The Fissures

Keys: what a run gives back

• The warden down in under 6:00: a key of tier T + 2, never more.
• The warden down by 10:00: a key of tier T + 1, and T is your best tier if it beats the last one.
• The warden down after 10:00: a key of the same tier T. Nobody who finishes goes home without a key.
• A fall costs time, not the run: you get back up at the zone's entrance after 5 s, healed, with the zone's monsters back, and those 5 s come off the clock once. For 3 s after you rise, or until your first step, you take no harm and no monster closes in; one standing within 3 tiles of the entrance is pushed back to 3.
• The Town Portal, the menu's Main menu or closing the game ends the run: what you picked up goes to the stash, but the key is spent and none comes back. A page closed mid-run is ended the next time the game loads, and the Obelisk names that run once.
• With no key held, the Obelisk gives a free tier-1 key, so no hero is ever locked out. It keeps your 30 highest keys.

What a tier does

Floor 30's monsters have 11.35× and 5.71× floor 1's base life and bite. Life grows ×1.07 a tier and bite ×1.04, with no top: there is no last tier. Pack size stops at ×1.5.

Fault shards and the smith's Upgrade past the cap

A warden who falls drops 2 Fault shards, one more for every 5 tiers (the table's last column), half as many again, rounded down, with the Leaden Omen carved; a run left before he falls pays none. The shards are the whole camp's, shown beside slag. Once slag has taken an item as far as it goes, the smith’s Upgrade button spends them on any item you keep, uniques and set pieces too: its item level rises to 30 plus your best cleared tier, at 1 shard a level and 5 at least. Worked example: best tier 6, a floor-20 unique goes to item level 36 for 16 shards. A rare lifted that way may then climb to higher tiers with slag; this never adds or rerolls a line. On the smith's Melt tab, 3 Omens of one kind (none carved on your next key) trade for 1 of the kind you pick.

The Cindercoil: a tier 10+ key spent on a boss

At the Obelisk a key of tier 10 or more can be spent on the Cindercoil instead of a Fissure (no Omens ride it). It fights in floor 30's arena with 3× the Vitrarch's floor-30 life before the tier formula, so a tier-10 key meets ×5.5 his life and a tier-20 key ×10.8. Above two thirds of its life it draws rings of fire 6.5 tiles round where you stand that close in with one gap left open; from two thirds it also lunges across the arena down a lane drawn for 1.1 s; in its last third both come faster, the gap narrows and every lunge leaves molten glass along its lane. You get one life: a fall ends the fight and the key is spent, and at 5:00 the arena floods and the fight is lost.

A kill always pays a Cinder heart and 3 rares at item level 30 plus the key's tier; each of the 3 has a 1 in 10 chance of being Coilbrand (weapon: Striking a burning foe sets the nearest other foe within 3 tiles burning as hard.) or Ashen Spiral (ring: While you stand in fire and for 3 s after you step out, your skill area is 30% larger.) instead, found nowhere else. At the smith's Melt tab 5 hearts buy either one, so the worst luck is 5 kills, and 1 heart rerolls the stat lines of one you own. A hero's card counts his kills; nothing is ranked.

The Hushwarden: a tier 20+ key

A key of tier 20 or more can be spent on the Hushwarden. It has the same life rule and the same limits as the Cindercoil (one life, a fall spends the key, the arena floods at 5:00), so a tier-20 key meets ×10.8 the Vitrarch's floor-30 life. It puts out the light: the arena is darker than any Fissure floor, you see about a third of the usual circle round your hero, and the glow of its own drawn attacks is what lights the floor. Above two thirds of its life it marks a 2.2-tile circle where you stand and strikes it after 0.9 s. From two thirds it also draws a 3.2-tile ring round itself and, when that lands, calls back up to 3 of the last band's monsters (Ashmantle, Dregmaw, Hushglass) from the walls; in its last third up to 4, its circles come faster, and it sends a tide out from itself up to 14 tiles with one gap left open.

A kill always pays a Hush heart and 3 rares at item level 30 plus the tier, each with a 1 in 10 chance of being the Mute Lantern (amulet: When you are hit, the skull-throwers and hook-casters within 6 tiles cannot throw for 2 s.) or Quietstep (boots: Nothing can slow you: a Leaden Omen or any other slow leaves your speed whole.). 5 Hush hearts buy either one at the smith and 1 rerolls one's stat lines; Cinder hearts do not count here.

The Last Bell: a tier 30+ key

A key of tier 30 or more can also be spent on the Last Bell (×21.3 the Vitrarch's floor-30 life at tier 30; the same one life and 5:00 flood). Every toll is a wave of force that crosses the whole arena from a side it did not use last time, with one 2.6-tile gap in it to stand in. From two thirds of its life it also brings a 2.4-tile clapper down where you stand, and in its last third a 4.2-tile knell round itself and a narrower 2-tile gap. Below half its life it rings faster: 0.80 s between attacks instead of 1.33 s, each toll drawn for 0.77 s instead of 1.10 s, and the wave moves 12 tiles a second instead of 9.6.

A kill always pays a Bell heart and 3 rares at item level 30 plus the tier, each with a 1 in 10 chance of being Tollmaker (weapon: Every tenth hit of your swing rings out: a ring 2.2 tiles across staggers every foe in it.) or the Echo of the Bellwright (helm: Each skill you cast echoes 0.4 s later as a ring round you at 25% of its damage.). 5 Bell hearts buy either one and 1 rerolls one's lines. The hero's card counts each of the three bosses' kills apart; nothing is ranked.

Honest limits today: Fissures are played alone (two-player Fissures come later); the loot is each zone's usual loot, not yet raised by the tier; and the clock keeps running while the menu or the bag is open; only a level-up choice holds it.