Portal
This page is about the dungeon feature. For the obsolete card or spell, see Portal card or Portal (spell) respectively.
A portal is a (generally) temporary gateway to a special level. Each such level has multiple possibilities for its exact layout and inhabitants, but always follows a specific theme. You will almost certainly encounter some of these in every game, but it is extremely rare to ever find all of them in a single run-through. In the console version of Crawl, portals are represented by the ∩ glyph.
Portals are either silent or announced. Silent portals will remain until you enter them, even if you leave the level. Announced portals are timed, and will eventually close if you do not get to them fast enough. They continue to count down even if you are on a different level.
When a portal times out somewhere out of sight, you may get a message such as: "The floor vibrates strangely!" Treasure troves and Ziggurats won't ever time out, but after they are used once, they may never be entered again.
The following comprises all portal levels, with their in-game description and a brief explanation:
Contents
Early Game
- Ossuary
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A sand-covered staircase - Zombies and mummies and traps, oh my!
- The Sewers
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A glowing drain - Wade through rat- and snake-infested waters. Mind the kobolds.
Mid Game
- Bailey
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A flagged portal - A shooting match and/or slugfest with orcs, gnolls, and/or goblins (sometimes even elves).
- Gauntlet
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A gauntlet entrance - Choose an arena, if you dare. You'll win a prize, but you'll also have to face a minotaur!
- Ice Cave
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A frozen archway - Assorted frigid monsters and ice statues abound. Bring cold resistance.
- Volcano
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A dark tunnel - Everything is on fire. Including you, if you forget your fire resistance.
Late Game
- Desolation of Salt
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A ruined gateway - An open expanse of salt containing some heavily guarded treasure.
- Wizard Laboratory
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A magic portal - The private laboratory of any one of several strange characters.
Anywhere
- Bazaar
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A gateway to a bazaar - Shopping trip! Hope you have some gold saved up. Sometimes does not have a portal timer.
- Treasure trove
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A portal to a secret trove of treasure - A collection of treasure customized for your character... at a specific, peculiar price. No portal timer.
- Ziggurat
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A gateway to a ziggurat - The ultimate challenge: a gauntlet of 27 floors of increasing madness. If you survive to the end, you can do it again, but harder. No portal timer.
History
- Prior to 0.28, you could enter the portal of a Malign Gateway, assuming the tentacle wasn't already there. Entering it would blink you and deal minor damage.
- Labyrinths were replaced by the Gauntlet in 0.23.
- Desolation of Salt was added in 0.19.
- Prior to 0.14, a shorter timer would be started upon first seeing the timed portal.
- Prior to 0.13, many timed portals were not announced.
- The Spider's Nest was upgraded from a portal level to a full-fledged dungeon branch in 0.11.
