A dungeon is a major gameplay location in the Dark Cloud series. Each has its own unique theme, is typically close by a village or town, and consists out of floors. Dungeons are inhabited by monsters, usually with a powerful boss living at the deepest regions. They contain treasure chests and are important to finding Atla in Dark Cloud and geostones in Dark Chronicle. To progress through a dungeon one must find the gate key, which is dropped by a specific monster on each floor. The locked door key on the other hand, is only found inside of chests.
Dungeons[]
| Dark Cloud | |
|---|---|
| Dungeon | Location |
| Divine Beast Cave | Norune Village |
| Wise Owl Forest | Matataki Village |
| Shipwreck | Queens |
| Sun and Moon Temple | Muska Lacka |
| Moon Sea | Yellow Drops |
| Gallery of Time | Dark Heaven Castle |
| Demon Shaft (U.S. and PAL versions only.) |
? |
| Dark Chronicle | |
|---|---|
| Dungeon | Location |
| Underground Water Channel | Palm Brinks |
| Rainbow Butterfly Wood | Sindain |
| Starlight Canyon | Balance Valley |
| Ocean's Roar Cave | Veniccio |
| Mount Gundor | Heim Rada |
| Moon Flower Palace | — |
| Zelmite Mine | Palm Brinks |
Floors[]
Dungeons consist out of floors, with each floor having a fixed number of enemies available, with other features such as chests, Atla, Geostones, Medals being either random or unique to each floor. Floor sometimes have a locked door or some sort of object blocking a passage to the rest of it. These required the locked floor key to open, which is different from the gate key which must be used to access the exit. Sometimes dungeons have a non-standard floor on which a duel or a boss is fight. Other times the player character will find a relatively safe floor, which is typically used for plot progression.
Monsters[]
Dungeons always contain monsters, ranging from simple beasts like Bats and Sewer Rats, to powerful creatures like the Dragon and Golem. Slaying these enemies is the only way to progress through a dungeon floor, as they drop the gate key item required to continue into the next floor. Monsters also drop Gilda and ABS, the latter of which functions as experience for weapons' Synthesis. It is also possible to steal from them or find items as loot. Monsters always have specific weakness to certain damage types, elements and weapons, thus using the right type against the more powerful variants is key to a successful dungeon voyage.
Treasure chests[]
Dungeons always contain treasure chests, containers with various common and rare items inside of them. These are sometimes booby-trapped or locked, forcing the player character to guess the trap to unlock it in case of the former, or open it with a Treasure Chest Key in case of the latter. Forceful opening can still result in the trap going off, as will a faulty guess. Rarely chests will contain a Happy Clown, which will offer you one of two items without knowing what they are. Chests might also be a dangerous Mimic or King Mimic in disguise.
Map and Magic Crystal[]
The Map and Magic Crystal are items only found once on every single floor, and always in a treasure chest. The former reveals the entire floor map, while the latter reveals the location of all monsters, chests and other notable features on the same map. The Magic Crystal does thus not reveal the actual map itself, but the paths available can be generally extrapolated from the locations of the various dots. Pau's ability functions the same as always having the Map item, revealing the entire floor map if he accompanies Maximilian and Monica.
The entrance to a floor is always a green square, and the exit a yellow square. Monsters are always colored red and chests orange, the Atla will be colored green and geostones purple. If available the Angel/Devil Coin will be a yellow dot, Healing Springs / Fountains are marked with a blue circle in the first game and a pink question mark in the second. Back floors are marked with a red question mark.
Atla and Geostones[]
Atla are orange/yellow spheres created by the Fairy King in the first game, containing objects taken from villages to preserve them from destruction at the hand of the Dark Genie. Only Toan can open Atla, and they are mandatory for progressing the story. The second game features Geostones, which are sometimes available on dungeon floors. They contain Georama parts and also reveal completion conditions for the Georama mode.
Back floor[]
| Dungeon | Back floor key |
|---|---|
| Divine Beast Cave | Tram Oil |
| Wise Owl Forest | Sun Dew |
| Shipwreck | Flapping Fish |
| Sun and Moon Temple | Secret Path Key |
| Moon Sea | Bravery Launch |
| Gallery of Time | Flapping Duster (Japanese version only) |
| Demon Shaft | Crystal Eyeball |
Back floors are unique and rare sub-levels that are sometimes connected to normal dungeon floors in Dark Cloud. A back floor requires a unique back floor key to access it, which can usually be bought from a store in the village attached to the dungeon. Back floors always contain specific enemy configurations, which are noticeably tougher than is standard at the time, and are afflicted with a permanent Stamina status condition.
Chests have a noticeably larger chance of containing rare and expensive items such as the Powerup Powder or various gemstones, making back floors well worth the effort alongside the additional ABS and Gilda rewards. Once accessed, a back floor can be exited and re-entered for free, which respawns all monsters, allowing for an easy time at gaining extra ABS.
Limited Zones and Seals[]
Dungeons in Dark Cloud often have floors with a detrimental floor effect, called a "Limited Zone". There are two variants, with the most common being floors restricted to only one character, forcing you to either ensure they are up to the general difficulty, or to rely on throwing items bridge the gap in terms of strength. These zones are always on the same on the same floor, unlike the other variation, of which there are only two types. One will increase the rate at which you become thirsty, and the other will decrease your weapons ABS after killing an enemy, instead of increasing it. The decrease does not go below zero, but can be problematic if you are using a nearly-leveled weapon, or playing a floor with a high ABS count.
Dungeons in Dark Chronicle feature a similar effect called "Seals", which are much rarer than the Limited Zones. There are three types of seals, those being Red, Blue, and White. The Red and Blue Seals restrict the wielder of the Atlamillia with the same color, making them unable to be used. This becomes noticeably difficult on floors where Monica has to fight large robot enemies, which heavily reduce weapon damage, and are normally intended to be defeated with the Ridepod, forcing her to rely on throwing items. White Seals affect the entire party, making it impossible to heal, forcing you to play more carefully to avoid defeat.
Unique are the "Seal-Breaking Scroll" items sold at Morton's Sundries for 1,500 Gilda after starting Chapter 3. Upon entering a floor these can be used to instantly remove the seal. Completing the floor has the same effect, however.
Destructible objects[]
Floors in Dark Chronicle often contain minor objects such as crates, rocks and vases. These can be picked up by either Max or Monica, by blocking (
) and then pressing (
) next to such an object. Pressing again will throw the object, causing it to break. If locked on the item can be thrown at an enemy, which will temporarily stun it and inflict some damage. They often contain recovery items, crafting materials, crystals or powders upon destruction. The Ridepod can also kick them open if it has a bipedal leg part equipped.
Medals[]
| Type | Condition |
|---|---|
| Time limit | Defeat all enemies of a dungeon floor in the allotted time. |
| Fish goal | Catch a fish that meets or exceeds the specified size. |
| Spheda | Win the Spheda minigame by repairing the time distortion. |
| Floor goal | Defeat all enemies under a specific condition. |
Medals are a type of currency in Dark Chronicle. They are acquired by completing certain conditions specific to each standard dungeon floor. Medals are stored in the Medal Holder inventory item and can be exchanged for unique clothing from Need's Medal Exchange. Standard floors will by default have three options available, and sometimes four, the first of which is always a Time Limit. Time limits conclude when the player has defeated all enemies and exited the floor, which is noticeably difficult in the earlier dungeons such as the Underground Water Channel and is considerably hampered by the existence of Mimics, forcing the player character to open chests until they have been found.
Secondly are Spheda and Fishing, with the former appearing on almost all floors, and the latter only on those were a fish can be caught. Upon defeat of all monsters the player character must complete a game of Spheda, or catch a fish of a specific size to earn the medal. Lastly is the floor goal, which involves slaying all enemies and exiting the floor under a specific condition. This typically involves killing all enemies with only a single weapon type or finishing without using any healing. Weapon types can mean either Max's, or Monica's, left- or right-hand weapon, the Ridepod, Monster transformation or throwing items.
Collecting every single medal in each chapter will lead to the "Medalhead" gold trophy. Note that the Moon Flower Palace becomes unreachable after completion, making this trophy missable.
Mystery Circle[]
A mystery circle in the Divine Beast Cave
A Mystery Circle is a randomly occurring spinning glyph, occasionally found on dungeon floors in in Dark Cloud. Stepping into a Circle will activate a random positive or negative effect, except when a character with his default weapon equipped activates it, which always results in the Stamina status condition.
Other effects include increasing or decreasing your Gilda, repairing or damaging your equipped weapon (damage dealt this way will not break it), increasing or decreasing a weapon's maximum WHP, filling your weapons ABS or changing your weapon's stats, and temporarily granting the player character or all monsters the Stamina status. There is also an unused effect that will turn the last item received from a treasure chest into something else, though this does not appear to actually do anything.[1]
Angel and Devil Coin[]
The Angel and Devil Coin is similar to the Mystery Circle, and is sometimes encountered on a dungeon floor in Dark Chronicle. They appear as a glowing golden circle with a golden question mark floating over it. Touching it will freeze time and start spinning the Coin, which is stopped by pressing . They are effectively coin flips with the result being either a random positive or negative outcome. Positive outcomes differ between a small ABS bonus, your weapon's WHP being fully restored, your health restored and all negative abnormal statuses removed.
Negative outcomes are either your current level of health being halved, or your current level of WHP being halved in either your left or right-hand weapon. There are three unused outcomes, one will leave a treasure chest containing a single Repair Powder, the other two will either Poison your player character or revive all monsters on the floor, although the latter does not actually function.[2]
Healing Fountain / Spring[]
Sometimes a floor will contain a Healing Fountain or Spring, marked by a blue circle or pink "?" on the map, for each game respectively. They restore all hit points and the thirst meter of those who enter, and remove all negative status conditions. They recharge after a period of time.