Act 1 - The Lower Prison

# Previous Area

# Intro

In this guide our subject is The Lower Prison, which has the first of the many Trials of Ascendancy.

There is a total of 6 distinct layouts for this area. You clear the area always the same and deduct possible layouts out by reading clues already before you reach the waypoint. Lower Prison doesn't have different orientations like most other areas, so it makes reading the area a bit harder than others. Fortunately, you can use the location of the Trial in Lower Prison to figure out the layout are in even if you don't know exactly how to read it.

In every other layout except one (Left) if you want to get the Trial before going to the exit, you want to go up/right from the waypoint basically until you can't. And even when you just want to get to the next area, you still generally go up/right because it gives you the most information of the area, even if it's only for 1 room to see the spawn of Trial.

The 6 different layouts are:

Left
RightBottom
RightRight
Top
TopBottom
TopRight

# Left

Left layout gets it's name based on the Trial and Exit both being to the Left of the waypoint. LPLeft LPLeft

Left layout has two tells that combine together to the solution;
- First you will notice generated area to the South-West of the wall before waypoint.
- When you reach the waypoint, you will notice there is no area generate to the South-East of the wapoint
From there the exit and Trial are always in the same spots and it's just a matter of learning how the rooms generate and paying attention to them to avoid running to deadends.
- Generally if you can, you try to go towards more West than North for a bit after getting away from the Waypoint room.

# RightBottom

RightBottom is named based on the Trial being to the right side of the waypoint and the exit below the waypoint. LPRBottom

Like mentioned during the intro, generally we go up to the left (North-East) from the waypoint to scout for information, so do that first (unless you realize it's Left layout like explained earlier)
Often you are forced to do a small zigzag pattern before accessing the Trial and on top of that the area is very narrow and/or doesn't seem to connect to the area below the waypoint.
- This is a big tell that we are in this layout, and it's recommended that you log out or TP to town after finishing the Trial as it's often faster than backtracking al the way to the WP. Sometimes the top side and the bottom side connect in this layout, but that's less than 1/10 chance from my testing.
If you are not sure, you can also try to pay attention to the distance you travelled towards North-East and the distance of the entrance to the Trial from North-West, as it is always the same distance.

# RightRight

Both Trial and the exit are to the right of the waypoint. LPRRight

This layout is cleared exactly the same way as RightBottom that we just covered above, however now the distance before you access the Trial is one grid square further. This is the clue to tell that the exit is instead South of the Trial entrance, and logging out is no longer the right option.
On top of that, the area is more filled with rooms in general instead of "forced pathing" with only few connected rooms.
After doing the Trial, you don't ever want to go directly towards South-East as most of the time that will lead to a 1 to 2 room long deadends, so instead you want to return to the main path either from the exact same path you entered the trial or by going South and West immediately when you can.

# Top

In Top layouts the Trial and Exit are always above the start. LPTop LPTop

Just like in the two previous layouts, if the clues for Left layout are not met, you go up to the right.
You keep heading North-East just like in the previous layouts and you notice that you have travelled quite a distance to that direction, that should assure you that you're on the right path.
- In the second image you hit a deadend, but because you see area generated there you try to go there (always going around from the South side!)

# TopBottom

In TopBottom layouts the Trial is above the waypoint and the exit is directly below it. LPTBottom

The difference between this layout and earlier mentioned RightBottom is that the Trial is directly to the North-East of the waypoint without any need to zigzag.
If you do the trial, it's recommended that you logout or TP to town and take the waypoint instead of backtracking from the Trial, unless upon entering the waypoint room you noticed that the room to the South-West doesn't connect (no door where the red dotted lines are in the first image).
Sometimes you have to loop around from the West side to the exit, but this is quite the rare occasion and you should always check the East side first.

# TopRight

In TopRight layouts the Trial is North of the waypoint, and the exit is far to the East. LPTRight

Again, we see that there is area generated behind the Waypoint area to South-East so we go North-East.
This time we quickly notice how Trial is to the North-West of us. From here we know the exit is far to the East.

# Reading the WP

Here's a few examples of how to read the area when you reach the waypoint;

LPRead

In this image we see area generated to the South-West of the wall before waypoint. This itself doesn't yet tell us that the layout is Left, however once we reach the waypoint we can see that there is absolutely nothing generate to the South-East of waypoint, so we know the Trial and exit is to the left from here.