A first dungeon layout that can grow

A good first layout is not the biggest one. It is the one where an adventurer has to cross a controlled corridor, your minions can reach food and beds without walking through the kill zone, and the Boss can join the defense without leaving the hoard unguarded.

The diagram below is an original planning sketch, not a screenshot or an in-game map. It uses room names that appear in Malignus's official material, plus two clearly labeled planning concepts: a trap run and a service route.

Layout principles

• One entrance is a feature. A single approach concentrates the enemy path and makes one trap corridor meaningful.
• Separate enemy traffic from worker traffic. Minions should be able to reach food, beds and storage without crossing the kill zone.
• Put the fight in front of the value. The Great Hall and Sanctum should be behind the trap run, not beside the entrance.
• Keep the food chain short. Kitchen, food storage and dining tables belong together.
• Leave room to expand. The official day-34 dungeon is a grown version of a small core; plan corridors with space on both sides.

The plan

On a phone, scroll the diagram sideways to read the full plan.

This is an original planning illustration. It is not extracted from the game and does not represent room sizes, pathfinding, build costs or adjacency rules. Some labels, such as “trap run” and “service route,” are not official room names.

Zone-by-zone

Build order

1. Secure the entrance. Mark the first corridor from the Stair Vault toward the future Great Hall. Keep it narrow enough to control, wide enough to move furniture.
2. Cut the Great Hall. It is the social and defense core. Give it room for tables, a fighting pit and a boss. Do not fill it with workshops.
3. Build the food chain. Kitchen, food storage and a dining surface. Assign a cook. Add tables before you add more bedrooms.
4. Add quarters and lockboxes. Beds first, personal storage second. A minion with a bed and a lockbox has fewer reasons to complain.
5. Add storage filters and a workshop. Split food, materials and gear. Start crafting better equipment before the first invasion.
6. Build the trap run. One trigger, one damage mechanism, one control layer. Test it with a minion before an adventurer.
7. Cut the Sanctum. Throne, hoard and boss access. Keep a route from the Sanctum to the Great Hall.
8. Add the Cell Block and shrine. These are mid-game systems; do not let them delay food and beds.
9. Add a lair. Put it at the edge of the domain, near the habitat the creature needs (the Ember Pit sits beside lava).

Traffic and expansion

The biggest layout risk is not an invasion; it is a work route that crosses the kill zone. If your cook has to walk through the trap corridor to reach the pantry, every meal becomes a safety test. Keep a service route behind the Great Hall and connect the kitchen, storage and quarters to it.

The public material does not confirm whether your own minions trigger traps. The dashed service route in the diagram is therefore a precaution, not a confirmed necessity. Test it early: order a minion through the corridor and watch what happens.

For expansion, build outward from the core rather than tunneling a new wing far away. The official day-34 screenshot shows a large dungeon with the Great Hall, Stair Vault, kitchen and quarters still functioning as a connected core. That is the pattern to preserve.

What the official screenshots show

The press kit's UI screenshots confirm several real layouts and room relationships:

• The early dungeon is a dining hall and a few rooms cut out of the rock.
• The day-34 dungeon includes a Great Hall, Stair Vault, kitchen and minion quarters cut into the rock.
• The Great Hall contains a gambling table and a fighting pit, with the boss standing among the minions.
• The Sanctum contains the throne, treasure, phylactery and bound skeletons.
• The Cell Block has chained prisoners; the altar shrine has a ritual circle and an Altar to the Gravecaller.
• The Long Throat is the location of the pressure-plate-to-dart-thrower wiring example.

What the screenshots do not show is a single “correct” layout. They show working examples at different stages. Use them as evidence of what the rooms look like, not as a blueprint to copy tile for tile.

Layout mistakes to avoid

Sources