Descent
Descent is an hour-long race league introduced in Season Three.
The main theme of the league replicates classic dungeon crawl setting: player's character starts at the top of a dungeon and gradually progresses further down, fighting progressively tougher foes on his or her way to the bottom level where the final boss awaits. RPG players familiar with "Iron Man" challenge concept should find no trouble accommodating to the new rule set.
Differences
Descent is a significant departure from the other race leagues. Here is a rundown of the main differences.
Interaction with other leagues and players
- No partying is possible. A Descent race is purely a solo experience.
- Dead characters are permanently transferred into a Void league where they reside until the end of the league. Once Descent ends, its and Void characters become permanently unplayable. Items are not carried across to Standard or any other league.
Area differences
- Descent areas are unique among leagues, although they're based on existing tilesets. They have their own names and themes, and are considerably larger.
- Some ares contain exclusive enemies that don't appear in the rest of the game, like Skeletal Beasts.
- There is no town area.
- Once you enter an area, you can't go back. If you log out during the race, your character will respawn at the beginning of the current area.
- There are no waypoints or any other quick means to travel between areas or skip them aside from running through.
- All areas contain unique bosses similar to their map counterparts, but unlike most maps, bosses may be located near the beginning.
- Areas don't loop.
Gear and drops
- Item drops are improved compared to other leagues. The exact differences are unknown.
- There is no stash and no vendors to trade items with. Everything that may be of use must be used or carried in inventory; everything else is just a burden.
- Some gear is provided via chests located at the end of each area, as well as at the start of the first area. These chests contain some of the useful items such as flasks, skills, gear, and crafting currency.
- There are always two chests located at the end of an area, named Curious and Alluring. Player must choose which of them to open; the other chest will vanish along with its content.
- Content of each area-end chest is fixed or at least semi-fixed. Items like skill gems will always drop from their respective chests, while some others, like Wisdom Scrolls, may vary. Gear pieces and skill gems that drop depend on the character class.
Areas
Descent doesn't have the same "Normal—Cruel—Merciless" system where areas loop with increasing difficulty, but instead switches to Cruel and Merciless penalties starting with certain areas. For instance, Phrecia Outskirts is a Normal area, and the first Cruel area is Frozen Abyss.