Rune lock

Trunk-only: This article pertains to a feature of Crawl which is being tested. It will likely change before the next release, and may even be removed entirely.

The rune lock is a barrier found on the 16th floor of the Dungeon, preventing you from travelling into the Depths until you've acquired at least one rune of Zot. This feature is under active development, and will likely change before official release.

Rune Availability

By the time you reach the rune lock, you'll have a limited selection of runes to go after. Here is a list of all runes available by D:14 and where you can obtain them:

• Variable Lair Runes: Every game will have a random two of the following four runes:
  • Decaying - Found in the Swamp.
  • Gossamer - Found in the Spider's Nest.
  • Serpentine - Found in the Snake Pit.
  • Barnacled - Found in the Shoals.

• Slimy Rune: Found in the Slime Pits, which generate in the Lair in all games.

• Abyssal Rune: Found in the Abyss, which you can access through unwielding a distortion weapon, being banished by certain monsters, or suffering severe Translocations miscast effects.

• Hell Runes: These runes can be occasionally accessed via a portal to the Vestibule of Hell found in one Lair ending.
  • Obsidian - Found in Gehenna.
  • Icy - Found in Cocytus.
  • Bone - Found in Tartarus.
  • Iron - Found in the Iron City of Dis.

The remaining runes (silver, golden, demonic, fiery, magical, glowing, and dark) are located in the Vaults, the Tomb, and Pandemonium, and cannot be accessed at this point in the game.

Strategy

When hunting for your first rune, the variable Lair runes are usually the easiest to obtain. Followers of Jiyva can easily acquire the Slimy rune, and followers of Lugonu have a somewhat easier time acquiring the Abyssal rune. The Hell runes are extremely difficult to obtain at this point in the game regardless of character.

Bypassing the Rune Lock

The idea of a rune lock bypass is currently being debated, allowing you to skip the first batch of runes but preventing you from returning to the Dungeon until you've acquired a rune in the Depths. One possible form for this is a guaranteed shaft trap on D:16, though other possibilities are being considered.

History

Although the concept of a rune lock had been debated since very early versions of Crawl, it was only implemented after the 0.13 tournament, which made acquiring a rune before D:14 an optional challenge conduct. Prior to the rune lock, players had little reason to explore the Lair branches until after they'd explored most of the main Dungeon, leaving them very overpowered for the challenges the branch endings provided.