How the caves are built
No two runs share a map. A look at how every mission grows its own cave system, five depths deep, and fills it with things to find and things that find you.
Here is how a run's caves come together, from the first seed to the cave boss arena.
One seed, the same caves for everyone
Every mission starts from a single seed. Each machine in the squad builds the identical caves from it while the loading screen plays: all five depths in about twenty seconds.
Five depths under one crater
- The depths stack straight down under a landing crater, the only place you will see the sky. Your drop pod waits at the bottom of it.
- Organic tunnels are carved between depths, with shortcuts back up and a point of no return before Depth 4 that seals behind you.
- A depth only opens once its primary objective is done, and Depth 5 always holds the cave boss arena, turned to face the way you came in.
Filling the dark
Once the shape is built, the game places everything else: objectives, patrols that grow denser with every depth, thrall nests and camps, loot, resource crystals, and side rooms where a lone survivor might be waiting.
Picking your descent
Missions come off the board on the station's mission deck, each one generated: where the objective lies, how many thralls wait in every depth, and how long the orbital window stays open.
- Expeditions come in easy, medium and hard, each sending the primary objective deeper.
- Deeper depths are harder and pay more: thralls rise from normal to two and a half times as many, and rewards climb from +25% at Depth 2 to double at Depth 5.
- Every card shows its orbital window, so the squad knows how long the pod will wait.
- Distress signals from fallen operatives arrive as rescue missions, and more mission types are on the way.
