# Previous Area

Go to The Lower Prison

# Intro

In this guide our subject is The Upper Prison, the most dreaded zone of Act 1 by many.

There is a total of 8 distinct layouts for this area, which makes it quite hard to recognize where to go because of the starting room looks pretty much the same all the time.

However, with the power of deduction we can narrow down possible layouts very fast by always following a ruleset which will be written at the bottom of this guide. However, to understand what I mean by the things in that section, you should definitely familliarize yourself of the layouts to make it easier to understand.

When looking at the images in this guide, pay attention how each and one of them can be included inside a diamond. The concept of diamond is quite useful, especially in this area, as it by thinking the layouts through that instead of very specific rulesets makes it a bit easier to get grasp of. You can also utilize this way of thinking in other areas.

Upper Prison layout is always inside a somewhat diamond looking rectangle. Learning to recognize where you are in the diamond helps a lot with navigating through the area.

The 8 different layouts are:

• Bottom
• Top
• Left
• Right
• BottomLeftLoop
• BottomRightLoop
• TopLeftLoop
• TopRightLoop

#

# Bottom

Bottom layout is named based on the starting location inside the diamond; where somewhere in the bottom half of it and exit is to the North.

• First thing you always do when entering Upper Prison is go North-East from the start to scout what is behind to South-East.
  • If there is area generated behind that wall (white dotted line below the red line), you have to check if the area allows you to go North (white dotted line above the starting room)
    • If there is generated there, you know the layout is Bottom and you just find your way to the top of the area from here
• The third image is a very rare scenario where the exit is North of the start while the starting room has no doors to the North-East side of the room. You'll understand this layout and how it's recognized a bit more once you have seen Right layout.

# Top

Top layout is named based on the starting location being at the top corner of the diamond.

• Just like before, go East to check if there is area generated behind the wall, and since there is, you now have to go North.
  • It can be a bit tricky to recognize at first how this area generates, but there is always a tiny bit of area, usually a single room, hanging around alone with no other generated area North of it. This is the tell that exit is directly South of the start, so you just turn around now and travel to the exit.

# Left

Left layout is named based on the starting area being on the left side of the diamond, and exit to the right.

• Again, same thing. Check for generated area to the South-East of the starting wall, and if there is something, time to go North.
  • Now, unlike in the the previous layouts, there is no area generated further North.
  • Usually in this situation you can make a full turn to South-East in hopes of the layout being TopLoopRight (which we go over soon), however you can verify it's Left layout by instead keeping going towards North-East and seeing if there is area generated to the North-East of the top corner in the North-West side of the diamond. This is marked with the red line and the area generated past is the white dotted line.
    • If you checked this and there is something past the red (dotted) line, you know the exit is to the Right.
    • And if not, you know to start heading South for TopLoopRight layout's exit.
• Note that in the second image the deadend room looks very much like in the Top layout, however it's placement inside the diamond is in the same diagonal line as the starting room, not above it to the North-West.

# Right

Right layout is named based on the start being in the Right side of the diamond, while exit being to the left.

• Again, we do the same thing as before. Check South-East wall, if there is area generated, check North.
• In Right layouts there is never a door to the North-East side of the starting room.
  • This tells you that the exit is to the West, so you start heading that direction.
  • The white horizontal line represents height in the area that you should never go above, because you run the risk of going to some massive deadends, so instead while going West you try to usually first go a bit South as well, and then later turn towards North-West.
• If you look at the position of the exit in comparison to the start, the difference in height is always the same, so this should help with not going too far to the South while navigating this area.

Let's take a look at the Bottom layout again that looked very much like the Right layout:

• While the start is quite the same, area generated to South-East of the starting area and there is no door to North-East, we quickly hit a deadend when going towards West as we thought the layout was Right.
  • Once you notice there is no area generated to the South-West of the small red line with X behind it, you now know that it was Bottom layout instead.

# Loop Layouts

# BottomLeftLoop

BottomLeftLoop is named based on the start being in the South-East (bottom) side of the diamond, and exit being behind a "loop" that we have to travel from the left side.

• We start this area just like every other, by checking the South-East side of the starting room.
• This time, there is no area generated. With this information we only have 3 possible layouts left, one of them being BottomLeftLoop. Just because you're probably curious, the other two are BottomRightLoop and TopLoopRight, which are the next two layouts we cover.
  • But because most of the time the exit is from the North-East side of the entrance and not from South-West, we have to go there and check it for the sake of consistency. Usually the deadend in this layout is small enough that you don't waste much time anyways.
• There are recognizable special types of rooms to the North-East of the entrance that lets you know it's a deadend 100% of the time, however I won't cover these because there are so many, and it's easier to just check them anyways. And if you thought it was a deadend room and it wasn't and turned to the South-West side just to get greeted by another deadend, you now wasted so much more time than you would've if you just checked the North-East side properly.
• After recognizing it's a BottomLeftLoop layout, you just try to take the shortest path to the exit as it's always in the same spot.
  • Sometimes the entrance to the exit room has to be circled all the around from the North-East side, however it is extremely hard to tell when the area generated for that to happen. There are few rooms that when placed in a specific location in this area make the door to the South-West side of the exit room unable to be generated. One of those rooms were in the Exilecon Racing Finals that 3 of the 4 best racers in the world didn't recognize, so I wouldn't lose your sleep over this.

# BottomRightLoop

BottomRightLoop is named just like the BottomLeftLoop, except now we loop from the right side instead.

• By now you probably should know how we start the layout, but here it is again: Check South-East wall of the starting area in case there is generated area. This time again, there isn't, so we can subtract all other except BottomLeftLoop, BottomRightLoop and TopRightLoop from the possibilities.
• You always want to assume the layout is BottomRightLoop, so you north to check if it continues past the first room, much like in BottomLeftLoop.
  • After you notice that the area continues to North-West from the second room (there is another room connected to it), you just start hugging the wall to the West as much as you can until you get to the exit.

Sometimes the exit can be accessed from both Left and Right sides. Here's few examples of those:

• As you can see from the first image, sometimes you just get unlucky. There isn't anything you can do about it, because for the sake of consistent pathing in Upper Prison you only go through the South-West side door at the start when you are 100% sure it's the right way.
  • Sometimes the left side is also completely blocked, so you might ended up running to even more deadends if you turned back when not being sure. In the first image the dotted red line could actually not have a door even though in this particular image it has.

# TopRightLoop

TopRightLoop is named based on the starting room being located in the North-West side of the diamond, and exit being below to the South-East that we loop to from the right side.

• I feel like I'm repeating myself, but here we go: Check South-East wall of the starting room for generated area.
  • If you see some, great. Now go north like you would in the previous layouts that had something in there.
  • Instead now you quickly notice that there is no area generated north of the red line shown in the images. That tells you that you are indeed in the North-West side of the diamond, and the layout is either TopRightLoop or in the Left layout.
  • Usually it's better to assume the layout is TopRightLoop and once that possibility is taken away, you instead go to East as you do in Left layouts.
    • However if you are not entirely sure what to do, just do what you do in Left layouts: keep going North-East until you see cannot anymore. Now, if the deadend that you hit seems like it's the North-East side of the diamond, you know it's a TopRightLoop. And if you see something past the red line (compare to Left layout pictures), you know it's that one instead.
• And image 3 is the reason why you do have to actually check the North-East side after not seeing anything on the South-East of the start and nothing on North-West of the first room to North-East. Sometimes the start looks exactly like Bottom loops, but actually ends up being a TopRightLoop. Jus imagine the wasted time if you turned back towards SouthWest very early when entering the room to North-East side of the starting room..

# TopLeftLoop

TopLeftLoop is named on entrance being in the Nort-West side of the diamond, and exit below it to the South-East that we get to from looping from the left side.

• Just like any other area, again, we check the South-East of the starting room. Usually there is something in there, so we go North again, and get greeted by a short deadend.
• Because there was something behind the first room's South-East wall and a deadend to the North-East pathway from the entrance room, we know this layout is TopLeftLoop.
  • From here since we know where the exit will be, we first go a bit South and start scouting for pathways to East and then we just turn North.
    • In the third image you will probably end up running to the small deadend right next to the exit room which is fine, as it won't usually be a long deadend and confirms where the exit is.

# Ruleset

This is very bare bones version of what you do and check in the Upper Prison, but if you can't be asked to learn it in more detail, here's the general rule of thumb of what to check and in what order in The Upper Prison:

• Check South-East wall of the starting room to see if there is something generated below it or not
• Check North and North-East of the starting room to see if there is area generated above the North-West side of the "diamond" or not. If not, continue to North-East / East or South-East to check if they allow you to keep going forward in these directions.
• After these two are done you know if there is need to return back and travel through South-West side of the entrance, and where.

# Cheatsheet

Work in progress

# Next Area

Go to The Prisoners Gate