Secret Levels and Alternate Paths
Barony hides eleven secret levels alongside its 35 main floors, on Floors 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 18, 28, and 33. Reaching them takes a hidden entrance, a puzzle, a pickaxe, or levitation depending on the level. Seven of them pay out an artifact: the Sphinx's Casque, Khryselakatos, Oracle's Treads, the Djinni's Brace, Gungnir, Dragon's Mail, and the Wraith's Gown. The other four pay in shops, spellbooks, a non-artifact bow alongside gold and potions, and the route to the Baphomet boss fight. None of them are required to beat the game.
Eleven secret levels sit off the main path, spread from Floor 2 in the Mines down to Floor 33 in the Citadel. The main dungeon is 35 floors, and Hell adds Floors 21 through 24 as an alternate branch that replaces the ordinary route down. Two of the eleven are Underworld entries, one on Floor 5 and one on Floor 18, and only the Floor 18 entry leads to Hell.
This guide documents every known secret level, how to access it, what it rewards, and whether the detour is worth the time and resources.
Secret Level Overview
| Secret Level | Accessible From | Key Requirement | Major Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gnomish Mines | Floor 2 (Mines) | Two switches across a pit. Always generates | Sphinx's Casque |
| Minetown | Floor 3 (Mines) | Hidden entrance. Only a 50% chance to generate | Four shops, recruitable NPCs, locked treasure |
| Underworld | Floor 5 (Mines) | Portal in a chest room behind a skull-marked wall | Khryselakatos (artifact bow) |
| Jungle Temple | Floor 7 (Swamp) | Bottomless pit and a boulder-trap hallway | Infected branch bow, four Potions of Strength, a gold hoard, treasure chests |
| Haunted Castle | Floor 8 (Swamp) | Guarded like the Temple, pit and boulder traps | Oracle's Treads, four levitation potions, gold |
| Sokoban | Floor 11 (Sand Labyrinth) | Dig in, then a boulder puzzle | Djinni's Brace |
| Minotaur Maze | Floor 13 (Sand Labyrinth) | Dig into a lava-ringed vault | Gungnir (artifact spear) |
| Mystic Library | Floor 16 (Ruins) | Levitate into a gated fortress | High-tier spellbooks |
| The Underworld + Hell | Floor 18 (Ruins) | Gated lava fortress plus hidden ladder | Baphomet boss fight |
| Cockatrice Lair | Floor 28 (Crystal Caves) | Hidden entrance behind a puzzle | Dragon's Mail |
| Bram's Castle | Floor 33 (Citadel) | Portal in a pit-bordered puzzle room | Wraith's Gown |
Secret levels are optional. None of them are required to beat the game. They exist for players who want the best possible gear, rare achievements, and the Baphomet alternate boss encounter.
What is coming in Instruments of Destruction: Part 2?
Ten more secret levels, according to the dev diary Turning Wheel published on June 26, 2026. Part 2 is a free update with no announced release date. It adds two biomes in the realm of the Eternals: the Ancient Fortress, a long-abandoned battleground where Dryads, Myconids, and Gremlins fight over territory, and the Eternals' Keep, a guarded castle where Salamanders still keep their customs.
Each of those two zones brings two new secret levels of its own. The rest go into biomes you already know, with new secret areas planned for the Underworld, Hell, the Crystal Caves, and the Citadel. The diary puts the total at 10 all-new secret levels, each with its own puzzles, traps, treasure, and challenges, alongside 45 minutes of new music from composer Garrett Williamson.
The table above covers what is live today. None of the Part 2 levels are in the game yet.
Gnomish Mines (Floor 2)
Location: Floor 2 of the Mines, and only Floor 2. The entrance always generates there, so this is the one secret level you can count on every run.
How to access:
- On Floor 2, find the walkway crossing a large pit that dead-ends into two locked gates.
- Hit the two switches on either side of the pit to open the gates and reach the entrance.
Inside: The Gnomish Mines feature tighter corridors, gnome-type enemies, and mining-themed hazards. The floors are short but densely packed with loot.
Reward: The Sphinx's Casque, an unbreakable artifact helm with +3 AC and +8 Intelligence.
Worth it? Almost always, and the decision is about your character rather than the floor. Since the entrance only exists on Floor 2, you either take it on the way past or lose it for the run. Go in if you have most of your HP, a food item in reserve, and a weapon you trust. Skip it if Floor 1 and 2 went badly and you are already fighting with a starting weapon at low health, because the gnomes will finish what the rats started. The Casque is strong enough to carry a healthy character through the Swamp.
What is in Minetown on Floor 3?
Four shops, around half a dozen recruitable human NPCs, and a locked treasury, with no hostile spawns anywhere in the level. Minetown is the only safe town you will see before the Hamlet on Floor 25.
Location: Floor 3 of the Mines, with a 50% chance to generate. When it does, you hear the sound of bustling streets as the floor loads. Roughly half your runs will not have it at all, so do not plan a shopping trip around it.
How to access: Take the hidden entrance on Floor 3. A long entry room with one or two sinks opens into the main square, and the exit trapdoor sits opposite the entry point.
Inside: A fountain in the center of the square, four shopkeepers with different stock, and human NPCs you can recruit into your party. A lever in a side room opens the way to a chest and gold piles. Three more locked chests sit behind a boulder and a gate in the bottom-left corner, which need digging or pushing to reach. The bottom-right corner holds a strength potion, a campfire, and a lever that opens the left-side gate.
Reward: Shopping and party members at a point in the run where you usually have neither. Followers recruited here stay with you for the rest of the dungeon.
Worth it? Yes, whenever it generates. This is the earliest chance to turn Mines gold into gear, and the only cost is time on the Minotaur clock.
What does the Floor 5 Underworld hold?
Khryselakatos, the artifact bow, carried by a Shadow named Artemisia. This is the first of the game's two Underworld levels, and unlike the Floor 18 one it does not lead to Hell.
Location: Floor 5 of the Mines. The portal sits in a chest room behind a wall marked with a skull.
Inside: Small patches of land scattered across a pit that covers the whole map. Bottomless pits surround nearly every structure, so a bad step ends the run outright. You arrive in a medium room holding a chest and the escape portal. Levitation is the clean way across. Without it, use the Obelisks, which teleport you to another random island.
Enemies: Ghouls and Enslaved Ghouls, Imps, Skeletons, Humans, Shadows, and blue or orange Slimes. The skeletons here often carry shortbows and crossbows, and taking an arrow while crossing a gap is how most deaths in this level happen.
Reward: Khryselakatos. A triple silver vault key may also spawn.
Worth it? Yes for a ranged build, risky for anyone else. Coming in without levitation means bouncing between islands on Obelisks while archers shoot at you, on a floor where every miss is fatal.
Jungle Temple (Floor 7)
Location: Accessible from Floor 7 of the Swamp.
How to access:
- On Floor 7, look for the entrance guarded by a bottomless pit and a hallway of boulder traps.
- Time your run under the boulders to reach the temple. Levitation trivializes the pit.
Inside: Dense vegetation, poison traps, and jungle-themed enemies. Traps are more numerous than on standard floors.
Reward: The infected branch bow, four Potions of Strength, a hoard of gold, and several treasure chests. The bow and a silver key sit on pedestals at the end of whichever route you take through the temple, and the key opens the waterways holding the gold piles and the potion pedestal. The bow is an ordinary ranged weapon and not an artifact: it hits harder than a plain branch bow and lands short of a longbow, and it has a 25 percent chance on firing to plant a seed whose spores poison and slow whatever walks through them. Before v5.0 this level also held the Green Mystic Orb, which moved to standard-floor Treasure Rooms in the update.
Worth it? Situationally. A ranged build gets a genuine weapon upgrade in the infected branch bow, the four Potions of Strength suit a melee build that wants the carry weight and the damage, and the gold suits a Merchant or anyone planning Hamlet purchases. Lifting the bow and the silver key off their pedestals springs an invisible trap that frees the Troll caged in that room, and after a delay the rest of the temple's Trolls are loosed too, so clear your route home before you touch either pedestal. The Temple's traps can also close the secret areas for the rest of the visit if you play carelessly.
How do you get into the Haunted Castle on Floor 8?
Through a secret entrance guarded the same way the Jungle Temple's is, behind a bottomless pit and a hallway of boulder traps. Levitation removes the pit problem outright, and the boulder hallway is a timing exercise either way.
Location: Floor 8 of the Swamp. Taking the portal plays howling winds in the distance.
Inside: The castle sits in the center of a square track, with items scattered along the outer walls. The approach is deceptively quiet, and picking up the treasures inside the castle is what starts the fight. The outer track fills with gravestones, each holding at least one Enslaved Ghoul, and they rise as you come near them. Wandering ghouls trigger further sections as you retreat.
Reward: Oracle's Treads, artifact footwear, plus four levitation potions and gold scattered through the castle and the track.
Worth it? Yes if you can fight your way back out. The loot is front-loaded and the danger is all on the exit, so find your route to the portal before you touch anything. Boulder traps, timed switches, locked gates, and chests behind waterfalls all sit between you and the way home.
Sokoban (Floor 11)
Location: Accessible from Floor 11 of the Sand Labyrinth through a boulder puzzle entrance.
How to access:
- On Floor 11, the Sokoban portal sits sealed inside closed walls ringed by lava.
- Dig your way in with a pickaxe, the Dig spell, a staff of digging, or a Firestorm potion.
- The boulder puzzle waits inside: push 17 boulders into the pits to clear the path and claim the prize.
Inside: A multi-room boulder-pushing puzzle with enemies interspersed between rooms. Dangerous because the tight corridors limit dodging.
Reward: The Djinni's Brace, unbreakable artifact gauntlets with +3 AC and +1 Magic Resistance.
Worth it? Yes if you can solve boulder puzzles cleanly. Not worth it if you are low on health or food, because the tight corridors make escape difficult if things go wrong.
Sokoban punishes sloppy pushes and never softlocks you. A boulder stuck in a corner can be destroyed to recover, but breaking one spawns a Labyrinth enemy and cuts the gold reward, and breaking two or more forfeits the artifact entirely. Plan your moves before pushing.
Minotaur Maze (Floor 13)
Location: Accessible from Floor 13 of the Sand Labyrinth through a hidden entrance.
How to access:
- On Floor 13, the Maze portal is sealed inside closed walls surrounded by lava, just like Sokoban's.
- Dig in with a pickaxe, the Dig spell, or a staff of digging. The entrance leads to a maze built around a guaranteed Minotaur.
Inside: A large, winding maze with a Minotaur on the prowl. Before v5.0 this level also held the Red Mystic Orb next to the spear. Clearing it earns the Theseus' Legacy achievement.
Reward: Gungnir, the artifact spear. Extremely high damage and long reach.
Worth it? Yes for melee builds that use polearms. Gungnir is one of the strongest weapons in the game. Not recommended for ranged or magic builds that would not use a spear, or for builds with low HP and armor that cannot survive Minotaur hits.
Mystic Library (Floor 16)
Location: Accessible from Floor 16 of the Ruins through a hidden entrance.
How to access:
- On Floor 16, find the small fortress structure locked with gates and ringed by lava.
- Levitation gets you across to the portal inside.
Inside: A library filled with bookshelves, magical enemies, and scholar-type NPCs. Less combat-focused than other secret levels. The primary danger is cursed spellbooks mixed into the loot.
Reward: A large cache of high-tier spellbooks across all three magic schools (Sorcery, Thaumaturgy, Mysticism). The density of rare spellbooks here is unmatched anywhere else in the dungeon.
Worth it? Yes for any caster build. The spellbooks found here can fill gaps in your spell repertoire and provide significant school XP from learning. For pure martial builds with no magic investment, skip it.
Identify every spellbook before reading it. The Library has a higher-than-normal rate of cursed spellbooks. A cursed book erases a known spell from your memory. Losing your only Heal spell to a cursed book in the Ruins can end a run.
Cockatrice Lair (Floor 28)
Location: Accessible from Floor 28 of the Crystal Caves, behind a puzzle.
How to access:
- Find the puzzle entrance on Floor 28.
- Solving it opens the path into the lair and its crystal hazards.
Inside: The Cockatrice boss and its guards. Barony's cockatrice does not petrify: it is a heavy melee attacker whose telegraphed Stoneblood spell inflicts paralysis, so bring Cure Ailment or paralysis-blocking gear and respect its Double Strike up close.
Reward: Dragon's Mail, an unbreakable artifact breastplate with +5 AC and +1 HP regeneration.
Worth it? Yes for almost any build that can win the fight. Unbreakable armor removes condition management from your endgame entirely and carries you through the Citadel and the Floor 35 boss fight.
What is Bram's Castle on Floor 33?
A multi-floor castle packed with treasure chests and undead, ending in a boss fight against Bram Kindly, and it pays out the Wraith's Gown. It is the deepest secret level in the game and the last one you can reach.
Location: Floor 33 of the Citadel. The castle is inaccessible by ordinary means. A portal to it sits in a puzzle room bordered by a pit.
Inside: Ladders connect several floors. The first is a long main corridor with rooms shooting off it, each holding monsters and treasure chests. Every floor above is more compact than the one below, the third is frequently empty, and the top floor is Bram's arena. The walls are reinforced, so a pickaxe and the Dig spell get you nothing here.
Enemies: Skeletons and occasionally Funny Bones, a Ghoul Chef, Succubus Consorts, Enslaved Ghouls, and Shadows. Bram Kindly waits at the top.
Reward: The Wraith's Gown, an artifact cloak. A secret treasury near the start of the top floor holds two more chests, opened by a lever near the back wall of Bram's combat room.
Worth it? Only on a run that is already going well. Floor 33 sits two floors above the twin liches, and everything you burn here is gone when you reach the Sanctum. If you arrive healthy and stocked, the chest density is the best in the Citadel and the lever behind Bram's arena is worth the extra minute.
The Path to Baphomet: Underworld and Hell
This is the most complex alternate path in the game, requiring specific preparation and a step-by-step sequence to reach the alternate final boss.
Step 1: Enter the Underworld (Floor 18)
- On Floor 18 of the Ruins, find the gated fortress ringed by lava.
- Pull the fortress's two levers to open its gates, and use Levitate to cross the lava safely. Walking through is almost guaranteed death.
- Take the portal inside the fortress. You are now in the Underworld.
Step 2: Redirect the Exit
- The Underworld's exit portal initially leads back to the normal route on Floor 19, NOT to Hell.
- Search the Underworld for a hidden ladder. Finding it redirects the exit portal to Hell.
- Take the redirected portal. You arrive in Hell (Floors 21 to 23).
Step 3: Navigate Hell
- Descend through Hell's three floors.
- On Hell's third floor, find and pull four levers.
- After all four levers are pulled, the exit portal spawns. It leads to The Molten Throne on Floor 24, the Baphomet boss arena.
Step 4: Fight Baphomet
Baphomet is tougher than Baron Herx. Higher HP, faster attacks, more aggressive minion summoning. You do NOT get Mystic Orb pedestal buffs for this fight.
The most common failure point is taking the Underworld's exit portal before finding the ladder. Doing that drops you back on the normal route at Floor 19 with no way back that run. Find the ladder first, then leave.
Preparation Checklist for Baphomet
| Item | Why You Need It |
|---|---|
| Levitate spell or potion | Required to cross the Underworld hazard room safely. |
| Cure Ailment (multiple) | Hell has burning and poison environmental hazards. |
| Healing potions (5+) | No orb buffs means you take more damage per hit from Baphomet. |
| Magic resistance gear | Baphomet uses magic attacks. Reflection gear is ideal. |
| Full repair on all equipment | No blacksmiths or shops in the Underworld or Hell. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Barony secret levels required to finish the game?
No. Every secret level is optional. They exist for players chasing the best gear, rare achievements, and the Baphomet alternate boss encounter.
Where do I find the Sphinx's Casque?
In the Gnomish Mines, off Floor 2 of the Mines. Find the walkway crossing the large pit that dead-ends into two locked gates, then hit the switch on either side of the pit to open them. The entrance always generates on Floor 2 and exists on no other floor.
How many secret levels does Barony have?
Eleven, on Floors 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 18, 28, and 33 of the 35-floor dungeon. Two of them are Underworld entries, one on Floor 5 and one on Floor 18, and only the Floor 18 entry leads through to Hell and Baphomet.
Does Minetown always appear?
No. Minetown has a 50% chance to generate on Floor 3, so roughly half your runs will not have it. The Gnomish Mines entrance on Floor 2 is the one secret level that always generates.
Is the Jungle Temple still worth doing after v5.0?
Only situationally. It used to hold the Green Mystic Orb, but the orb moved to standard-floor Treasure Rooms in v5.0. What remains is four Potions of Strength, a gold hoard, and treasure chests, with more behind a silver key. That suits a melee build wanting carry weight and damage, or a Merchant planning Hamlet purchases. A ranged build has its own reason to go: the infected branch bow sits on a pedestal at the end of either route, a solid non-artifact upgrade that poisons and slows on a lucky shot. Taking it and the silver key springs a trap that frees a caged Troll.
Can the Sokoban puzzle be failed permanently?
Not quite. A boulder stuck in a corner can be destroyed to recover, but breaking one spawns a Labyrinth enemy and cuts the gold reward, and breaking two or more forfeits the Djinni's Brace artifact. Plan every move before you push.
What is the most common mistake on the path to Baphomet?
Taking the Underworld's exit portal before finding the hidden ladder. The portal initially leads back to the normal route on Floor 19 with no way back that run. Find the ladder first so the portal redirects to Hell, then leave.
What to Read Next
- Dungeon Progression and Bosses. The main path these branch from.
- Combat, Crafting, and Survival. Surviving the harder secret areas.
- Achievements. Hidden achievements tied to secret levels.
- Tips and Tricks. Sokoban boulder penalties, cursed Library books, and the one-way portal.