Would you carefully explore the entire Atrium?

[Mr.Oshiro]

We are about to welcome the finale of the Shadow arc, and the Atrium is the heart of the Ruins. It is likely to become an important area for the next update, so I would like to know everyone's opinions.
For example, in such an atrium, would you follow the path from the entrance towards the Ancient Gateway?

[DegenerateFurry]

I try to skip the entire Atrium maze whenever possible. If the Atrium edge is visible from the ruins, I'll just teleport over with a Lazy Explorer. The most recent time I fought Fuelweaver (a few days ago), a Wortox warped us all to the Atrium and we didn't have to bother with it. 

[Baark0]

The atrium is annoying to navigate pre-scion because of all the spider webbing, clockworks, and insanity pillars, and the items you can get there aren't any different then what you can get in the labyrinth. If anything, there being chests in the atrium is a bad thing, as if you're unlucky you won't get a single ornery chest in your labyrinth, requiring you to head back to the atrium in order to get a possessed shadow atrium.

To me, a good atrium is determined almost entirely by how convenient it is to not only get into the area, but also how quickly and easy it is to get to the atrium gate. If there happens to be free loot along the way, then I guess that makes it a little better but I'm likely going to ignore it the majority of the time.

[RubLog6]

I do sometimes explore it way before the fight, that way I'll know if I have to go in with a nightmare amulet or high sanity, and so I'll know the path to it without having to find it when going to fight fw.

Funnily enough my last world where I set caves and world to huge, my maze was small. I didn't have any clockworks or bridges for the path to the gateway. That doesn't really matter once you have the celestial jewels though (which I do try to rush to obtain post-mutated bosses).

[Popian]

It's not for the challenge, it's for the loot/chests. Except the loot tends to be bulky and often not immediately useful in the area.

[gaymime]

neither sets of poll options reflects my experiences. when i get to atrium i usually walk right on past and keep exploring the caves it but if i don't i get whatever loot is close to the entrance then book it. if i go deeper i only go until my invo is full then book it. i am not careful or slow or methodical and i certainly never make it to the end because i know what is over there and i'm not keen x_x besides, i tend to take bunnymen with me through the caves and they....struggle

Edited May 22 by gaymime

[Mr.Oshiro]

According to the voting results, the design of the atrium is indeed a bit poor. I think to some extent, the atrium is just a labyrinth with fewer treasure chests but more annoying.

I am a little curious about the positioning of the atrium in the eyes of developers. It is a place that requires ancient key activation to "awaken". Normally, you should explore other areas of the ruins before entering here, but the threat it brings is almost the same as those areas. I think it would be more reasonable to design corresponding challenges based on the situation where players have already obtained all ancient equipment, and to increase higher value rewards.

In addition, after activating the Ancient Gateway, the entire atrium will enter a charging state, but you cannot be too far away from the gate, otherwise the key will fall off. If only there were more unique monsters in the charging state, which would give us more reasons to explore the atrium. I remember that after a certain update, bridges were not allowed to be placed in maze areas like the atrium. I think this was to allow players to explore according to the prescribed route, but in the current version with such overwhelming teleportation abilities, this is simply impossible. Perhaps stronger restrictions are needed here, such as only lazy explorers can teleport, and then atrium statues will be shattered by the teleportation magic and attack players, and so on.

I look forward to making the atrium and the entire ruins more interesting in the next update, giving Shadow arc a complete ending.

[Naifxoxo]

why would u , the rewards r nothing , in dst u gotta ask ur self does it worth the effort , the hp loss hunger sanity loss , armor breaking etc. it dosnt maybe if the chests always have 100% items and not damaged and always have the best gear maybe , for not its a waste of time

[IAmAFurrz]

the maze in atrium is literally just more resource sinks, eating away at your nightmare amulets if youre not teleporting, and you can bring your backpack into the atrium arena, but its super annoying to do the same trick over and over while youre also having to not go insane (also, nightmare rng is a ******* dogshit mechanic) so youre chugging youre sanity food. the worse your luck the more resources are sunk. you can try and get clockworks but ofc theyre stupid and do not attack spiders that attack 1 of them so they get picked off extremely easy one by 1

[Hi.]

1 person voted yes 😭

[Schneid_101]

On 5/24/2026 at 9:05 PM, IAmAFurrz said:

the maze in atrium is literally just more resource sinks, eating away at your nightmare amulets if youre not teleporting,

You can actually pass through the obelisk if your movespeed is fast enough. Much easier with a beefalo. 

[Jakepeng99]

These poll options are very very biased.

Feels like it’s putting a lot of words into my mouth.

[Jussatoon]

21 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

These poll options are very very biased.

Feels like it’s putting a lot of words into my mouth.

Tune in later for Forum News, where we discover the fascinating phenomenon that is water being wet.

[Mr.Oshiro]

On 5/24/2026 at 9:05 PM, IAmAFurrz said:

the maze in atrium is literally just more resource sinks, eating away at your nightmare amulets if youre not teleporting, and you can bring your backpack into the atrium arena, but its super annoying to do the same trick over and over while youre also having to not go insane (also, nightmare rng is a ******* dogshit mechanic) so youre chugging youre sanity food. the worse your luck the more resources are sunk. you can try and get clockworks but ofc theyre stupid and do not attack spiders that attack 1 of them so they get picked off extremely easy one by 1

This design is clearly intended to allow you to use corresponding props to solve obstacles. The nightmare amulets solves the Obelisk (road obstruction), BQ Crown solves the Ancient Obelisk (insanity auras), and the Cave Holes was also added to the game at that time, with the aim of allowing you to use the Lazy Forager more. But the developers obviously didn't notice the orange staff, and with the current version having many teleportation methods, you can easily avoid these obstacles. Also, I don't understand that the exploration of the atrium is much more difficult than that of the labyrinth, but the spoils are the same and there are fewer, which makes the maze no longer worth exploring.

Edited Tuesday at 05:21 PM by Mr.Oshiro

[Mr.Oshiro]

8 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

These poll options are very very biased.

Feels like it’s putting a lot of words into my mouth.

I am trying to describe 'yes' or' no 'from a design perspective, sorry if it affects anyone's voting.

[Mr.Oshiro]

I like those biomes that require a certain level of preparation to explore, such as HAM Gas Rainforest and Fumarole biome, provided that the reward is proportional to the difficulty of exploration. A design like the atrium that requires corresponding props to explore is actually good, but the rewards should be more abundant, such as rare Living Logs, Crown or Thulecite Suit, and Dreadstones (?), as well as linkage with more props. Perhaps there are places that require lazy explorers to go, where special props are hidden.

Edited Tuesday at 06:15 PM by Mr.Oshiro

[Evelo]

I explore it all cause I like exploration. The loot is worth while. the challenge is non-existent but mastery over the game makes the game easy, go figure.