Dungeon

Dungeon is the popular term used for a zone which has hostile mobs which can be defeated for the valuable items that they drop. Traditionally, the term is used to describe an underground area that adventurers can explore, and in Dragon Nest, it covers most hostile zones, including Nests and other areas that do not involve PvP mechanics.

Because of the absence of hostile mobs in field maps, dungeons are the only way for players to find and kill mobs for experience and their drops.

Characteristics[]

Layout[]

Dungeons are composed of zones which may lie on one map or divided into several maps. There are dungeons which are made up of zones which lie on one large map (like Forsaken Islet Core), while there are larger ones which are composed of up to four zones (some of which are later compressed into three-map dungeons). Regardless, a zone includes a certain amount of groups of monsters, which the player must defeat in most cases in order to advance to the next zone.

The content of the dungeon depends on its location, with architecture, landscape and greenery relevant to the location. Some maps may also have objects that may be interacted with, from barrels and wooden crates to levers and mechanisms.

Dungeon Difficulty[]

A dungeon commonly has several difficulty settings, allowing players to adjust the strength of monsters inside. Choosing a difficulty not only affects the stats of the monsters in a dungeon but also changes what items may be found. FTG points consumed per run depend on difficulty as well.

Easy - Monsters are weaker than those in Normal; items found are mostly of the normal rarity. Not recommended unless doing an escort quest.
- This difficulty has been removed from all dungeons except for event maps and tutorial maps.
Normal - Default stats of monsters are used; items of the magic rarity and gemstones may be found. Recommended when entering a dungeon for the first time at lower levels.
Hard - Monsters have slightly higher stats than normal; monsters with special stats appear in small numbers; items of magic rarity are found with higher chances with a lower chance of getting rare items. Experienced players are advised to always go on Hard difficulty on most dungeons.
- This difficulty has been removed from all dungeons except for Hero's Battlefield.
Master - Dungeon has higher numbers of monsters per area. Gemstones are abundant here, as do items of magic rarity.
- As of Patch Version 184, Master difficulty is the highest difficulty in all non-level cap dungeons.
Abyss - Most difficult version of a particular dungeon; higher number of monsters per area with all mobs having boosted stats; minibosses appear on particular stages of the dungeon; boss has much higher HP than in Normal. Soloing an Abyss dungeon is recommended only to players with good equipment. In later patches, the overall difficulty of the dungeon are adjusted according to the number of players.
- As of Patch Version 184, Abyss difficulty only appears on dungeons that match the latest level cap.
Chaos - A type of difficulty available only to Anu Arendel dungeons. Considered to be more challenging than Abyss because of revisions in a dungeon's mechanics as well as having two boss mobs at the end of each dungeon, with the default boss accompanied by a boss mob from other maps, chosen at random. As with Abyss, the overall difficulty are adjusted depending on the number of players.
- As of Patch Version 184, this difficulty has been removed.

Objectives[]

By default, a dungeon's primary objective is for the player to kill the boss at the end of the dungeon. In order to reach that final zone of the dungeon, players may be exposed to additional objectives, either given by the dungeon itself (like killing a particular kind of mob like in Dark Tower Magic Institute) or by Commission Quests acquired by the player beforehand. Some quests might require the player to talk to NPCs related to those quests before allowing the player to advance into the next zone.

Additional Objectives[]

Aside from quests that require exploring a specific dungeon, there are additional missions given to players at random when playing on particular dungeons. Active Missions involve clearing stages within a particular difficulty or with players from the same guild, while Emergency Missions, available only to dungeons above Level 70, introduces a minigame that players can accomplish in exchange for 20 Fragments of Wandering Soul if successful.

As of an unknown Patch Version, the Fragments of Wandering Soul are no longer usable even though Emergency Missions may still occur.

Overview[]

Entering a Dungeon[]

A dungeon's entrance resembles a typical portal, which instead of the blue portals seen in towns is coloured red. Upon entering the desired portal, the player/s are taken to a selection screen, where the dungeons available for that zone and the available dungeon difficulties are located. The selection screen contains information about the dungeon itself, like the available rewards for a particular difficulty in experience and items, the recommended level for that dungeon, and the recommended party size needed to clear a dungeon. In a party, only the party leader has the ability to choose the dungeon and its difficulty.

Necessary selections must be done within 60 seconds. After the time limit is up, the current selection will be automatically accepted. To cancel the dungeon selection, click on the "Cancel" button. This will force the character to step away from the portal.

Interaction[]

Some dungeons require players to interact with objects located inside the dungeon. These objects, which come in the form of levers, buttons and detonating plungers among others, would open areas in the dungeon to be able to proceed normally, or will otherwise aid players in clearing the dungeon. Dark Mines, for example, would require the player/s to detonate a wall of stone by using a detonator plunger left by the miners in the area.

On the other hand, there are objects that may be destroyed without affecting one's progress in a dungeon. Examples of these are barrels, boxes and chests, all of which can give gold and/or items to the player/s. Although not necessary to destroy when performing a dungeon run (especially speed runs), chests may offer players some extra gold to earn, especially when early into the game.

When performing a quest that is related to the dungeon, additional and NPCs and interactive items may appear, and sometimes must be interacted with to proceed to the next area of that dungeon.

Encounters[]

Dungeons are commonly infested with monsters, and the primary objective of most dungeons is to defeat these monsters to proceed to the next area of the dungeon. However, some dungeons have a specific objective when it comes to encounters. Dark Tower Magic Institute only requires players to clear the dungeon by killing a particular type of spider, while Riverwort Village Ruins runs at a limited time (exactly 300 seconds) to clear the dungeons in a certain area to receive the bonus Royal Chest for that dungeon. Aside from this, in more difficult stages of a dungeon, there are chances that an elusive Royal Chest for that dungeon would appear, rewarding those who were able to find it with valuable items.

In all cases, the dungeon is cleared when the boss monster has been killed.

Dungeon Points (Old)[]

During the progress of a dungeon run, the player may see numbers adding up on the right side of the gameplay screen. These numbers reflect the dungeon points amassed by the character in the dungeon run.

Dungeon points are mainly acquired by defeating monsters and maintaining combos. Higher points are received when a high combo is reached, and returns to the default when the combo counter resets. Destroying barrels and boxes also give dungeon points, although at a smaller amount. On the other hand, a player loses dungeon points—specifically 50 dungeon points—every time the character receives damage; this includes damage from the burning and poison statuses.

At the end of a dungeon, these points would be combined with bonuses received by a player in completing a dungeon (time bonuses, maximum combo bonus, etc.).

As of an unknown patch version, this feature has been removed.

Clearing a Dungeon (Old)[]

Upon the death of the boss monster, unless there are still quests to be accomplished by the player, the player or the party will be given 5 seconds to pick up the items dropped by the boss and to allocate inventory space. Afterwards, the completion screen for that dungeon appears, revealing the points received by the player upon clearing the dungeon. A rating is then given based on these points, from C, the lowest, to SSS, the highest. This rating will then affect the bonus chest lineup to be given to a player.

C - one bronze, three wood
B - one silver, one bronze, two wood
A - one gold, one silver, one bronze, one wood
S - two gold, one silver, one bronze
SS - three gold, one silver
SSS - four gold chests
- As of an unknown patch version, this feature has been removed. A rating is no longer given. Instead, a player is given up to 3 stars upon dungeon or nest completion. A star is deducted for each death by the player. This have not been shown to affect the EXP gained or the available chest lineup.

Rewards[]

Entering the dungeon and surviving it is a reward in itself as defeating the monsters in a dungeon is certain to give experience, items and gold, especially in more difficult dungeons and Nests. Meanwhile, the four kinds of bonus chests at the end of a successful dungeon run may give the player one from the following items:

Wood Chest - Low Grade Gem
Bronze Chest - Intermediate Gem
Silver Chest - Agates (depending on the level)
Gold Chest - Key of Dimensional Box or Alteums or Diamonds (depending on the level)
- As of an unknown patch version, this feature has been removed. Only silver chest and gold chest exist.
- At Normal-difficulty and Master-difficulty dungeons, the silver chest will reward players with armour corresponding to the players' level while the golden chest will reward players with weapon corresponding to the dungeon's level.
- At Abyss-difficulty dungeons, the silver chest will reward players with a cooking ingredient or alteum; while the golden chest will reward players with a Skill Heraldry, equipment, accessory, garnet or diamond.

In addition, at Abyss-level dungeons, a Silver or Gold Dimensional Box would appear at the end of a dungeon.The Silver Dimensional Box will reward players with Dimensional Fragments, NPC gifts and Skill Heraldry. In the rarer Gold Dimensional Box, a Time Cube or Space Cube will be rewarded.

Changelog[]

Version 70 - Layout of selected dungeons simplified.