“The levels are joined by pits. The sublevels aren’t. You run into those when Level 0 makes a mistake.”
This is the map of how the levels and sublevels fit together. One basic rule applies: levels are joined by portals; sublevels are not. A sublevel is a layer of Level 0 that you reach through a fault in the terrain itself, not through a door.
The three levels
Wanderers know three levels: Level 0, Level 1 and Level 2. Level 0 is the only way in. You always wake up there, and the beds are there too. The creatures that patrol live only in Level 0. Level 4 and the authored rooms cannot be reached by portal.
| From | To | How to go down | How to come back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 0 | Level 1 | Pit | Service staircase |
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Pit | Service staircase |
| Level 0 | Level 2 | Door to nowhere | Door to nowhere |
There are three kinds of portal. The pit has a radius of one meter, the service staircase ninety centimeters and the door to nowhere eighty. Portals never move and are never reordered: each one is always in the same place.
Where the portals are
They are spread around the point where you wake up, within two 96-meter macro-cells. None is within a meter and a half of a wall or of your arrival point. To learn more: Pits and Level 0 Staircases.
Sublevels
Sublevels are layers of Level 0, not separate levels. On maps they are labeled within the text as “Anomaly: [x.x].” The three reference layers are 0.0, 0.1 and 0.01.
What has been possible to walk through are loose features of those layers, which appear in Level 0 itself:
- Mismatched Window, with five versions.
- Window Strip.
- Slits in the Wall, labeled “Anomaly” on maps.
- Absurd Furniture and row of outlets.
- Empty rooms with nothing to them.
Verticality
There are two ways of moving vertically. Portals change level, and the 63-meter staircase and the descents of the building change height within one.
What people say
Nobody knows exactly how each sublevel is reached, but the accounts agree on the basics:
| Sublevel | How you get in | How you get out |
|---|---|---|
| Level 0.0, out of bounds | stepping on a seam between chunks | an exit room with a computer |
| Generation Error Vestibule | passing through a wall toward a different tone | it has no exit of its own; you go back the way you came |
| Level 0.1, danger zone | a degraded region, far from the origin | corridor loops, no door |
| Level 0.01, “The exit?” | very long corridors | the EXIT door with a white frame |
- It happens that 0.01 and the room in 0.0 make you believe you have gotten out, and all you have done is change layers, the false ending.
- Which sublevel is near and which is far changes from one account to the next.
- Each layer has its own inhabitant. The Vestibule has the Receptionist, 0.1 sounds with the footstep echo and goes quiet in the null zones, and 0.01 shows you The One Who Waits under the exit sign. 0.0 has no creature and its void serves as the sign.
- The crossing is always small, like a floor note, an “exit” sign that leads nowhere or an opening of black glass.