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Dungeons and the Barrow Guardian.
A crypt is a rare tomb under the flat land, with a stair leading down, rooms full of traps, a riddle, a vault of chests and a guardian at the end. Here is how each part works.
Finding a crypt
A crypt's door is a pair of stone pillars and a lintel with two lamps, at the top of a stair. You will find it on flat, dry ground. The first player to come within about 40 blocks of the door finds it, and its place is then marked on the shared map for everyone on the world. You find the door, then walk down the stair.
The layout
The stair runs down 26 steps to the floor of the crypt, 13 blocks under the ground's standing level. Then come the rooms:
- The hall: an empty welcome room with four lamps.
- The trap room: a floor of Worn Plates that throw darts at you. A safe path crosses it. It is not always the same, so look at the floor first.
- The puzzle room: three or four glyph blocks set in the wall, and a tablet. Press the glyphs in the order the tablet gives, and the gate opens.
- The vault: three chests of the crypt's own wood.
- The boss hall: the Barrow Guardian, and a fourth chest that is only opened after the Guardian falls.
The traps
Stand on a Worn Plate and it throws a dart at you. Each dart does 7 points of harm, and a player is hit again no sooner than about 1.6 seconds later. Everyone nearby sees it happen.
The glyph puzzle
Read the tablet. It gives a riddle for each step: "First", "Then" and "Last", each with a glyph's riddle. Press the glyphs (use) in that order. A right press makes the glyph warm, and when the last one is right the gate grinds up into the stone. A wrong press shocks you for 4 points of harm and the count starts again.
| Glyph | Gem | Riddle |
|---|---|---|
| Sun | Topaz | the day-lamp |
| Moon | Opal | the night-lamp |
| Star | Sapphire | the far light |
| Flame | Ruby | what burns |
| Leaf | Emerald | what grows |
| Tide | Turquoise | what returns |
The chests
A chest of the crypt gives better goods than an ordinary crate: the finds of a crate, gems, gold, a hot meal and sometimes a recipe scroll or a treasure map. The Guardian's own chest is richer still. Each chest is a find the first time it is opened.
The Barrow Guardian
The Guardian wakes when someone walks into its hall. It has 500 health and is named Grimhold on the boss bar. It fights with a telegraphed slam:
- A warning shows about a second before the slam. Move out of the marked ring.
- The slam has a radius of about 5.5 blocks. It does 16 points of harm, or 24 once the Guardian is enraged, and it throws you back.
- A slam comes about every 7 seconds, or every 4 seconds once the Guardian is enraged.
- When it is down to about 55 per cent health, it is enraged, and three Sealed Ones crawl out of the stone to help it.
If everyone leaves the crypt, the Guardian goes back to sleep and comes back whole the next time someone walks into its hall. Once it has fallen, it never rises again.
The reward
Everyone who stood in the fight within about 45 blocks of the Guardian when it fell is given the Guardian's Crest. The crypt is then marked as cleared on the map, and the Guardian's chest stands open at the back of the hall.
Tips
- Share the work. One player can read the tablet while another watches the Guardian's slam warning.
- Eat before you go in, and carry healing food.
- Keep your distance from the Guardian until you see the slam warning, and then step out of the ring.
- Read the tablet in the puzzle room before you press a single glyph.
← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.