Rooms and guardians

The shape of a room

A run is seven rooms. Each room has a clock, and its guardian must die before the clock reaches zero. If it does not, the dark closes in and the run ends on the spot, with no revive offered. Dying in a fight is different: then you may revive.

"Blades" means melee, "Arrows" means arrows, bolts and the returning trident, and "Magic" means staff bolts and spell-like attacks. Each room's clock runs day first, then night for the last 38%. Night brings its own monsters and faster spawns.

In room 1 the Hog Dragon is there from the start. From room 2 on you arrive in a glowing circle: the guardian sleeps until you step out or three seconds pass, but some of the horde has followed you through the door. When a guardian falls, the exit gate opens and you have 20 seconds to reach it, never fewer than 15. The gate heals 25% of your max health and pays a few shards. The horde stays, so the walk out is often the busiest moment of the room.

Spells are strong, but guardians cap how much one cast can take: 20% of their health in rooms 1 and 2, 28% in rooms 3 and 4, 35% after that and 30% for Malphas, and no more than 8% from a single hit. "RESISTS" floats over a guardian that has hit the cap. Your weapon still has to do the rest.

The Hog Dragon (room 1)

It picks its attack from your distance. Up close (under 200px) it snorts a ring at its feet: back off. At middle range it gores: a lane is painted on the floor for 0.72 seconds and the charge never re-aims, so a late sidestep always works. A missed gore leaves it skidding for a full second taking 45% more damage. Far away it breathes a long cone of fire: get beside it. At half health it enrages, its tells get 18% quicker, and every third move erupts burning geysers under you.

The Bone Behemoth (room 2)

A siege beast with a skeleton crew. It locks a lane and charges at 700px per second. If it hits a wall it lies stunned for 2.6 seconds; that is the damage window. If it misses the walls it is only winded for about a second. The crew lobs bone-shot at warned circles, and standing within 230px for 1.6 seconds earns a stomp. At half health three skeletons drop off to fight on foot and the beast gets faster.

The Unbeaten (room 3)

A swordsman your size, with no minions. The Answer: it opens its guard for 0.9 seconds, stores every point of damage you deal, then pays it back as a shockwave. Stop attacking. The Drawn Line: a line is drawn across the whole arena through its body, aimed at you, and 1.1 seconds later everything on it is cut. Step sideways; backing away does not help. Skyfall: it leaps out of the screen and the landing ring follows you until the jump peaks, then locks. Wait, then move. It cannot be hit in the air, but the one-second landing is open. At 45% its guard breaks, its cooldowns shrink and The Shadow appears and repeats its last move 0.9 seconds later.

The Dredge (room 4)

It owns the water. It dives, travels unseen and surfaces at one of several points around the pools with a burst (175px). It cannot be hit while under, but the dive and the rise can. While up it throws goo that leaves slowing pools. It only rakes what stands within 150px, so a melee hero can hit from the edge and step out during the 0.62 second wind-up. At half health it becomes form II: slower, harder hitting, three blobs per throw and a spinning flail up close.

The Wickwraith (room 5)

It eats the light. Snuff puts out a nearby torch and the room gets darker; each torch eaten makes it 7% faster and stronger, up to 1.7 times. Ember Spit throws five cinders at warned spots. At half health every wick takes and it becomes Lit: faster, hitting 30% harder, and adds Gutter: it goes dark, cannot be hit for a moment, and returns past you with a ring.

The Ironwarden (room 6)

A walking gate whose iron turns away 95% of every blow in form I, 85% in form II and 30% in form III. When it vents it glows and draws a countdown ring for 2.6 seconds, and its plate drops to 70% or 55%: that is when to unload. With under 70 seconds left on the clock its plate erodes toward half, so a weaker build is squeezed rather than locked out.

• Sealed: Portcullis drops lanes of iron stakes where you stand (find the gap). The Tolling sends three shock rings with rotating gaps.
• Open (from 82%): adds a triple Guillotine and a Chain Hook that drags you into a slam (dash to break free).
• Unhoused (from 48%): small and very fast. It dives through the floor and surfaces in a ring of stakes, swings two plates on chains, and at 16% rings the Last Bell: five rings while iron falls.

Malphas (room 7)

Four forms at 100%, 72%, 45% and 20% health. Each form starts behind a shield that soaks all damage; spells strip it 6.5 times faster than plain attacks, so save your spell for a fresh form. In his second form three runes orbit him and he cannot be hurt until you shoot all three. The final form takes 55% less damage.

• The Sorcerer: Runefall sigils walk after you and erupt, Sigil Lances fan out, and the Orrery closes a ring of stars on where you stood (leave through its gap).
• Malphas Unbound: adds the Void Lash, a tendril that sweeps an arc faster than you can run. Get behind its start line before it moves.
• The Horned Demon: Brimstone Charge takes a painted lane at 1100px per second, twice, and the lane erupts behind him. The Infernal Crown rolls out rings of hellfire with two gaps each. He also raises the dead.
• The Abyssal Devourer: the Maw drags you toward his mouth (always slower than your walk), the Devouring leaves only three pools of light to stand in, and Starfall drops meteors where you are about to be.

The horde

From room 2 some monsters spawn with an affix: Fury (faster, 50% more damage), from room 3 Swift and Tough (2.6 times health, slower), and from room 4 Volatile, which explodes. The chance grows by 8% per room up to 42%. From room 3, 5% of spawns are true elites: bigger, three times the health, 30% more damage, outlined in gold, and much likelier to drop a chest.

Void rifts pull you in and drain you; dash through the eye to seal one for shards.

Nightmare

Beating Malphas opens Nightmare, chosen per run on the Prepare the Run screen. Enemy strength scales 1.8 times higher, Malphas has 50% more health and his signatures hit 20% harder, true elites appear 9% of the time, chests drop less often, and Altar runes cost 25% more but unlock two player levels sooner. Six monsters appear only in Nightmare, including the Powder Keg and the healing Skel Legionary. The room clocks stay the same.