Rune lock

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A rune lock is a barrier that prevents you from entering a particular branch before you have a sufficient number of the runes of Zot. Three rune locks currently exist in Crawl:

• The entrance to the Vaults, which requires 1 rune to unlock;
• The entrance to Ziggurats, which require 2 runes to unlock; and
• The entrance to the realm of Zot, which requires 3 runes to unlock—this serves as the main barrier preventing the player from simply descending as far as possible and reaching the Orb.

Rune Availability

• In a standard game, before entering the Vaults, only two runes are unavailable: the silver rune and the golden rune, however it is ill-advised to get a rune from anywhere other than the two Lair branches of the Snake Pit, Spider's Nest, Swamp and Shoals. Followers of Jiyva may instead be able to acquire the rune from the Slime Pits.
• All runes are available before entering a Ziggurat, a portal to which is found in the Depths, and the realm of Zot. It is generally advisable to obtain the second rune from the other Lair branch from the list above, and the third rune from one of the Vaults (which itself requires a rune), the Slime Pits or the Abyss.
• It is generally not a good idea to enter a Ziggurat after only two runes; all sorts of monsters including Fiends and pandemonium lords can be found in there, that most two-rune characters will not be prepared for.

History

• A rune lock requiring 3 runes has always existed for the realm of Zot.
• In 0.19, the number of runes required to enter a Ziggurat was reduced from 3 to 2.
• In 0.14, the Vaults rune lock was added.

Although the concept of a rune lock to the Vaults had been debated since very early versions of Crawl, it was only implemented after the 0.13 tournament, in which acquiring a rune before D:14 was 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 and the Vaults, leaving them very overpowered for the challenges the branch endings provided.