I
Forge a hero
On the menu, Create Character: a Human of any class or a Night Elf druid, with the client's own faces, hair and markings, or Randomize. A player keeps up to ten
characters.
There's no levelling to grind. Everyone fights at level 60; what grows is your gear, your keystone and, inside a run, your boons.
II
Muster at Sentinel Hill
Enter Player Hub and you stand inside the palisade on Sentinel Hill. Other players are there too: whisper, invite, trade stories. The quartermaster, the blacksmith, the
enchanter and the boon trainer wait for you, all with a right-click or a tap.
The bar under the minimap holds your bag, your Keystone Shards, your keystone and your score.
III
Touch the Meeting Stone
The stone lists every dungeon open to you, with your best key in each. Alone, press Enter. Leading a party, start a Ready check: once everyone is ready, all of you go in
at the leader's keystone.
The Deadmines are the first dungeon on its list, and more are on the way.
IV
Take a kiss, and its curse
At the entrance the leader is dealt three of fourteen pacts. Each gives you a kiss and the run a curse, and adds 15 to 25% to the shards everyone brings home. Take any of them, or
none, and press Begin.
The offer closes on its own when the first fight starts.
V
Into the dungeon
Packs stand and patrol, call for help and run at low health, and here they don't give up the chase. In the Deadmines you fight past Rhahk'Zor, Sneed's Shredder, Gilnid and Mr.
Smite; doors open as bosses fall, and the Defias Cannon blows the Iron Clad Door.
A red ring on the ground is an enemy's area spell: step out of it.
VI
Choose your boons
Every level-up, every boss and the odd elite's drop offers three boons. Pick one: it lasts the rest of the run, through deaths too.
The fight goes on while you choose, so choose quickly.
VII
Fell the last boss
In the Deadmines that's Edwin VanCleef, on his ship past Captain Greenskin and Cookie. The last boss's death clears the dungeon; you don't have to kill every pack on the way.
Dead heroes stay down until someone resurrects them or they Release Spirit back to the entrance.
VIII
Open the chest, raise the key
The chest holds two items for each of you, uncommon or rare and now and then epic, and you can give yours to anyone who was there. Clear with deaths to spare and the
leader's keystone climbs by up to three.
Then Return to Sentinel Hill, spend your shards and go again, deeper.