The Gungeon

The Gungeon is the primary location and namesake of Enter the Gungeon, Exit the Gungeon, and Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead. It is a shifting gun-themed labyrinth of rooms and corridors, blending ancient magics and modern weaponry in a formidable fortress of firearms. Located on the distant planet Gunymede, legends tell that the Gungeon contains the greatest treasure- one worth dying over and over again for a chance to attain... a Gun That Can Kill The Past.

Seeking this treasure, adventurers from across the galaxy make a pilgrimage to the Gungeon for the chance to have another shot, to change their pasts, and their futures. To attain this impossible prize, they must... Enter the Gungeon.

Structure

The Gungeons structure is mainly segmented between various floors, called Chambers, each one consecutively deeper and deeper than the last. These Chambers are typically starkly different in appearance and general theme, but each one serves a specific purpose. Not every area or floor of the Gungeon is considered a Chamber, but some non-chamber areas such as the Breach still serve an important purpose in the structure of the Gungeon.

	The BreachETGHoTG	The entrance to the Gungeon. While not a chamber in its own right, the Breach's relative safety and non-shifting layout make it a permanent home for many of the trapped souls that would attempt to survive the Gungeon.
	Halls of Knowledge Chamber 0	A small series of connecting halls, under the control of the long-winded spirit Ser Manuel. Within these halls Ser Manuel seeks to teach new Gungeoneers in the ways of the Gungeon, to help them survive the true dangers of the depths below.
	Keep of the Lead Lord Chamber 1	The first true Chamber of the Gungeon. A castle-like structure with outdoor gardens and grand libraries, under the command of the Lead Lord. As the Chamber closest to the surface, many parts of the Keep are exposed to the sky.
	OublietteETG Chamber ???	A dank and noxious sewer, pooling with sewage and toxic waste. Constructed of metal paneling and concrete, with wide rivers of bright green slime. Many Blobulonians have made their home in this sticky, gooey environment.
	Gungeon Proper Chamber 2	A grim underground dungeon, hidden away beneath the façade of civilized society in the Keep above. Iron shackles are nailed into the stone brickwork, and torture devices such as the Lead Maiden roam the halls.
	Abbey of the True GunETG Chamber ???	An ancient cathedral, secreted away beneath the twisting dungeons of the Lead Lord. Here, an elder cult convenes by candlelight among their pews in fervent worship of the Gun, and the Creator.
	Black Powder Mine Chamber 3	A series of winding, irregular tunnels carved from the stone on which the Gungeon is built. The Gundead toil away, mining black powder from rich ore veins beneath the structure.
	Resourceful Rat's LairETG Chamber ???	A mysterious maze of cyclopean brickwork, which not only shifts like the rest of the Gungeon, but changes the rules of its own layout on the fly. Built and controlled by the notorious Resourceful Rat.
	HollowETGXTG Chamber 4	Deep, icy caverns into which a catacomb has been built- brimming with skeletons of the dead, human and Gundead alike. The icy cold forms icicles and patches of rime that, in addition to the numerous undead creatures crawling betwixt the brickwork, make this catacomb no place for the living.
	R&G Dept.ETG Chamber ???	A plastered and carpeted office building, situated in a mysterious cavern in what looks to be a giant unexplored city somewhere beneath the Hollow. Unique among the Chambers proper, the R&G Dept. does not shift its layout.
	Forge Chamber 5	A fiery mechanical foundry, filled with grinding gears and pistons pumping rivers of molten metal to smelt and forge both the guns and the Gundead alike. At the heart of this chamber, believed to be the last lies a great and terrible beast...
	UnderbreachXTG	A small underground celler, beneath the forge, that mimics the Breach at the Gungeons entrance. Like the Breach proper, the Underbreach is relatively safe and does not shift, making it habitable- although to leave the Underbreach, someone would have to go all the way back up...
	Bullet HellETG Chamber 6	Through a rift in the aimless void, beyond the curtain, lies the secret sixth chamber of the Gungeon. A vast cavern of gunfire and brimstone inhabited by creatures considered monstrous even by the standards of the regular Gundead. Here lies the true master of the Gungeon.
	Blobulonian LairHoTG Final Chamber	Somewhere under the forge, nestled in secrecy, lies the mothership of the once great Blobulonian Empire, and within it, its Queen. In hiding, the Blobulonians wait in their biotech sanctuary, waiting until the time is right to strike back.

The Exterior of the Gungeon is in shambles and disarray. Rubble and boulders are visible piled high around the massive skull-shaped entrance to the fortress. Castle spires from the Keep of the Lead Lord below rise high into the sky, resembling towering rifle cartridges. The Gungeon appears to be built on an outcrop of solid ground in the midst of saltwater marshland, on the edge of an ocean or large lake. A snaking bridge of rock leads from the Gungeon to a nearby rocky plateau.

Across the water, a series of tall jagged hills or mountains are visible, with unknown spiky protrusions and what appear to be castle-like turrets of unknown origin.

Inhabitants

TBA

History

In the ancient past, a powerful wizard known as the Gunslinger traveled to the distant planet Gunymede to construct a fortress for himself and his experiments. Fearing that guns would replace the old ways of magic, he worked to combine magic with guns in new ways.

Many of the chambers of the Gungeon served a purpose to the Gunslingers work, such as a vast mine deep beneath the surface where black powder was extracted from the planets crust, or a forge where a family of hired smiths worked to create weapons for the wizard to enchant.

The Slingers experiments would culminate in a powerful artefact, the Gun That Can Kill The Past- a weapon capable of damaging the time stream itself. This feat was not celebrated for long, however, as a mysterious projectile known as the Great Bullet descended from the sky above the fortress. This impact destroyed much of the structure, and the Slinger was never seen alive again.

In the wake of the impact, others came to investigate the ruins- finding themselves trapped by some unseen magic which prevented them from being able to leave. Those who traveled too far from the structure would find themselves skipped back through space to the grim fortress. The only exception to this was the Planar Lead, extracted from the slug of the Great Bullet, this material somehow allowed inhabitants of the Gungeon to escape to the wider galaxy- spreading its legend to the stars.

Those who heard the legend, and believed it, would travel to Gunymede to face The Gungeon. Wealth, fame, and its ultimate treasure, The Gun, gave adventurers a thousand reasons to risk their lives- but they would not be unopposed. At some point after the impact, gun-based life began to propagate throughout the Gungeon, taking hold of its chambers and cementing their territory.
Combined with leagues of converted outsiders, this Cult of the Gundead took it upon themselves to protect the treasures of the Gungeon.

Unused and Cut Content

The Gungeon has undergone several iterations, both mechanically and aesthetically throughout the development of Enter the Gungeon.

• Early iterations of The Gungeon resembled a tall pyramid, topped with a giant skull. A single large entrance below the skull allowed entry to the structure.
  • The skull-entrance of these early designs would be preserved into later designs of the structure, while the visually uninteresting pyramid would be exchanged for a complex fortress.
  • This design of The Gungeon is used on the title screen of Enter the Gungeon 3D Blast, incorporating unused pre-release versions of ETG's title screen.
  • The skull-topped pyramid continues to serve as a symbol of the Gungeon on the cover of the Ammonomicon and carved around the entrance to the Keep of the Lead Lord in the Breach.

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  The appearance of The Gungeon on pre-release iterations of the title screen.
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  A pre-release title screen mock-up based on recovered assets
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  This pyramid-gungeon on the win screen of Enter the Gungeon 3D Blast

Notes

Instruction Booklet Page 8, 'The Gungeon'

• The layout of The Gungeon in Enter the Gungeon is intentionally crafted to attempt to mimic the dungeon layouts of the Legend of Zelda franchise.
• The Gungeon is partially inspired by the Time Tombs, mysterious structures that first appear in the 1989 science fiction novel Hyperion by Dan Simmons. The Time Tombs are situated on the distant planet Hyperion, and travel backwards through time rather than forwards. Hyperion covers the stories of a collection of pilgrims making a journey to the Time Tombs, which is a key inspiration for the story of Enter the Gungeon.

Gallery

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  The Gungeon as seen on the title screen of Enter the Gungeon. This asset is known as Marsh of Gungeon and Isle of Gungeon internally.
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  The appearance of the Gungeon in the cutscene after killing the Lich.
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  The appearance of the Gungeon in the cutscene after killing the Gunslingers past. This asset is known as Swordtress internally.
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  The appearance of the Gungeon in the animated launch trailer for Enter the Gungeon
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  The appearance of the Gungeon on the ETG: HotG cabinet art, by Max Grecke
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  The Gungeon in the background of key art for the Farewell to Arms update, by Max Grecke
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  Ditto, with a different piece of key art
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  A pop-up-book style diorama of The Gungeon within the sleeve of the 2022 special edition vinyl release of the Enter the Gungeon soundtrack.

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Polish	Loch Giwer	Dungeon of Guns