Dungeons
Twelve instanced story dungeons from Act I to Act X — parties, waves, multi-phase bosses, lockouts, and hardcore runs.
Dungeons are Imperium's instanced story runs: queue with a party, fight through themed waves, and topple a multi-phase boss for scaling rewards. Twelve dungeons carry the story across Acts I-X, from the rank-8 Collapsed Shaft to the rank-100 Summit Ascent - each with its own arena palette, mob roster, and boss phases.
Dungeons are the PvE counterpart to the mines: fixed lockouts mean every run counts, and the normalization system keeps combat about execution rather than raw gear score.
The Twelve Dungeons
| Dungeon | Act | Min Rank | Time Limit | Base Reward (normal) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Collapsed Shaft | 1 | R8 | 18 min | $45,000 |
| The Slaver's Hollow | 2 | R12 | 18 min | $100,000 |
| The Aqueduct Saboteurs | 3 | R18 | 20 min | $260,000 |
| The Salt Caverns | 3 | R24 | 20 min | $660,000 |
| The Frontier Redoubt | 4 | R30 | 22 min | $1.7M |
| The Conspirator's Villa | 5 | R38 | 22 min | $4.3M |
| The Plague Warrens | 6 | R48 | 24 min | $11M |
| The Mithraeum | 7 | R60 | 26 min | $28M |
| The Styx Crossing | 8 | R75 | 28 min | $71M |
| The Rift Foundry | 9 | R100 | 30 min | $180M |
| The Silent Choir | 9 | R100 | 32 min | $460M |
| The Summit Ascent | 10 | R100 | 35 min | $1.2B-equiv |
Content gate: mine content is currently capped at Rank 25, but dungeon rank gates run higher - The Frontier Redoubt (R30+) and beyond are for players pushing the upper ladder on the cap mine.
Run Rules
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Instances | Up to 8 concurrent instance slots in a reserved dungeon world; parties queue beyond that. |
| Time limit | Per-dungeon run timer. Expiry = SOFT fail (half rewards, lockout NOT burned). |
| Party wipe | HARD fail - no rewards, lockout burned. |
| Lockouts | 1 completed/wiped normal run per UTC day; 3 hardcore runs per 7-day bucket. |
| Hardcore | Weekly-locked harder variant of each dungeon with a ×1.5 reward multiplier. |
| Nightmare | Hardcore-squared: ×2.25 rewards, +15% roll bonus, but burns 2 weekly lockout slots per run. |
| Rift Descent | Endless mode - waves scale ×1.15 power per wave, rewards scale with deepest wave reached. No lockout, no timer; ends on wipe. Start with /dungeon start <id> rift. |
| Featured | One dungeon per week earns ×1.25 rewards, rotating Monday UTC. |
| Normalization | Attack/defense are capped per dungeon so OP gear cannot trivialize a band. |
| First clear | First-ever clear of a dungeon pays ×2 rewards and broadcasts server-wide. |
| Anti-farm | A speed guard halves rewards for parties finishing far under the median time (as of Sept 2026 it runs log-only while it gathers baseline data, so no halving is enforced yet). |
| Scorecard | Every multi-member run shows a party scorecard - contribution percentage and tier per player. |
| Cosmetics | Weapon skin drops on clear (0.5-2% chance): Bronze-Forged, Silver-Tempered, Gilded, Imperial Relic. Prestige, not power. |
Rewards
Each dungeon pays a Denarius anchor (the table above) plus a chance at lore items, tomes, and - from the Plague Warrens (D7, Rank 48) onward - Triumph crate keys. Auctoritas and Civitas components derive from the Denarius anchor, so every reward scales together. The LootComposer multiplies the base by:
- Hardcore: ×1.5
- Nightmare: ×2.25 (stacks with Hardcore ×1.5)
- Featured dungeon of the week: ×1.25
- First clear: ×2
- Soft fail (timer expiry): ×0.5
- Season: ×(1 + 0.02 × weeks since the dungeon opened)
Rift Descent (Endless Mode)
Rift Descent is the endless dungeon variant - an infinite wave survival where the only exit is a party wipe. Every wave the enemies get stronger, and your reward scales with how deep you go.
| Mechanic | Scaling |
|---|---|
| Power | +15% HP & damage per wave (compounding - wave 10 is ×4, wave 20 is ×16) |
| Bands | Every 5 waves the difficulty ceiling rises +10% |
| Mob count | +1 extra mob per spawn entry every 5 waves |
| Rewards | Scale with deepest wave reached (quadratic curve, capped at 35M Denarius) |
| Lockout | None - re-enter freely (the wave you reached IS the cost) |
| Timer | None - the run only ends when the party wipes |
How to start: /dungeon start <id> rift or /lfg <id> rift. Any dungeon can run in Rift mode - the wave definitions cycle and scale on the fly. Type /dungeon endless for the info card in-game.
Cosmetic Drops
Every dungeon clear has a chance to drop a weapon skin cosmetic - a themed rename + lore line applied to your held weapon. Prestige, not power: zero stat changes.
| Tier | Acts | Base Chance | Nightmare Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| ⚔ Bronze-Forged | I-II | 2% | 3% |
| ⚔ Silver-Tempered | III-V | 1% | 1.5% |
| ⚔ Gilded | VI-VIII | 0.5% | 0.75% |
| ✦ Imperial Relic | IX-X | 0.5% | 0.75% |
Cosmetic drops broadcast server-wide when they land - the whole server sees who found a Gilded weapon. Endless (Rift) mode does not drop cosmetics.
Getting In
- Form a party that fits the dungeon's size band (all dungeons require at least 2).
- Type
/dungeonand pick a dungeon your party's ranks allow. - Clear waves, learn boss phases, and finish before the timer for full rewards.