Soldier Encounters
Before the dungeon's boss phase, you work through a sequence of soldier-phase encounters - curated fights against enemy squads tuned to the dungeon's theme and recommended level.
How Many Encounters
The exact count varies per dungeon, but dungeons typically run one or more soldier-phase encounters followed by a single boss phase. The sequence is set by the dungeon's designer - you can't skip or reorder.
You fight them back-to-back without returning to the dungeon detail page between them. It's one continuous run.
Difficulty Curve Within a Dungeon
Encounters within a dungeon are tuned to build toward the boss. The monsters you face are drawn from a curated lineup, not procedurally generated - meaning the designer can make each encounter shape the flow of the overall run:
- Early encounters often introduce the monster classes you'll see later.
- Middle encounters tend to press on specific kinds of damage or positioning.
- The final soldier encounter is usually the hardest - the one closest in difficulty to the boss phase that comes next.
The recommended level shown on the dungeon detail page reflects the strongest regular monster in the lineup.
HP Resets Between Encounters
Soldiers who survive one encounter don't carry their damage into the next. Between encounters within the same dungeon run:
- Soldier HP resets to the source habit's current percentage. A soldier at 20% HP at the end of encounter 1 is back to (habit HP)% for encounter 2.
- Avatar HP resets to full.
- Status effects clear. Whatever buffs or debuffs were active at the end of one encounter are gone at the start of the next.
- Charges reset. Each encounter is its own charge economy.
Dead soldiers come back for the next encounter too. A soldier knocked out in encounter 1 fights in encounter 2.
No Mid-Dungeon Checkpoints
The run is a single unit. If your whole party wipes in encounter 3 of a 4-encounter dungeon, the retry starts you at encounter 1 - not encounter 3. A forfeit has the same effect.
Why no checkpoints
A checkpoint system would let you grind down a hard boss by repeatedly losing the run and reloading with fresh charges and buffs. The "whole run as one test" structure preserves the weight of each dungeon attempt, and it's a big part of what makes clearing the dungeon feel earned.
The Monsters You'll Face
Enemy lineups are populated from a curated monster pool - the same pool covered on Monster Classes. Dungeons never use your own demon roster as enemies; enemies are the designed content.
The monsters scale to the dungeon's authored levels. Regular monsters' levels are set by the template; the boss is scaled dynamically to your avatar.