Sculk Nightmares

The Sculk Nightmare is a pseudo dimension designed to flesh out the Sculk family and add a challenge to players of any level. If a player dies in the vicinity of a Sculk Catalyst, they respawn in one of the dungeon-style Sculk dimensions, without any armour or items. The player must navigate the dungeon, collecting loot, weapons and gear whilst evading Sculk-type threats. The goal is to reach a bright Gateway without dying: if you succeed and reach the Gateway, you keep all your loot and re-emerge in the Overworld from the Sculk Catalyst you died near (all your existing armour and items are in a new Sculk Cocoon next to the Catalyst); if you die in the Nightmare, you lose any items collected in the Nightmare, respawn at your bed/anchor and must gather your lost items as usual. The Nightmares are confined, non-infinite spaces that vary each time you visit using different templates, themes, and procedural generation - eg. A maze, a cave system, a ruined city, a forest, a fortress, all themed around Sculk, darkness and ruin. The size, difficulty and loot all vary based on the amount of XP the player had upon dying and entering the Nightmare. The Sculk Nightmares would give players the chance to experience more of the terrors and excitement of the Deep Dark without detracting from the approachable elements of the game, and represents a more manageable addition to the game than an entire infinite dimension; the challenge organically scales to the player’s experience.