The Dungeon
The dungeon is where most of Diablo's action takes place. Deep and dark, it is home to many vile and nasty creatures. Diablo randomly generates the dungeon each time you play, so no two games will ever be alike.
Diablo's labyrinth is divided into four main sections: the dungeon (1 - 4), the catacombs (5 - 8), the caves (9 - 12), and Hell itself (12 - ?). Each section has its own wall and floor textures, as well as unique rules for random generation. For instance, the caves tend to be composed of large open areas with tight passages surrounding, whereas the catacombs tend to be hallways that go all the way around rooms.
Throughout the dungeon are various objects with which your character can interact. These objects will become highlighted if you move the mouse pointer over them. If you click, your character will walk over to the object and activate it. Below you will see a picture of each object, along with a brief description.
| Doors | Sarcophagi | Chests | Barrels |
| Traps | Decapitated Bodies | Libraries | Shrines |
| Tomes | Pools | The Blood Fountain | |
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Doors seal off areas or rooms of the dungeon. None of the wicked badnasties that roam the shallower dungeon levels can open them. This means that they can be very useful when retreating. However, if there are corpses in the way of the door, it cannot close. Just be aware that if you use the doorway as a bottleneck, you may not be able to close it off completely. Note that as the monsters get bigger, they usually get smarter, so some of the meaner creatures have the ability to open doors on their own; beware! |
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Since the dungeon lies below a graveyard, every so often you will run across a sarcophagus, which contains someone's remains. Your character can investigate the contents of these tombs by activating them. Sometimes, you will find treasure among the effects of the deceased, or you may find it empty. Other times, however, the deceased will find you, in the form of a skeleton (usually a captain.) Sarcophagi seem to only occur in the first four levels of the dungeon. Note also that the Skeleton King's lair is littered with unopenable sarcophagi. |
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Chests are littered throughout the dungeon, and are containers like sarcophagi. Unlike their giant cousins though, chests never contain living (unliving?) beings. Small chests can hold up to one item apiece, regular chests hold up to two, and large chests can hold three items. Quite often, a chest will be completely empty, making for a nice disappointment. |
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Underneath the church, there are barrels for storage, sealed tightly. These are activated as normal, but instead of just opening them, the character attacks them, in an attempt to shatter the staves and release what is within. Unfortunately, sometimes the contents are explosive, and do damage. However, much of this damage can be avoided by ducking behind your shield. Also, some sick individual seems to have imprisoned victims within certain barrels, victims which have now become revenge-hungry skeletons. |
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Traps are not really items you can interact with, in the same sense as the others, but they are closely related to chests and sarcophagi. Whenever you find one of these containers in the dungeon, there is a chance that it is trapped. If it is trapped, when you open it, an arrow will fly from an opening in the wall, aimed straight at you. Sometimes if you move out of the way fast enough, it will miss. Sometimes you move right IN to the way, though.. |
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I know, it sounds macabre, but it's true! Perhaps the strangest type of container in Diablo is the decapitated corpse. In some dungeons, you will see them lying on the floor. They act exactly as a normal small chest (I believe), except that they are never trapped, to my knowledge. |
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Libraries actually consist of two kinds of object; the bookcase, and several library books. Each library book yields a single scroll, imbuing a one-shot spell ability. Sometimes, though, it turns out to be a thick book instead, which you can study to learn or enhance your spell ability. Bookcases always reveal one spellbook. Library books come in another form, called Skeleton Tomes. These are basically the same, except they occur near a cabalistic ritual site, rather than a bookcase. |
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Finally, we come to one of the most mysterious edifices in the dungeon.. The shrine. When you activate a shrine, you call upon strange forces to grant you a blessing, or a curse. There are many different types of shrine, distinguished by name (which you will see when you highlight them.) Each has its own effect, as well as some text which is displayed. Here is a list of the shrines I have discovered. Please mail me if you have any additions or corrections to this list. |  |
| Shrine Effects | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Effect | Text |
| Abandoned | gain heal other spell beast head emerges |
Hands of men may be guided by fate. |
| Creepy | increases str by 2 (??) cross on shrine glimmers |
Strength is bolstered by heavenly faith. |
| Cryptic | ?? ring of lightning bursts from the shrine |
Arcane power brings destruction. |
| Divine | creates a full health potion and a full mana potion beast head emerges |
Drink and be refreshed. |
| Eerie | less life, more magic & mana (??) | Knowledge and wisdom at the cost of self. |
| Eldritch | all potions become rejuvenation | Ruby and azure become gold. |
| Enchanted | one learned spell is set to level 0 cross on shrine glimmers |
Magic is not always what it seems to be. |
| Fascinating | magic decreases | Intensity at the cost of wisdom. |
| Glimmering | identifies all objects in inventory beast head emerges |
Mysteries are revealed in the light of reason. |
| Gloomy | ?? beast head emerges |
Those who defend seldom attack. |
| Goat Shrine | looks like a pool with horns variable effects |
(varies) |
| Hidden (demo version) | remove one equipped object, increase durability of others I've had reports of 10 - 20 point increases |
Energy passes through your equipment... |
| Holy | teleports (or phases) you to a different location | Wherever you go, there you are. |
| Imposing (demo version) | same effect as a heal spell(?) | A surge of blood interrupts your thoughts. |
| Magical | gives you a mana shield beast head emerges from top |
While the spirit is vigilant the body thrives. |
| Mysterious | decreases all attributes by 1, except for one which is increased by 5 | Some are weakened as one grows strong. |
| Mystic (demo version) | carried gold is reduced to 1 you get a certain amount of experience, which may or may not cause you to gain a level |
Your skills increase, but at a price. |
| Ornate | decreases mana and experience, increases maximum mana cross on shrine glimmers |
Salvation comes at the cost of wisdom. |
| Religious | sets all items in inventory to full durability cross on shrine glimmers |
Time cannot diminish the power of steel. |
| Sacred | gain charged bolt at level 2 ?? |
Energy comes at the cost of wisdom. |
| Secluded | map of level is completely filled in beast head emerges |
The way is made clear when viewed from above |
| Spiritual (demo version) | each unoccupied inventory block is filled with a small amount of
gold beast head emerges |
Untold wealth! |
| Spooky | ?? | Where avarice fails, patience gains reward. |
| Stone | ?? beast head emerges |
The powers of mana refocused renews. |
| Supernatural (demo version) | ?? beast head emerges | You hear a strange cry from the distance. |
| Tainted | ?? beast head emerges |
Those who are last may yet be first. |
| Thaumaturgic | all empty boxes in the level are refilled and closed beast head |
What once was opened now is closed. |
| Tomes are huge books of lore, which are so heavy that you cannot even remove them from their pedestals. When activated, the tome opens, and you read its cryptic message. What's really cool is that you actually hear your character reading the passage aloud. Some tomes will impart quests, in which case you can retrieve the text of the book from the quest screen. The other tomes are mainly just parts of the storyline which can also be read from the manual to the game. |
| Tome Texts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Location | Text | Effects |
| Level 4 |
Beyond the Hall of Heros {sic} awaits the Catacombs. Beware: he who would steal from the dead. Traps and more await below to deal with would be thieves. |
Opens archways around down staircase. |
| Pools are strange enchanted wells that are in the dungeons for unknown purposes. They function similarly to shrines, being activated only once, and giving you a certain blessing or curse. Pools are more common than the blood fountain, but less common than shrines. |
| Pool Name | Effect |
|---|---|
| Murky Pool | Gives infravision as per the infravision spell. |
| Fountain of Tears | ?? |
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The Blood Fountain is a rare dungeon feature which stands apart from the shrines and the pools. It is a gory piece of stonework, a crimson pool of blood which is constantly refilled from the mouth of a winged gargoyle. Besides being very rare, this artifact is unique in that it can be used multiple times. With each use, it fills up your hit points. As far as I know, the Blood Fountain can be used as many times as you want. |