Loot and shards
Chests
Section titled “Chests”Chests are scattered through the maze, with stars over the lid saying how good one is:
| Stars | Tier | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| ✦✧✧✧✧ | common | two draws of ordinary supplies |
| ✦✦✧✧✧ | uncommon | two draws, one from the day’s crafting pieces |
| ✦✦✦✧✧ | rare | three draws, one from the day’s gear |
| ✦✦✦✦✦ | boss | four draws, one from the day’s gear |
A chest holds something different for every person. The real chest never opens; clicking it shows you your own contents. Eight people can loot the same chest in any order, so there is no reason to sprint.
An unlooted chest sparkles, and only for people who have not opened it. If it has stopped sparkling for you, you have had yours.
Your draw is fixed the first time you open the chest, so disconnecting hands back what was already there.
Filler such as torches, food and bottles of enchanting is kept light, since the usual complaint about dungeon loot is coming out with five items and four of them worthless.
Gear that only works down there
Section titled “Gear that only works down there”Equipment pulled out of a dungeon does far more damage to dungeon monsters than to anything else. The rarest few drops in a set do half again as much, and everything else from a boss carries a smaller edge. On the surface it is an ordinary item.
This lets dungeon rewards be strong without touching the balance of the survival server, because that strength has nowhere to leak. The bonus applies to anything on the boss’s side, including adds it summons mid-fight.
Shards
Section titled “Shards”You get one run a day, which resets at midnight Pacific.
Clearing a dungeon earns a shard, and a shard buys you a seat in somebody else’s run. See Parties.
You can hold five. Shards only accrue by playing, never while you are offline, so a full bank creates no pressure to log in, and the cap turns hoarders into spenders.
The split between the two exists because a flat one-run-a-day would stop you helping a friend through theirs, and paying shards for guest runs as well as your own would let a group cycle each other’s dungeons until the daily meant nothing.
Dying ends your run. Because a shard buys you into somebody else’s, it costs you that dungeon rather than the day, which is what makes tuning a dungeon to kill you sometimes survivable.
Checking where you stand
Section titled “Checking where you stand”/dungeonShards, whether today’s daily is still there, and lifetime runs, clears and deaths.
Some entrances have a board showing the same numbers. It shows your numbers, not the party leader’s, even though everyone is reading the same spot.