Dark and Darker Ice Cavern

The Dark and Darker Ice Cavern map is a map that rounds out the current offerings from IRONMACE’s experience. The Crypts host trio-based dungeon experiences while the Goblin Cave provides a solo experience. However, the Ice Cavern is a map that caters specifically for duos when the game is not using the playlist rotation mechanic. Let’s take a look at the map’s theme, layout and special locations plus mechanics.

Ice Cavern Map

The Ice Cavern operates differently from the other two available maps in Dark and Darker. For example, both the Crypts and Goblin Caves utilize Blue portals and Red static stairs to escape or move down a floor. However, in the Ice Cavern, your method of escape is by using a static escape exit on the map!

Monsters Unique to Ice Cavern

The Ice Cavern is home to several unique variants of existing mobs, and some entirely new mobs:

Skeletons

Frost Skeleton Archer – An Archer that also Frostbites the player with arrows (Frostbite slows a player). Has a unique melee shove at close range that is fast in animation.
Frost Skeleton Crossbowman – A typical dangerous Crossbowman, however, also applies Frostbite on Bolt hits.
Frost Skeleton Footman – The Footman Frostbites players on Sword hits, also has access to a couple of unique attacks. One is a forward lunging stab that has a long range, the other is a wide diagonal swing.
Frost Skeleton Guardsman – The Guardsman has the exact same properties as the Footman but with a shield equipped.

Other Monsters

Frost Walker – Instead of creating a gas cloud like their normal counterparts, they instead create a close-proximity ice shroud. If you touch the ice shroud you take DoT damage and receive the Frostbite de-buff.
Frost Wolf – A typical wolf, re-skinned as a Frost variant.
Frost Giant Berserker – A huge humanoid monster found in the Ice Cavern. The Berserker wield two weapons, has a ton of HP and deals pretty significant damage. As a result, be careful when fighting one as they’re not slow either!
Frost Giant Shielder – A huge humanoid monster found in the Ice Cavern. Unlike the Berserker, the Shielder uses a door-sized two-handed Shield! The Shielder can concuss players for 5 seconds, rendering you helpless and in danger.

Ice Cavern Mini-Boss

The Mini-Boss that is unique to the Ice Cavern is the monstrous Yeti. The Yeti can be found in various locations of the map. While the Yeti is not the strongest mini-boss around, it still packs a punch while knocking players back. It is also very fast and can easily catch up to you if you’re not careful. As a result, be sure to go for the kill sooner rather than later as this monster can chase you down in a heartbeat.

The Yeti can often be found in the following locations on the map:

Points of Interest

Within the Ice Cavern there is a decent amount of rooms to visit, due to the 5×5 nature of the map. However, some rooms yield far better average loot or EXP for leveling than others. Two rooms within the map also have a unique escape mechanic!

Ice Pyramid

The Pyramid room may initially be familiar to players that’ve explored the Crypt map. However, the Ice Pyramid is actually a far better room for loot overall. The main floor of the room is host to several Skeleton monsters, small chests and a static escape gate. A key trait of this particular room is at the very top and below the Pyramid itself. At the top of the Pyramid, there is a guaranteed spawn for a Blue rarity weapon EVERY match. This fact alone can provide a nice steady loot income each match.

On the West side of the Pyramid is an entrance leading to below the Pyramid. This spot is fantastic too for grabbing a ton of extra loot and kill EXP. Many of the monsters below drop valuables such as Rings and Necklaces.

dark and darker ice cavern map pyramid under

Unique Extraction Mechanics

In the Ice Caverns, a couple of rooms in the map has a unique escape mechanic brand new to the Ice Cavern. There is a little boat icon on one the rooms map, and this is not just for show. At a certain point of the match, a raft spawns in this particular room, additionally, if a player jumps onto the raft and rides it to its destination – you extract from the dungeon! This raft also lets multiple players to escape on it at the same time, due to the duo nature of the map.

Elevator Extraction

The second unique extraction on the Ice Cavern map is also able to extract multiple players. Towards the north of the map, a single room has a blue square icon on the map in the middle of the room (refer to the map image at the start of the guide). The elevator itself is gated off until a certain point of the match and can be protected by a Yeti. However, once the gates open up you can jump down to the Elevator, pull the lever next to it and ascend out of the map!

In every room, however, be sure to watch out above you as glacial spikes can form and fall down onto you.

Ice Abyss (Ice Cavern Floor 2)

The Ice Abyss is the second floor of the Ice Cavern dungeon. Similarly to the Inferno map in the Crypts, this floor is directly connected to the Ice Cavern and is accessed through a special entrance. The special entrance to reach the Ice Abyss is a hidden gateway in the pits of the cave. Typically, throughout the match if you fall off the edge of the map, you’ll die. However, if there is only 2 minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the match, the death zones become a red gateway to the Abyss. You’ll be able to notice that the gateway has activated due to a red outline appearing when you look down into the depths.

Frost Wyvern boss guide gateway Dark and Darker Ice Cavern img

After dropping in the gateway, you’ll be presented with a waiting room and a time left remaining on the first floor. This is consistent with the Inferno map too.

Exploring the Ice Abyss

The Ice Abyss is a much more dangerous (yet somehow more beautiful-looking) floor of the Ice Cavern. There is a ton of new monsters to be aware of in this map. The new monsters on the map are the following:

Ice Hound
Ice Skeleton Maceman
Ice Skeleton Axeman
Frozen Ghost
Frost Wyvern (Boss)
Ice Harpy
Ice Giant Spider
Ice Spider
Frost Sentinel
Frost Elemental
Frost Imp

Map Layout

The red circle is the Frost Wyvern arena, the blue circles indicate rope escapes.

There is several areas as seen above that you can explore in the Ice Abyss. Each room poses its own challenge. Currently, this is the hardest map in the game to clear.

From any of the rooms in the Ice Abyss, the Frost Wyvern boss arena is visible. This is helpful when quickly trying to figure out your orientation or path towards the Wyvern, should you plan to fight it. The Ice Abyss is a 3×3 map module.

The doors of the map is two sets of Ice Pillars that open vertically. These doors cannot be broken like standard doors, and in some situations, the Druid can jump through the gap as a Rat.

In the Reversed Pyramid section of the map, you’ll find a huge amount of chests to loot in a small yet fairly easy to clear space. However, there is a secret interactable in the room that lowers the central pillar of the room – revealing a Wendigo to kill on top of it. The Wendigo is fast and hits hard while being a very low HP mini-boss.

The areas surrounding the Wyvern arena can be very dangerous. This is because they consist of fairly small platforms – with death drops all around them. To head up to the boss, you can jump up the small stepping stones located between the door entrances on the map. However, these areas tend to have Ice Harpies hanging around – they can kick you off the map – be careful.

Monsters such as the Frost Demon above can be difficult to tackle. However, having a bit of knowledge of their attack patterns goes a long way to dealing with them. For example, the Frost Demon has two main attacks:

Ice Flurry, fires 5-6 projectiles out in a front wide cone towards the player.
Blizzard, the Frost Demon calls down a blizzard for several seconds above the player.

As a result of the attacks above, using a set of stairs to be positioned lower down than the demon can help avoid the Ice Flurry entirely. Blizzard, however, is a spell constantly raining down on you that requires you to move to avoid. Balancing your gameplan around this information helps a ton with clearing the mob.

Finally, there is two other main threats, the Frost Imp and the Frost Hound. The Frost Imp is a low HP monster that throws ice bombs towards the player. After throwing the ice bomb, the Frost Imp quickly teleports to a new location before attacking again. The most effective way of dealing with the Imp is to line of sight the ice bombs and then attacking the Imp. For the Frost Hounds, make sure you’re in a wide spaced area or a spot they cannot reach. The Frost Hounds can be an incredible pain to deal with, as a result, do not engage them in tight spaces.

To escape from the Ice Abyss, simply use the following extraction methods:

Escape Ropes (located in the central east or west rooms)
Blue Portal Spawn (randomly determined throughout the map)
Kill the Frost Wyvern (unlocks the frosted air tunnel extraction)

Frost Wyvern (Boss)

The Frost Wyvern is a terrifying boss that awaits you in the center of the Ice Abyss. To learn how the boss works and also how to defeat it – check out the our guide.