FROM REFUGE TO EXTRACTION

How to Play

Prepare a persistent character in Cinder Refuge, descend through the current generated dungeon and reach the final extraction alive.

Before the Raid

Sign in to enter Cinder Refuge. The loadout panel shows equipped armor, weapon, belt, derived health, resource, movement speed and damage reduction. Traders offer a dated selection drawn from the larger item catalog, and equipment can be bought, sold or traded with another player. Belts determine how many health and resource potions can be prepared.

A solo player chooses Safe or Risk at the portal and enters. Safe keeps found loot if you fall. Risk rolls better loot, keeps the same number of drops, and multiplies an eligible score by 1.5, but a fall drops loot still in the bag. Equipped gear and the Refuge stash stay put either way. The dungeon itself does not change with the stake.

For a party, create or join an invite-code group in the Refuge. There is no separate ready button. Each loadout stays editable until that player enters a portal. The first entrant picks Daily or Weekly, and later members match it. The party remains joinable until every member has entered and connected. After that the raid starts and the return portal is gone. A disconnected member has a few minutes to reconnect before the raid treats that character as down.

Movement and Combat

Basic attacks change with the equipped weapon. Bows fire ranged arrows; staves use a close strike for their basic attack and a ranged spell for their heavy attack. Active skills spend resource and have their own cooldowns, so a strong build still needs to manage its ability rotation and potion supply.

Exploration

Only the entrance room on the first floor is guaranteed safe. Moving into a new room reveals it on the overlay map and can activate an encounter. Doorways and stairs define the traversable route; not every neighboring room is connected. Stairs down advance the raid, while stairs up allow a return to an earlier floor without resetting enemies already defeated.

Room layouts include main routes and deliberate side branches. Side rooms can hold enemies, destructible scenery, chests or useful drops, but clearing every branch may cost time and resources. The final objective is locked until its guardians are defeated.

Loot and Character Growth

Defeated enemies and chests can provide gold, potions and equipment. Ground drops use item-shaped models and display their rarity when inspected. Equipment covers weapon, helmet, chest, gloves, legs, boots, belt and accessory slots. Item modifiers can improve attributes, combat performance, skill damage or utility, while requirements prevent every character from immediately using every drop.

Leveling grants character and skill points. Both can be spent during a raid. Character points improve direct statistics; skill points unlock new abilities or increase the rank of an ability already learned. The visual skill tree shows prerequisites before a point is committed.

Reading the floor

The opening room names the place: a chapel narthex, a crypt antechamber, or a gaol entrance. The objective line tells you whether you are still looking for stairs or a sanctum. The minimap marks rooms you have entered. Tab switches that map between the corner and a larger overlay. A locked stair label means the floor's guardians are still up.

Tight rooms change how you fight. A crypt gallery is a two-door hall. A side vault is a dead end: one door in, coffins and bone piles at the far end, and the fight pressed against the walls rather than in the doorway. A chapel nave is longer and more open. A gaol cell block folds around bars and gates. None of those shapes is a new enemy faction. The faction is chosen separately and described in the dungeon guide.

Potions, gold and the bag

Health and resource potions share one belt capacity. The HUD shows them as H and R against that shared total. Drinking one spends it. Buying more in the Refuge does not raise the cap. The belt does. Gold in the bag is what you spend at the trader. Items on the ground are picked up by walking to them or using their label. Rarity is on the item, not a separate loot screen.

What counts as the run

The public Daily changes at midnight UTC. The Weekly stays up for a longer challenge and descends through several stages. Both compare eligible extractions, not practice seeds. A practice or verify link is for testing a layout. It is not a board submission. The homepage boards list Individuals and Guilds for the active Daily and Weekly.

Spending points during a raid is allowed. Raising maximum health or resource does not fill the bar. That is preparation, not a heal. Mend and potions are the heals. There is no requirement to learn Mend before a floor will let you continue.

Death, Revival and Extraction

A solo run ends when the character dies. A party run continues while at least one member remains alive. The high-level Mage Revive skill can restore a fallen ally to barely alive, but it requires deep investment, substantial Focus and resource, and a long cooldown. A revival means the character has not died for final settlement purposes.

Successful extraction secures the raid's progression and carried rewards. In a party, a majority extraction decision resolves the completed run so one player cannot indefinitely block the group. Failure leaves the pre-raid character able to attempt another dungeon, but the raid's committed equipment and unsecured rewards remain at risk.