Learn how Delves work in Trove, including Public, Private, and Challenge Delves, Depth progression, bosses, modifiers, Shadowy Soul Vaults, Inert Geodes, The Depths, Runic Vaults, and the rewards worth farming.
Delves are procedurally generated cave dungeons built around continuous progression.
A normal Delve run follows a simple concept: enter a tier, complete its objective, reach the boss, defeat it, claim the reward, and continue deeper if your group finishes quickly enough.
Each deeper tier becomes progressively more difficult.
That difficulty increase is the defining feature of Delves. Unlike ordinary dungeons where you repeatedly clear content at roughly the same world difficulty, Delves are designed to keep scaling until the group eventually reaches content it can no longer clear efficiently.
Delves do not behave exactly like Adventure Worlds.
Players can use Geode modules while exploring them, and the mode switches between combat and Discovery Mode instead of ordinary build mode. Upgraded Geode modules can provide Delve-specific benefits, such as enemy detection, shields, or other exploration utility.
That means Geode progression can make Delves more comfortable even if your main objective is combat.
A Delve supports up to eight unique players.
The way those players join depends on whether the Delve is Public, Private, or Challenge, but eight is the maximum group size across the main Delve system.
You can also enter with fewer players.
A sufficiently strong character can complete many Delve tiers solo, although deeper progression becomes considerably easier when the group has enough damage and survivability.
Trove has three main standard Delve types.
They use the same general combat structure but differ in matchmaking, class restrictions, and how their difficulty is determined.
Public Delves are the easiest version to enter.
The matchmaking system groups players and uses the Public Delve Score of the queued classes to determine an appropriate starting difficulty. The class active when you queue is the class you must use inside that Public Delve.
Public Delves are useful when you want to:
Learn the system.
Play without organizing a group.
Complete ordinary Delve progression.
Collect standard Delve rewards.
Test whether your current character can handle deeper content.
Because matchmaking determines the group and starting difficulty, Public Delves are less controllable than Private Delves.
Private Delves are entered through a Delve Gateway (Private).
The Gateway can be crafted at the Delve Workbench, and up to eight players can join. Private Delve difficulty is still based on the Public Delve Score of the classes queued when the Delve begins.
Private Delves have an important advantage:
Players can change classes during the run.
That gives organized groups much more flexibility.
You could use one class for clearing normal rooms and another for bosses if your account has multiple developed characters.
Private Delves also allow players to be invited after the run has started. However, their movement rules are stricter: only Delve-compatible mounts and wings can be used.
Challenge Delves are intended for competitive depth pushing.
Unlike normal Public and Private Delves, where a Depth can generate differently on different runs, Challenge Delves use the same enemies, objectives, bosses, and layouts for players competing during the same challenge cycle.
Challenge Delves begin at Depth 110. Progress is saved as players advance, and leaderboard categories include deepest progression as well as fast completion of three consecutive tiers.
Challenge Delves also allow class switching.
They are best treated as an advanced mode for players who already understand normal Delve mechanics and want to push their account rather than simply collect basic rewards.
Every Delve tier has several stages.
Understanding the structure will make the mode feel much less confusing.
You cannot simply rush directly to the boss.
Each tier provides an objective that must be completed before the final encounter becomes available.
Possible objectives include defeating enemies, defeating particular enemy types, gathering Crystals, collecting Ore, or activating Monoliths and defeating the enemies they summon.
This means different classes and builds can feel better depending on the objective.
High movement speed helps with gathering.
Strong area damage helps with enemy-clearing objectives.
Mobility and map awareness help when objectives are distributed across multiple rooms.
Delves also use Deltaliths to introduce modifiers.
These can change enemy health, movement conditions, Darkness, damage behavior, or other rules affecting the tier and boss encounter.
Deltaliths appear in the starting area and around boss encounters, allowing players to see what conditions are active.
Do not ignore them.
A modifier can explain why an enemy suddenly feels much harder than it did one Depth earlier.
Completely clearing a room creates a checkpoint.
If you die and release, you return to the beginning of the tier, but the Intra-Delve Transport near the entrance can take you forward to the furthest completed checkpoint.
This is particularly helpful in long tiers where one player dies far behind the rest of the group.
Once the required objective is complete, the group progresses toward the boss.
A boss indicator appears before the boss room so players can see what encounter they are approaching. The boss room can also contain Deltaliths showing additional modifiers affecting the fight.
When the boss is activated, players who are still behind can be offered transportation directly to the boss area.
Delves are not only about surviving.
The group must clear the objective and boss quickly enough to qualify for the next Depth.
When the tier is completed within the required time, a Ready Station can appear and the group gains access to the next floor.
If the group takes too long, the run cannot continue deeper from that tier.
You still keep the rewards already earned.
The failure only prevents further progression in that particular run.
Depth represents how far into Delve progression you have reached.
A larger number generally means stronger enemies, tougher modifiers, more demanding bosses, and greater pressure on your build.
Do not confuse Delve Depth with Adventure World difficulty.
They are different progression systems.
Public and normal Private Delves use Public Delve Score to determine a suitable starting point.
This means a stronger developed class generally starts deeper than a newer character.
If you want more control, Depth Steppers can allow players to select particular starting ranges, bosses, or biomes.
Standard Depth Steppers can usually select starting Depths beginning around 23 and extending to 110, although some Steppers have different minimums and sufficiently advanced characters can gain access to deeper starting points.
Enemy health and combat difficulty continue scaling as the Depth rises.
At first, the biggest question is simply whether your class can kill enemies fast enough.
Later, Light, damage optimization, boss mechanics, survivability, and group composition become much more important.
Eventually Delves intentionally become difficult enough that a group cannot simply continue forever.
One of the most important early Delve milestones is Depth 25.
After Depth 25, every eligible third consecutive completed tier can produce a Shadowy Soul Vault alongside the Heavy Pressurized Chest.
This matters because Shadowy Soul Vaults replaced much of the old Shadow Tower reward progression.
They contain important resources including:
Titan Souls.
Lunar Souls.
Despoiled Divinity.
Shadow Caches.
These resources are used throughout Shadow-related crafting, collections, Gems, and other progression systems.
Defeating a Delve boss produces a Pressurized Chest.
That is your normal end-of-tier reward.
Every third consecutive completed tier upgrades this into a Heavy Pressurized Chest, which contains additional loot.
This three-tier structure is important because many valuable Delve mechanics are built around it.
Rather than viewing one floor as a complete run, think of three successful consecutive tiers as the basic reward cycle.
Heavy Pressurized Chests can provide additional Delve-related resources and caches.
They can also drop Pressure-Locked Delve Caches, while higher-depth Heavy Chests can contain other specialized rewards.
For example, Mana Maximizers have a rare chance to appear from Heavy Pressurized Chests beginning at Depth 110.
The exact value of individual drops will vary depending on your account progression, but completing sets of three tiers remains important.
Shadowy Soul Vaults appear alongside eligible Heavy Pressurized Chests after Depth 25.
You need a Delve Shadowkey to open one.
Delve Shadowkeys can be crafted at the Delve Workbench or through the Shadow Key Mold that can appear after defeating a Delve boss.
You can continue opening Shadowy Soul Vaults after receiving the primary soul rewards, but Titan Souls, Lunar Souls, and Despoiled Divinity are limited to the first six eligible Shadowy Soul Vault openings in each reward cycle.
This is important because opening additional Vaults can still provide other rewards, but they will not continue producing unlimited soul currencies.
Lunar Souls are particularly important for Gem progression and several high-value crafting systems.
This is one of the reasons ordinary Delves remain relevant even for developed accounts.
They are not merely a source of equipment.
They are tied directly to character progression resources that cannot always be replaced by farming Flux elsewhere.
Binding Darkness is another important Delve material.
It can be found in Delve chests and also has a small chance to drop directly from enemies inside Delves.
Binding Darkness is especially relevant when working with advanced Gem systems and related crafting.
Because it drops less predictably than ordinary ore or Gem Dust, it is worth collecting whenever it appears.
Do not treat it as junk simply because you do not immediately need it.
Shadow Shards can also be collected inside Delves once you reach the necessary progression.
They come from Delve crystals and are used at the Shadowy Market for Shadow-related crafting, including Shadow Caches.
Collect them while completing the tier rather than rushing past every crystal.
As long as doing so does not cause your group to fail the timer, secondary resources add significant value to a Delve run.
Delves introduced Inert Geodes as their own currency.
They can be acquired inside Delves and spent on Delve-related items, including crafting and certain Delve-compatible mounts and wings.
Inert Geodes have a carrying cap.
That cap can be increased with Inert Geode Wallets, but you should still monitor your inventory.
Continuing to earn a capped currency gives you no benefit.
Inert Geodes can also be spent on Pressure-Locked Delve Caches from trapped Geodian merchants.
These caches can additionally appear from Heavy Pressurized Chests and other Delve interactions.
They contain Delve-related rewards and give you another use for excess Inert Geodes.
Delves contain collectible Mementos based on the enemies encountered during the tier.
Learning a Memento grants Mastery.
However, unlearned Mementos decay after three hours of online time, so they should not simply be left forgotten in your inventory. They can alternatively be deconstructed into Pressure-Locked Delve Caches.
This gives Delves another long-term purpose:
They contribute not only to combat progression but also to collection and Mastery progression.
Death works differently from ordinary Adventure Worlds.
The first time you release after dying, the delay is relatively short. Repeated deaths increase that release delay.
The accumulated penalty resets as you move through the relevant progression points, while another player can resurrect you much faster.
An ally resurrection takes only a few seconds.
That is usually better than allowing a teammate to release and run back.
At high Depths, repeated deaths can create increasingly long interruptions and can ultimately cause the team to lose enough time that it fails the tier.
Reviving is therefore not simply a courtesy.
It is part of Delve efficiency.
Trove makes Delve flask management somewhat more forgiving than ordinary continuous dungeon progression.
Flasks refill when the boss is summoned and again as the group progresses into the next tier or relevant transition.
That means you should not be afraid to use flasks when they are required to survive.
Dying to preserve a flask is usually much worse than using the flask and reaching the boss quickly.
Geode modules have special functionality inside Delves.
For example, the Shield Barrier can reduce incoming damage, while an upgraded Thumper can help reveal enemies through walls. Other module interactions can make gathering objectives or navigation easier.
You do not need maximum Geode progression before entering your first Delve.
However, upgraded modules become increasingly useful when trying to push efficiently.
They can help solve navigation and survivability problems that raw Power Rank does not address.
Modern Trove added another difficulty mechanic for high-end Delve pushing.
Under Pressure begins at Depth 160 in standard Delves and Depth 150 in Challenge Delves.
Under Pressure periodically deals damage and reduces Health Regeneration.
Its strength increases as the group pushes deeper, with larger jumps after additional depth progression.
This was specifically introduced to prevent deep Delve progression from being purely a maximum-damage race.
At extreme Depths, players must start thinking more carefully about:
Maximum Health.
Defensive stats.
Healing.
Damage reduction.
Combat Block where relevant.
Survivability-oriented class abilities.
The strongest boss DPS setup on paper is not always the best setup for extreme Delves if the character cannot survive long enough to deal that damage.
The Depths is a specialized Delve biome added with Rising Tides.
It is connected to the current Long Shade endgame rather than being simply another random biome appearing in ordinary early Delves.
The Depths is flooded and requires characters with sufficient strength and water-movement capability. It is accessed through specialized Matchmakers and Depth Steppers connected to Long Shade progression.
Normal Delves can switch between different randomized biomes.
The Depths works differently.
A Depths run keeps the group inside The Depths biome for every tier.
Special Depths bosses appear on every third floor.
This gives the activity its own identity and progression loop.
The standard Shadowy Soul Vault system changes inside The Depths.
Every third floor produces a Runic Depths Vault instead of a Shadowy Soul Vault.
These Vaults require Runic Depths Vault Keys crafted through Saltwater Sam's Depths Workbench.
Standard Runic Depths Vault rewards include gear-quality drops together with resources such as Soul of the Depths, Deepstone, and chances at Abyssal, Zephyr, or Pyric Essence and Encrusted Runic Trunks.
These are much more relevant to modern endgame progression than the original Delve currencies alone.
Soul of the Depths is an important non-tradeable resource from The Depths.
It is used in modern systems including:
Mystic gear progression.
Mystic Gem crafting.
Mystic Gem conversion.
Runecrafting.
Depths collections and recipes.
For example, the current Mystic Gem Converter requires Soul of the Depths alongside Mystic Gem Shards, while Mystic gear upgrades consume significant amounts of Soul of the Depths.
That makes The Depths one of the important current endgame farms.
Current Depths progression extends well beyond ordinary beginner Delves.
The Block Party update reduced the starting requirements for the specialized Depth Steppers: The Depths can now begin at Depth 165, while the Deep Kraken Stepper can begin at Depth 170.
These are not beginner activities.
They exist for characters that have already developed strong Power Rank, Light, gear, Gems, movement, and survivability.
Block Party also increased the overall availability of Soul of the Depths and added a very small chance for the resource to drop from non-boss enemies inside The Depths and Deep Kraken Delves.
It is useful to think about these as two related but different progression paths.
Normal Delves are where you learn the system, obtain standard Delve rewards, collect soul currencies, Binding Darkness, Inert Geodes, Mementos, Shadow resources, and push increasingly difficult Depths.
The Depths is a specialized modern endgame branch focused on Rising Tides resources, Runic Depths Vaults, Soul of the Depths, Deepstone, specialized essences, and progression toward Mystic systems.
You do not need to rush directly toward The Depths.
Normal Delves teach almost every mechanic you need before the high-end version becomes relevant.
A good Delve character needs more than Power Rank.
Damage matters, but so do movement, survivability, and Light.
Every tier has a time pressure.
If normal enemies take too long to kill, the group may never reach the boss quickly enough.
Your build should therefore prioritize enough damage to clear normal rooms efficiently before worrying about extreme defensive optimization.
At higher progression, Darkness becomes increasingly relevant.
A character can have impressive Power Rank and still perform badly if its Light is too low for the enemies being fought.
Cosmic Gems, Crystal or Mystic gear, and other sources of Light become increasingly important as you move toward advanced content.
For ordinary Delves, pure damage builds may work extremely well.
At extreme Depths, Under Pressure changes that calculation.
Health, damage reduction, healing, and class survivability become much more valuable once periodic damage begins threatening the group.
Different classes can perform well in Delves.
Strong single-target DPS helps against bosses.
Area damage helps complete enemy objectives.
Mobility helps navigate large tiers.
Self-healing helps solo or survive dangerous modifiers.
There is no requirement to play one particular class.
The best choice is a developed class that can consistently clear the objective and boss at your target Depth.
Solo Delves are completely viable through substantial parts of progression.
The advantage is control.
You decide the pace, route, class, and objectives without relying on random players.
The disadvantage becomes more obvious at high Depths.
A group can:
Revive fallen players.
Split up for gathering objectives.
Cover different parts of the map.
Combine class buffs.
Kill bosses faster.
Compensate for individual weaknesses.
For deep progression, an organized group usually has a major advantage over a single player.
Several mistakes make Delves considerably harder than necessary.
Killing random enemies does not always advance the tier.
Read what the current objective actually requires.
Modifiers can dramatically change how enemies or bosses behave.
Check them instead of assuming the game is bugged when damage suddenly changes.
Fast revives save time and prevent increasing release delays.
Help nearby players whenever possible.
A group can successfully survive the entire tier and still lose access to the next Depth because it cleared too slowly.
Move with purpose.
Secondary resources are valuable, but not if gathering them makes the group miss the completion time.
If your goal is pushing Depth, progression comes first.
Once your currency reaches its cap, additional drops are wasted.
Spend resources before reaching that point.
Under Pressure was specifically designed to make extreme Delves require more balance between damage and survivability.
A dead DPS character deals no damage.
The Depths is a specialized high-level Delve path with different Vault rewards and progression materials.
You do not need it to learn the normal Delve system.
Your priorities depend on your account.
For newer characters, Delves are valuable for learning combat, obtaining ordinary Delve rewards, progressing collections, gathering Inert Geodes, and beginning Shadowy Soul Vault progression.
For developed characters, resources such as Lunar Souls, Binding Darkness, Shadow Shards, Mementos, and specialized Delve drops become more important.
For endgame characters, deep pushing, Under Pressure survival, The Depths, Runic Depths Vaults, Soul of the Depths, Deepstone, and Mystic progression become the main attractions.
The important point is that Delves remain relevant across several stages of Trove progression.
They are not merely old content that was replaced by Adventure Worlds.
Enter a Delve, complete the tier objective, reach and defeat the boss, claim the Pressurized Chest, and finish quickly enough to continue into the next Depth. Each deeper tier becomes harder.
Up to eight unique players can participate in a Delve.
Depth represents how far into Delve progression you are. Higher Depths generally contain stronger enemies and increasingly difficult conditions.
After Depth 25, an eligible Heavy Pressurized Chest can also produce a Shadowy Soul Vault after three consecutive completed tiers.
Important rewards include Titan Souls, Lunar Souls, Despoiled Divinity, and Shadow Caches. A Delve Shadowkey is required to open the Vault.
A Heavy Pressurized Chest appears after every third consecutive completed Delve tier.
Public Delves lock you to the class used when queuing. Private and Challenge Delves allow class switching.
Inert Geodes are a Delve currency used for Delve-related crafting, caches, mounts, wings, and other items. The currency has a carrying cap that can be increased.
Yes. Binding Darkness can appear from Delve chests and can rarely drop from enemies.
Standard Delves begin applying Under Pressure at Depth 160. The effect periodically damages players and reduces Health Regeneration. Challenge Delves begin the mechanic at Depth 150.
The Depths is a flooded high-level Delve biome introduced with Rising Tides. Every floor uses The Depths biome, and every third floor produces a Runic Depths Vault instead of a Shadowy Soul Vault.
Soul of the Depths is a non-tradeable resource obtained primarily from Runic Depths Vaults and other modern Depths sources. It is used in high-end crafting including Mystic progression.
Yes. Normal Delves remain important for soul currencies, Binding Darkness, Shadow resources, Inert Geodes, collections, and other rewards. The modern Depths branch is also connected directly to Mystic gear, Mystic Gems, and other current endgame systems.
Delves become much easier once you understand that they are a continuous progression mode, not simply another normal dungeon.
Complete the actual objective.
Watch the Deltalith modifiers.
Clear rooms to create checkpoints.
Revive teammates instead of leaving them to release.
Reach the boss quickly.
Pay attention to the timer.
Treat every third completed tier as an important reward point.
After Depth 25, prepare Delve Shadowkeys for Shadowy Soul Vaults.
As you push deeper, balance damage with enough Light and survivability to continue clearing efficiently.
And once your account reaches modern endgame progression, learn the difference between ordinary Delves and The Depths, where Runic Depths Vaults, Soul of the Depths, and Mystic-related resources become increasingly important.
The goal is not simply to reach the largest Depth number possible.
Good Delve progression means reaching a Depth where your character can still complete objectives, kill bosses, survive modifiers, and earn the rewards efficiently.
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