New to the Hollow? Grim's in-game introduction teaches everything below by doing — this page is the reference for afterward.
THE LOOP
- Gear up in Blackthorn Hollow — vault, vendors, crucible, bounty board.
- Pick a portal and enter the deep.
- Fight, loot, and find the exit portal before the dungeon collapses.
- Extract and everything you found is yours — bank it, sell it, socket it.
- Or die — everything you carried (bag, equipped gear, currency) drops into a corpse container where you fell. Teammates can recover it for you. Rivals will not.
Only the IronVault is safe. Decide what you can afford to lose before you step through.
PORTALS
| Portal | Cost | Size | Time | Who |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unstable | Free | Small | 10 min | PvE, up to 3 |
| Stable | 20 Aether | Medium | 15 min | PvE or PvPvE |
| Empowered | 1 Aether Core | Large | 20 min | PvPvE only, up to 6 |
Empowered dungeons hold a dormant summoning circle — feed it Aether Cores to call a dragon. One core calls the dungeon's dragon; three call the Primordial Drakon, whose hoard guarantees a Legendary.
CLASSES
- Warrior — sword and heavy armor. Charge crashes through packs; Second Wind pulls you back from the brink.
- Ranger — bow and speed. Echo Step blinks you out of danger and leaves a decoy; Shadow Mend patches you up quietly.
- Arcanist — staff bolts and wards. Void Shift drops you into the ground and out somewhere safer; Arcane Ward blunts what's coming.
All three run solo just fine. Abilities beyond your starters come from Ability Tomes found in the deep — equip them, use them, and know they're lost with your body.
CONTROLS (IN THE DEEP)
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| D-pad | Move (8-way) |
| A tap | Light attack |
| A hold | Heavy attack (charge, release) |
| B hold | Sprint |
| B double-tap | Class movement ability |
| Y | Class ability |
| X | Equipped Tome |
| R1 | Quick-use (potions / food) |
| L1 | Cycle targets |
| L2 | Chat wheel |
| Select | Inventory |
| Start | System menu |
CURRENCY
- Crux Fragments drop everywhere; 10 smelt into an Ingot at the crucible. Ingots buy everything in town.
- Aether is rarer — it powers Stable portals and the Aether Forge.
- Aether Cores are crafted (Aether + Ingots + Void Stones) and open Empowered runs — or feed summoning circles.
The town crucible takes half as tax. Dungeon crucibles take nothing — if you extract.
BETA NOTES
- One server for now: US East (Virginia).
- Balance is being tuned from live telemetry — your runs are the data.
- Report anything broken in the release thread. Seriously. It gets fixed fast.