lean Times | Refreshing the market costs double. Enemies have -15% health. |
| Bargain | The merchant sells at half price. Enemies deal +20% damage. |
| Glass | Enemies have half their armor and -20% health, but deal +30% damage. |
| Blight | Every enemy's hits poison you when they get past armor. Enemies deal -10% damage. |
| Restless Dead | Every enemy rises once with 30% health. Enemies have -20% health. |
| Pickpockets | A Pilfer Imp is in every fight, stealing gold. Enemies pay +25% gold. |
The plunge
Win a floor of a stratum's first seven losing under 10% of your health, and its room offers "Plunge" beside the way on: straight down to the stratum's ninth floor, the forge's. It pays 1.5 times the standard gold of every floor you pass and brings 2 pieces of loot for each, rolled where you land: into your stash, and sold once the stash is full. Long-press it to see what it brings.
The forge in a dive
A dive's forge is never spent. It tempers again and again, each temper costing double the last ("Temper as often as you like: each costs double."), and it takes gear on past Mythic: to Gilded, then +1, +2 and up.
How hard it gets
Through floor 30 enemies have 35% of a descent's numbers, since one fight a floor buys about a third of the gear, and a stratum's boss has 45% of that health. Past floor 30 each floor gives enemies 24% more health and 23% more attack, and loot rolls a rarity higher for every 30 floors past 30. Past 999T numbers go on in pairs of letters, each a thousand times the last: 1aa is 1,000T, then 1ab, 1ac and on.
Past Gilded
In the Deep two Gilded twins of the same + merge on: +1, +2 and up, each as if found 3 floors deeper. The + shows on the tile and after the name, and splitting a +n gives back two of +n-1.
The Deep's rooms
Past floor 30 each stratum is fought in a room of its own, the three in turn: the Molten Mint, the furnace that struck the hoard's coins; the Rime Treasury, cold light through an arch of ice; and the Verdigris Vault, braziers burning copper green before a round vault door. The stratum's card names it.
The week's dive
From Monday to Sunday (UTC) everyone can dive the same Deep: the week's seed and hero, with every set in play. The hero is drawn from all seven, unlocked or not. In the Deep's hero select, the small "Week" button beside Dive chooses it, and the line under the heroes names the week's hero and your best this week, or the days it has left.
Marks and the board
Each hero keeps their deepest dive, shown at hero select. Reaching floor 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200 earns a Deep mark: Delver, Abyssal, Lightless, Fathomless and Bottomless. With the board joined, a dive's record is sent when it ends and our server plays it again. The board's Deep tab ranks the week's dives under "This week" and every player's deepest dive under "Deepest ever".
Play Gold BelowThe first ten floors are free. No ads, and it plays offline.
Written from the game's own rules, version 2.17.0. Spotted something wrong? Tell us on Discord.