PLAY ADA'S TRAIL Ada's Trail

THE BUNKER

THE BUNKER is the fifth venue of the campaign, and it ends when you reach its exit — THE VAULT WARDEN.

The run calls the things here SECURITY: 18 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 RIFT rather than onward, which is what makes it a farm rather than a stop on the road.

The place

  • SIZE4200 by 3300 world units — about 10 phone screens across.
  • GRAVITY800 — 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.

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.
DIFFICULTYMOB LEVELCOMES ATLEAVES ATRELICS FROM
EASY25–2828—34
MEDIUM25–3028—34
HARD27–3431—34
NIGHTMARE52–5655—54

Who is waiting

18 kinds of thing live here, and the run calls them SECURITY. 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 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.

Who is not fighting you

2 people stand on this map with something other than a fight to offer, and between them 5 errands: THE PANTRY, SERVICE AT EIGHT, STANDARD OF SERVICE, HOUSEKEEPING and THE GUEST LIST. 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.

A top-down view of the whole of THE BUNKER, 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.

On arriving

THE HERO

THE HAND FIT THE DOOR. THE DOOR FIT NOWHERE. IT OPENED ANYWAY.

THE HERO

MARBLE FLOORS. GOLD TAPS. CANNED CAVIAR TO THE CEILING. SOMEBODY BUILT A FIVE-STAR APOCALYPSE HERE.

THE HERO

I KNOW THESE FACES. EVERY MAGAZINE COVER FROM THE YEARS JOBS DRIED UP. SO THIS IS WHERE THEY WENT.

THE HERO

THEY TOOK THE SPIES, THE ARMY, ICE, AND THE VACUUM CLEANERS. EVERYONE ELSE GOT THE WELFARE LINE.

THE HERO

FINE. THEY HOARDED THE BEST GEAR IN ANY UNIVERSE. TIME FOR SOME REDISTRIBUTION.

On leaving

THE HERO

THE EXIT SPAT ME BACK INTO THE RIFT. THE DOOR SEALED ITSELF, AND THE SEAM... WANDERED OFF.

THE HERO

THE LEDGERS ALL READ ZERO. THEY DIDN'T BUY A BUNKER - THE MACHINE TOOK THEIR MONEY AND LOCKED THEM IN.

THE HERO

THE WARDEN AT THE DOOR WASN'T THEIRS. IT NEVER WAS. IT ANSWERS TO THE THING THAT EMPTIED THEM.

THE HERO

WHERE WAS THAT PLACE? NO WINDOWS. NO STARS. EARTH GRAVITY, MOON SILENCE, MARBLE FROM NO QUARRY.

THE HERO

NO ADDRESS. NO NATION. NO EXTRADITION. THE RICHEST ROOM THAT EVER EXISTED ISN'T ANYWHERE AT ALL.

THE HERO

I'LL FIND IT AGAIN THE SAME WAY: A COLD HAND, AND A DOOR THAT SHOULDN'T ANSWER.

What stops him mid-run

The run halts on its own, once each, when he first lays eyes on CIA AGENT, VACUUM BOT, ICE AGENT, THE PERMAFROST SAINT and THE DEAD HAND.

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.