Prisoners' Quarters

"In the social hierarchy of the island there are the dogs, the rats, and just below them, the prisoners."

The Prisoners' Quarters is the only level one biome in the game. It is the starting point of every run and where the Prisoner stores the items he has obtained through blueprints.

A run-down stone dungeon. Moss grows on the bricks, and prison cells can be seen in the background, most of them with broken bars. Torches line the walls. Decay is a reality for this now run down prison, as any authority has long met their doom or fled elsewhere. Some of the cells, however, still house what little prisoners were (un)lucky to have survived this long.

A glass chute in the ceiling is connected somewhere above. Beheaded prisoners can often be found here, either dropped from the chute above or executed on the spot. A giant skeleton sits in the back near the chute. Large glass flasks containing unlocked items hang from chains in the next room over, and the Scribe can be found nearby, taunting the player about their failures and watching over the door to the Daily Run.

The player begins here in every run, with a bow, shield, and possibly weapon provided for them. Eventually, the bottles containing the player's unlocked items can be found here, as well as the aforementioned Scribe who will provide game stats and and the occasional equips.

Specialist's Showroom
The Specialist's Showroom is an area within the Prisoners' Quarters containing two useful items for exploring biomes. The access to this special shop is locked by a button in front of the door, and a teleporter is always found at the end.

The Specialist's Showroom contains the Hunter's Grenade, which allows to transform enemies into Elites and absorb their blueprints, and the Map of the Architects which can reveal the layout of a biome. Both of these items are locked behind golden doors, which must be opened either by paying or breaking them (inflicting 50 curses). Both the Hunter's Grenade and the Map take a skill slot and are single use each run. In addition to these two items, the blueprint for the Golden Outfit can be found in the Specialist's Showroom.

Scrolls
The Prisoners' Quarters contain 2 Power Scrolls, which cannot spawn behind the Vine leading to Toxic Sewers.

Enemy tier and gear level scaling
In the table below, you will find the gear level and enemy tier of the Prisoners' Quarters based on difficulty.

Shops
There is always either one weapon or one skill shop in this level, which cannot spawn behind the Vine Rune passage.

Chests and loot
There is always at least one chest in the level. Loot can be found randomly on the ground, and two items are guaranteed to spawn in secret areas requiring the Teleportation rune and Vine rune.

Exclusive blueprints
Up on some ledges, behind the giant skeleton, is the blueprint for the Quick Bow, accessible through rolling (the secret does not generate on the first two runs of a save file). Starting with the third run, the blueprint for the Broadsword can be looted from the Tutorial Knight's corpse next to the exit leading to the Promenade of the Condemned. Upon killing the Hand of the King for the first time, the blueprint for the mutation Disengagement will become accessible by using the Homunculus Rune. Finally, the blueprint for the Golden Outfit can be found behind a gold door in the Specialist's Showroom.

Enemies
The Prisoners' Quarters do not have any unique enemies, as all of them can be found in other biomes. On the base difficulty, this level is full of Zombies, Undead Archers, Shieldbearers and Grenadiers. On higher difficulties, Zombies, Undead Archers and Grenadiers are replaced with Failed Experiments, Knife Throwers and Bombardiers, respectively. Finally, Inquisitors and Arbiters also appear in this biome on Very Hard and Expert difficulties, respectively.

In the table below, you will find which enemies are present in the Prisoners' Quarters depending on difficulty level. For each enemy, any common, uncommon, rare or legendary blueprints they carry are indicated. When applicable, the minimum difficulty level for blueprint acquisition is specified in brackets.

Malaise lore
Main article: Malaise


 * A prisoner managed to escape from their cell and left a messy message. The tangible parts of the writing reads "Don't want... contaminated... out of here... see you again. I hope. The 'Malise'. ...not infected. won't die"
 * A message on the wall of an empty cell contains an unfinished message, which reads "Why... filling the prison with innoc".

The Gardener
The Gardener is a frequently mentioned prisoner along the player's journey. They can be found in their room hanged in the Prisoners' Quarters, the Promenade of the Condemned or the Ramparts.

Other lore rooms

 * A prisoner locked in a cell can be encountered. They also can appear in Promenade of the Condemned. The prisoner first calls out to The Beheaded, only to realise who they are speaking to. They jest about the fact that they are on "the right side of the door for once", before speaking to himself about how they didn't joke around. Kicking at the door afterwards yields no response.
 * A prisoner who is locked in a flooded cell can be found here, as well as in the Ramparts. He gets The Beheaded's attention, and complains about the water. He them exclaims that he felt something touch his leg, and then they call out for help. The sounds of them being murdered by some creature is heard, before they are rendered unresponsive.
 * Tom the Mushroomologist is a drug dealer, who deals psychrotrophic mushrooms to the other prisoners. He was able to turn a pretty good profit, but no signs of his current whereabouts exist.

Loading screen quotes

 * "In the social hierarchy of the island, there are the dogs, the rats, and just below them, the prisoners."
 * "The lucky prisoners had a window in their cells... They ended up choking on the ashes from the Ossuary."
 * "The prison is directly connected to the outer yard. The prisoners can choose between the rats and the crows."