Dungeons

Personally, I find the dungeons to be the most fun part of playing pk, but not everyone does.  For each 5 levels you gain, a new type of dungeon will become available to you.  Dungeons cost 20 refined oil and 1 wood to enter.  (10 refined if you're a platinum member, but you probably aren't one yet.)

Each dungeon has special items that you can only get in that type of dungeon (or by buying someone else's at a trade post).  Most of them have a boss... or more than one... that is particularly challenging.  Sometimes defeating the bosses will get you the special item.

Assuming you are at the level required for that type of dungeon, you may either enter on your own, or go in while still attached to the invite of someone else.  There are advantages and disadvantages to each.  Each person who pays to go in gets a torch.  This isn't really important in itself, but the "torch bearer" or "torch holder" makes for an easy way to refer to that person.  If you are the torch holder, you pay the refined oil and you fight all the monsters yourself and get all the boss-dropped special items yourself.  If you are attached to someone else's torch you don't pay the refined oil and you don't get the boss drops, but there are two of you to fight each monster.  The torch holder is the only one who can choose to travel out of a room, and they'll drag the entire party with them.  If there is more than one torch holder in a room, there will be an additional quantity of monsters in that room (with a few exceptions in Sunken Cities).  So where you might have 5 monsters if you got into a certain room, there will be 10 if there are two of you.  15 if three.  Etc.  It's not precise - sometimes a new person will cause a different mix of monsters than the first person.  But if you expect each room to be twice as hard you'll be close enough.  Also remember that each player will cause monsters of their appropriate level to appear.  So if you're relatively weak, but a strong player enters the room, there will be monsters much stronger than you can handle!

You cannot leave a dungeon room until all monsters in that room have been killed.  This is true even if a new person shows up after you've killed all your monsters, causing a new batch of monsters to appear.  This can be frustrating sometimes in really difficult rooms, but on the other hand there are now two of you to fight them!

Once you kill the boss monster - or the final boss if there are several - you can no longer travel the dungeon.  Your only option is to leave.  So if you know there are more rooms you want to visit, try not to go into the boss room until you've done so.

You can only run a specific dungeon once a week.  So once you've entered a cavern, you can run *other* caverns immediately afterward, but not *that* cavern until a week has passed.  So don't drop anything important in there.

Many of the dungeons can be like mazes - it's hard to keep track of which rooms you've been in.  I suggest you either keep a paper and pencil to map as you go, or drop something of little value to use as a breadcrumb trail.  Berries, 0-level weapons, and crude oil are all good for this.  Also, just because you've mapped a cavern doesn't mean you don't need to map the next one.  Most of the dungeons of the same type have different floor plans.

Types of dungeons

Sewer
Level required: 1
This is the first type of dungeon you can enter.  But that doesn't mean it's easy!  It is, however, fairly straight forward.  The primary path of the dungeon is a straight line right, followed by a straight line up to the boss.  Any exits off this path go to additional (optional) side rooms that do not, themselves, have more openings.  You won't get lost in a sewer.  The spiders in a sewer don't net you (unlike spiders anywhere else in pk), which is nice.  The boss will set nets on the floor though, and these can make moving around more complicated.  When you get there, if you have a time when nothing is chasing you, you might want to walk around and spring those traps just to get them out of the way.  They won't hurt you, they just freeze you for 15 seconds.

Cavern
Level required: 5
This dungeon is easy to get lost in.  Keep track of where you've been in there.  There are actually two kinds of caverns, but they look identical.  One type has "no-eyes" monsters and the other doesn't.  No-eyes will sometimes drop violet hearts (v-hearts) and these are quite valuable.  Trade them for food until you're advanced enough to need any yourself.  Other than no-eyes and the boss, you won't find any monsters in here that you haven't run into outside.  But when you see troodonts standing in formation, that is a sign that you're approaching the boss room.  Be sure your weapons are in good repair, and you've visited all the room in that dungeon you plan to visit.

Roc's Nest
Level required: 10
This dungeon is circular, with the boss in the center.  Defeating the boss will put one roc egg directly into your inventory.

Grove
Level required: 15
This dungeon has 3 bosses, all identical.  You will only be able to visit then in order.  Doors will be locked until the necessary boss is killed.  Every dead end in here will have either a boss or an acorn.  Acorns are dropped directly into your inventory when you enter the room.  Monsters may drop Dark Essence.  This is good to sell if you don't have need of it.  Once you defeat the third boss, a special symbol will show up on the floor.  This is the warden, and you can pay him 16 acorns to gain access to warden skill.

Dojo
Level required: 20
This dungeon is run in a straight line.  Your weapons and armor will unequip when you enter.  Don't forget to reequip them when you exit.  Defeating the final room will put 1 chi directly into your inventory.

Lair
Level required: 25
This dungeon has a straight line to the boss, but many side rooms.  Some of these side rooms will lead you back to the central corridor - often in a different room than the one you started in.  The side corridors do not have monsters you won't meet outside, except no-eyes.  Defeating the final boss will put 1 dragon egg directly into your inventory.

Sunken City
Level required: 30
This is the most difficult of all the dungeons, but it is very profitable.  The layout is simple enough that you won't get lost, but the monsters can be too much for many players, even veterans.  When you enter, you go straight up to the empty room.  In the center of the room will be a circle with three dark orbs - one in front of each exit door.  As you complete the boss in each leg of the dungeon, the orb to that leg will light up.  When all orbs are lit, you go through the portal in the center to fight the final boss.  Each leg of the dungeon has two paths: a watery, broken, current-time path; and a light, whole, past-time path.  You change paths by going through the portal along that leg.  (The portal will be in the center of the room with the portal guardian.  You can't miss it.  That'll be the room you die a lot in.)  When you're in the past-time path, pull all the switches down.  Then when you're in the current-time path the doors will be open.  Each minor boss will give you 1 khaos orb, and the final boss gives you 3 khaos orbs.

No, I haven't given you a lot of details about each dungeon.  Discovering them is half the fun.  Enjoy!