Delves

What a delve is

A delve is a small instanced dungeon made just for you and up to one ally, a private copy you cannot be disturbed in. You start it from a board kept by a delve keeper out in the world, drop in, fight down through a handful of rooms, and finish on a single guardian. What waits past that guardian differs by delve: one seals its spoils behind a lock, another asks a rite of you. Runs are quick and meant to be repeated, so a delve is a reliable bit of progress whenever the open world runs dry.

How a run works

Talk to the keeper to open the board, pick a difficulty, and descend. Each run strings together a few short chambers and ends at its guardian; clear it to claim your reward and return to the surface. Bring a friend if you have one, or lean on your companion if you do not.

Your companion

A delve sends a companion down with you, so a solo run is never hopeless. She fights at your side, and as you invest in her between runs she grows steadily stronger, until she can pull an ally back from the brink once a descent. She is yours for the delve and waits at the board between runs.

Locks and what they hide

Some doors and caches are sealed, and opening one is a small test of nerve rather than a stat check: solve the lock cleanly and steadily and you earn a better prize than a rushed, fumbled one. It is optional, but the careful delver is the richer one.

You settle the terms before you touch the lock. Take three picks and you have room to fumble, but the chest pays its plainest prize; take two for the middle bargain; take one and a clean solve pays the richest of all. The fewer picks you hold, the less time you have to think between moves, and if the last one snaps the lock jams for good: that chest is lost until you clear the delve again.

When a delve ends in a rite

Not every delve ends at a lock. The Drowned Litany closes on a rite instead: once its guardian falls, the shrines around the reliquary light in an order and ask you to answer it back. You choose how hard to make it before it begins, the same bargain the picks ask for. The gentle setting replays the sequence for you more than once and gives you more than one attempt, but it caps what the reliquary will pay; the sternest shows the order a single time, gives you a single attempt, and is the only way to the richest prize.

Difficulty

A delve offers more than one difficulty. The higher one makes the enemies stronger and rolls in a run modifier, and pays out more in return. It also asks that you have a few levels under your belt before it will let you in.

Run modifiers

Harder runs roll a modifier that changes how the descent plays, from restless dead to foul air to failing roof-work. They raise the danger and the reward together. Each delve draws from the modifiers that suit its theme; across the realm, the pool looks like this:

Delve Marks

Clearing delves earns Delve Marks, a currency kept apart from your coin. Spend them at the keeper to strengthen your companion and pick up gear you will not find anywhere else. Marks reward the first runs of your day most. The first three clears each day pay in full, and after that a delve still pays, just less reliably, with the harder tier holding its footing better than the easier one. The count rolls over daily, so there is no need to grind a delve into the ground: come back tomorrow and the good rate is waiting.

Where to find one