Build a Dungeon Best Dungeon Designs: One Long Hero Route

Why One Long Route Beats a Short Walk to the Crystal

Build a Dungeon is Exploration Guild's Roblox dungeon game, still in beta and updated regularly. The official description sets the loop out plainly: build your own dungeon, defeat endless waves of heroes, put monsters in the dungeon to loot heroes, and collect cool buildings and strong monsters for more cash. Heroes arrive through a single one-way entrance and walk the corridors the builder lays down, which means the tiles you place are the only map the wave ever uses.

That is why the best dungeon designs here are route designs first and decoration second: a short, direct corridor hands the wave a clean run at your dungeon crystal, while one long route that snakes across the build keeps every hero inside reach of your monster units and traps for much longer. Recorded high-wave builds keep the real path as one continuous line and spend the rest of the layout on pieces that stretch it.

Wooden Floors, Dead Ends and Bait as Decoys

The recorded part list splits the two floor types, and the wave treats them differently: stone corridor is the main path, while wooden floor is a dead end. Build the real route out of stone corridor, then lay wooden floor and dead end pieces beside it as decoys. A hero who walks into a dead end turns around and walks back out over tiles it has already crossed, which is a second pass through the same defenses at no extra cost to you.

Recorded gameplay shows gold bait turning roughly half of an incoming wave aside so it circles the build instead of walking straight on, and a circling wave keeps re-entering your damage. The developer has not published this, so check the in-game interface for what the current build reports.

Why Units Cannot Attack Through Walls but Archers Can

Unit placement comes down to one recorded behaviour: your own monster units cannot attack through a wall, while archer heroes can attack through a wall. A unit standing behind a wall therefore contributes nothing to the fight, and the same wall does not protect it, because an archer on the other side can still shoot into the corridor. Keep fighting units on open corridor tiles with a clear line to the route, and use walls to shape the walk rather than to shelter defenders.

Hero classes are the other half of that rule. Thief heroes disarm traps within a one-tile radius of themselves, so a trap line gets stripped as the wave walks it, and healer heroes restore health to the rest of the wave. If a unit cannot reach the corridor because of a wall, the wave can simply outlast everything you placed.

Warning

Do not read a wall as cover. Monster units cannot attack through a wall, while archer heroes can attack through one, so a unit parked behind a wall is a unit the wave walks past. Keep the corridor open for your defenders, put the decoy work on the wooden floor and dead end pieces, and station a boss unit in the Boss Room, where it receives 50% extra health and damage.

Where the Crystal, Potion Shop and Treasure Room Belong

The crystal anchors the layout, and it belongs behind the route rather than beside the entrance. If the crystal sits next to the one-way entrance, the walk the heroes take is short by definition, and none of the decoys, traps or units you paid for get a chance to work. Put it at the far end of the stone corridor and let the wave cross the whole build before it arrives.

Leave room for the two rooms the wave detours into on its own. Heroes walk into a potion shop and buy potions, which recorded gameplay shows as one of the main income sources in the game, and heroes are guaranteed to be drawn toward a treasure room wherever you place it. Both belong on the long route rather than beside the crystal, so the detour happens inside your defenses and the wave pays you on the way through.

Potion Shop

Heroes stop and buy potions on their way in, and recorded gameplay shows the shop as one of the main income sources in the game. Put it on the long route so the stop lands between two stretches of your damage.

Treasure Room

Heroes are guaranteed to head for a treasure room, which makes it a deliberate detour instead of a room you hope they notice. Keep it off the crystal tile so the pull works in your favour, and save the room before the crystal for a boss unit, which gains 50% extra health and damage in a Boss Room.

A Repeatable Build Order for a Long-Route Dungeon

A long-route design is easier to build in order than to repair afterwards, because every piece you add changes the walk the heroes take. Work through the layout in this sequence and check the route from the hero entrance after each addition.

1. Lay the entrance, the crystal and the real route: heroes arrive at one one-way entrance, so start the stone corridor there, make it one long continuous line rather than a short run, and keep the crystal at the far end instead of beside the entrance.
2. Add the decoys beside it: wooden floor and dead end pieces read to the wave as a dead end, so heroes walk in and back out over tiles they already crossed.
3. Place the bait where the detour rejoins: recorded gameplay shows roughly half of an incoming wave turning aside, so put the bait where that circling traffic meets your units again.
4. Leave room for the income rooms: a potion shop and a treasure room both pull heroes in, and the shop is one of the main income sources in recorded gameplay.
5. Station the units on open tiles: a unit cannot attack through a wall, so keep fighters on the corridor and save the room before the crystal for a boss unit.

Tip

Walls shape the walk, they do not protect your units. Monster units cannot attack through a wall while archer heroes can attack through one, so keep defenders on open corridor tiles and let the wooden floor and dead end pieces do the decoy work.

• [ ] Does the stone corridor form one long route from the one-way entrance to the crystal?
• [ ] Are the wooden floor and dead end pieces only decoys, never the real path?
• [ ] Is the bait placed where roughly half of the wave turns aside and circles back into your defenses?
• [ ] Is the crystal at the end of the route instead of beside the entrance?
• [ ] Is there room on the long route for a potion shop and a treasure room?
• [ ] Is every fighting unit on an open tile with no wall between it and the corridor?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best dungeon design in Build a Dungeon?

One long route from the one-way entrance to the crystal, built from stone corridor, with wooden floor and dead end pieces as decoys and bait turning roughly half of the wave aside.

Why can archers hit my units through a wall?

Because archer heroes can attack through a wall while your own monster units cannot attack through one, so a wall between a unit and the corridor leaves that unit unable to fight back.

Where should the potion shop and the treasure room go?

On the long route rather than beside the crystal, because heroes are guaranteed to detour into a treasure room and they buy potions at a potion shop, one of the main income sources in recorded gameplay.

Build a Dungeon is free to play on Roblox and is still in beta, with six-player servers and no voice or camera support, so a layout can behave differently after an update. The game page is Build a Dungeon and player discussion happens in the official Discord. For the pieces that go on the route, see our best traps guide and monster placement guide.