RIFT
ELEVATOR
ENRUUA
ARCHIVE RECORD

The descent map

How the mapped Rift is divided: phase intervals, floors, sectors, guardians and echoes, from the rim to sector 100.

The descent map is the Directorate’s working chart of the Rift. It is not a map in the ordinary sense, since distances inside the shaft are not stable (see Rift physics). It is an ordered list of stable stretches, each with its environment, its machines and its guardian.

# Floors and sectors

A floor is one operation window: the stretch of shaft between two route markers. The carrier clears a floor by holding off its waves of machines, then reconnects to the next marker. Floors are numbered by sector, so 1-1 is the first floor of sector 1 and 100-10 the last mapped floor.

A sector is ten floors of continuous, stable shaft with one environment. The tenth floor is always held by a guardian, which carries the route key to the next sector.

Cross-section of the mapped descent (not to scale) Khepri Basin · surface Asterion Station 01Industrial RiftGuardian: Crusher02Magma MinesGuardian: Stormweaver03Frozen ReactorGuardian: Warden04Toxic FoundryGuardian: Broodmother05Magnetic VaultGuardian: Magnetic Sentinel06Ash FurnaceGuardian: Inferno07Cryo LaboratoryGuardian: Glacier08Power CoreGuardian: Overlord09Void PassageGuardian: Void Phantom10Heart of the RiftGuardian: Heart of the Rift Depth in phase intervals ↻ Echo: sectors 11–100 repeat these ten profiles
Cross-section of the mapped descent (not to scale)

# The ten profiles

The first ten sectors each have a distinct environment and guardian:

ARCHIVE RECORDIndustrial RiftARCHIVE RECORDMagma MinesARCHIVE RECORDFrozen ReactorARCHIVE RECORDToxic FoundryARCHIVE RECORDMagnetic VaultARCHIVE RECORDAsh FurnaceARCHIVE RECORDCryo LaboratoryARCHIVE RECORDPower CoreARCHIVE RECORDVoid PassageARCHIVE RECORDHeart of the Rift

# Echoes

From sector 11 onward the profiles repeat as echoes: sector 11 is Industrial Rift / 2, sector 20 is Heart of the Rift / 2, and so on to the tenth pass in sectors 91–100. Each echo rotates the order in which machines attack, adds heavier units and shifts the environment’s colour signature. Guardians return with more durability.

Related articles

ARCHIVE RECORDEcho sectorsWhy the hundred mapped sectors repeat ten environments and ten guardian patterns, and why no echo is a perfect copy.ARCHIVE RECORDRift physicsDepth drift, early signals, warm relays and geometry that folds at sector boundaries: the measured anomalies of the shaft and the rules the crew uses to survive them.ARCHIVE RECORDThe descent (2217–)The solo descent of the C-9: what the archive knows of Marek Venn’s route so far, sector by sector.ARCHIVE RECORDThe Warden systemThe expedition’s name for the family of machines that controls access between sectors. They test, adapt and call reinforcements. They never explain themselves.