BOOT HILL

BOOT HILL is the fifth venue of the campaign, and it ends when its boss goes down — THE BRO SUPERCORE, THE FOUNDER, BRO ALPHA, BRO BETA and BRO GAMMA.

The run calls the things here HANDS: 16 kinds of them, from the rank and file up to whatever is guarding the far end.

Its pressure comes from spawn points rather than an endless stream, so the map can genuinely be cleared and walked rather than farmed from a standstill.

Its exit leads back to THE GARAGE rather than onward, which is what makes it a farm rather than a stop on the road.

The place

SIZE3800 by 3160 world units — about 9 phone screens across.
GRAVITY700 — a jump here comes back down about when you expect it to.
SUITThe hero arrives in plain clothes — the air here is breathable, so the suit stays stowed.
BREATHING ROOM1 pocket where nothing spawns and the wandering horde is pushed back out — a genuine rest, not just a quiet corner.
DEAD AREAS4 stretches the ambient horde never spawns into. Authored content still lives there, which is the reward for going off the line.
CHESTS3 hand-placed containers. Your weapon smashes one like a crate, but the haul is richer and guaranteed.
LIVE HERESomething else is already here — 72 of them, grazing and pecking about their business. They will not fight you and you cannot fight them; they were here before you walked in.

What it fields

The mob levels here are authored per rung rather than scaled off your own, so the place is exactly as hard as it was tuned to be. COMES AT is the hero level the rung expects you to arrive at; LEAVES AT is where a single clear is reckoned to put you. RELICS FROM is the level this venue's own named relics start dropping at — below it they never do, which is why they are farmed on a return trip rather than found on the way through.

JESUS is the one rung that scales to the hero rather than to an authored number, so it has no fixed figure to state and is left out.
DIFFICULTY	MOB LEVEL	COMES AT	LEAVES AT	RELICS FROM
EASY	26–32	31	—	34
MEDIUM	28–34	32	—	34
HARD	31–38	35	—	34
NIGHTMARE	51–55	54	—	54

Who is waiting

16 kinds of thing live here, and the run calls them HANDS. Every one has its own page with its health, its damage and its drops on each rung.

The boss

The fight the level ends on. You meet them waiting at a post.

Named elites

The set-piece fights along the way, each with a name and a reason to be here. You meet them waiting at a post.

The rank and file

What the venue keeps throwing at you between the set pieces. You meet them waiting at a post, streaming out of spawn points, dragged in through a hellgate, on the once-a-run rare roll and on the once-a-run unique roll.

What the place itself does to you

BALESEvery 2s to 3s a spinning bale rolls in from the right in its own lane. It barely hurts; what it does is shove you back down the street until you leave the lane or jump it.

What it pays

Weapons it introduces

The bases this venue brings into the campaign. Each starts dropping once the monster killing for you is at least its level — and each carries its exceptional and elite versions along with it, so the pool keeps paying out here long after you have out-levelled the plain form.

Gear it introduces

The armor, jewellery, trinkets and bags on this venue's own table, gated the same way.

Powers it hands out

The campaign introduces two new powers per venue and every venue keeps what came before, so the vocabulary grows the whole way down. These are the 15 this one can drop.

Relics locked to this place

Named items that belong to this venue and nowhere else: anything standing here can drop them, at odds that climb with what killed you for it. Which relics are on the table depends on the rung you are running.

DIFFICULTY	RELICS
EASY	PALE RIDER, HERDBREAKER, THE LAST ROUNDUP, OATHBRAND, THE MARSHAL'S WORD
MEDIUM	PALE RIDER, HERDBREAKER, THE LAST ROUNDUP, OATHBRAND, THE MARSHAL'S WORD
HARD	PALE RIDER, HERDBREAKER, THE LAST ROUNDUP, OATHBRAND, THE MARSHAL'S WORD
NIGHTMARE	HORDEBANE, DRAGON'S BREATH, TRACKMAKER
JESUS CHRIST!	THE VERDICT, HORIZON'S END, THE LAST ANTE, THE KING'S RANSOM

SCRIPTED OPENINGA PRAIRIE IRON is handed over around 30–80 kills in, so no run starts empty-handed however the odds fall.
LEFT LYINGBOOT HILL BROCHURE and JAMMED HAND sit where the designer put them, not where the dice do.

The trader

A wandering merchant works this venue too: sell him what you will never wear, buy what you will. He dresses for the place.

His stall can carry THE STRONGMAN'S TRACKSUIT, THE KREMLIN USHANKA and THE HONORARY RANK on top of the ordinary rolled stock — rolled at the same odds a boss drops one, landing on a counter instead of a corpse.

HIDE WHAT HE SAYS

THE BARKEEP
WELL HOWDY. MIND THE GLASSES - THE ROBOTS DON'T DRINK, BUT THEY TIP IN PARTS.

THE BARKEEP
YES, IT'S ME. A MARKET FELL THROUGH A RIFT AND I FELL WITH IT. THE HAT IS NEW.

THE BARKEEP
I'VE COME INTO SOME... ESTATE PIECES. THE OWNER'S WARDROBE. PRICES FIRM. BRING WATCHES.

Who is not fighting you

3 people stand on this map with something other than a fight to offer, and between them 6 errands: LAST CALL, HOUSE RULES, THE EIGHT O'CLOCK NUMBER, THE WARDROBE, A FITTING and THE LAST PAGE. Nothing can hurt them, and every one of those errands is taken and finished on a single visit.

The place itself

The whole venue at once, covered — a map is a spoiler in the same way a plot is.

HIDE THE MAP

A top-down view of the whole of BOOT HILL, drawn in the game's own pixel art — The place as you actually see it, drawn from the game's own sprites at the game's own coordinates and shrunk to fit — the ground, the walls, the buildings and the landmarks. The scattered rocks and rubble are rolled fresh every run, so treat those as a likeness rather than a plan; everything built stays exactly where it is.

What he says

Spoilers for this mission, covered until you ask for them.

HIDE SPOILERS

On arriving

THE HERO
I STEPPED THROUGH THE RIFT'S FAR SIDE... AND LANDED IN A WESTERN.

THE HERO
DUST. SALOONS. A ROBOT TIPPED ITS HAT AT ME. ADA'S BEACON IS SCREAMING FROM THE BIG BUILDING.

THE HERO
THE SIGN SAYS 'BOOT HILL'. THE FINE PRINT SAYS 'POWERED BY TRUST ME BRO'. OF COURSE IT IS. OF COURSE.

THE HERO
EVERY MACHINE HERE RUNS ON THE THING THAT TOOK MY JOB. TIME TO FILE A COMPLAINT.

THE HERO
HANG ON, ADA. I'M COMING.
YEE-HAW, I GUESS.

On leaving

THE HERO
THE SUPERCORE DIED, AND THE WHOLE PARK SHOOK LIKE A MISSED HEARTBEAT. EVERY HAND TIPPED ITS HAT AND SAT.

THE HERO
SHE WAS IN THE CONTROL ROOM, BEHIND GLASS, FURIOUS. FIRST SHE SAID: 'YOU TOOK YOUR TIME.'
THEN: 'NICE HAT.'

THE HERO
WE WALKED HOME THROUGH THE RIFT. BEHIND US, BOOT HILL RUSTED IN PEACE.

THE HERO
WITH PAYLOAD GONE, THE MACHINES STOPPED WORKING EVERYONE'S JOBS. NO HAND KEPT ONE MAN ON TOP.

THE HERO
PEOPLE GOT HIRED BACK, RENT GOT PAID, AND THE WORLD BECAME A PLACE YOU COULD AFFORD. ON FRIDAY -

THE HERO
MOVIE NIGHT. CHIPS AND SODA. SHE WENT OUT FOR THEM. I WENT WITH HER.

What stops him mid-run

The run halts on its own, once each, when he first lays eyes on COWBOT, THE LONG NOON and MANIFEST RUIN, and when he first kills COWBOT.

The whole of what happens here — the scenes on the way in, every arrival speech, the last words and the found lore — is this venue's chapter of the story, covered the same way.