Seven Heats

The tenth floor's structure, briefed by Zev over the dungeon loudspeaker: seven heats of nine teams, 1,800 teams in all, crawlers split into parties of no more than four with solo crawlers merged into groups. Come in last and you die, along with your garage attendant. Vehicles and mounts are fully restored between heats while that attendant lives; a heat win buys three ordinary upgrades or one Golden, everyone gets a Golden after the fourth heat, and the audience picks the upgrade for whoever comes in second to last. Teams may attack each other but may not steal a vehicle, may not use movement spells on or into one, and must field a different driver every heat.

Book 8 appearances

• Chapter 1 — The arrival screen gives each team five minutes to be race-ready, blocks safe-room access until the heat is over, and warns that walking is not permitted.
• Chapter 2 — Zev sets out the format and the upgrade ladder, adds that the tracks were largely designed by the AI, and is cut off mid-sentence while explaining what happens if more than two teams fail to finish.
• Chapter 3 — Carl counts six of eight opponents on the road: a muscle car, a loping bear, a skittering bug, a minivan, something that melds into the shadows, and a tumbleweed with a unicorn's head and a small pink rodent riding it. Prepotente works out that a heat's pool of opponents is fixed, so killing more than one forces the dungeon to backfill the next race with crawler teams.
• Chapter 4 — The Trauco Triplets are eliminated when their mount expires and eight teams remain, which establishes the split: a dead mount ends a team outright, while a wrecked vehicle only strands it short of the line.

Related entries

• Don't Come in Last (Place)
• Zev (Character)
• Garage Manager (Notification)
• The Vehicle Wheel (Notification)
• Carl (Character)
• Princess Donut (Character)

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• All System Notifications
• Everything debuting in Book 8, Chapter 2
• All of A Parade of Horribles