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The loop, in order
- Hold a Keystone. It’s a restricted item that lives in your backpack or bank and sets the dungeon’s difficulty level. See Keystone Entry & Party Requirements.
- Form a party of 3–5 and start a run. The dungeon spawns fresh for your group — your own mobs, your own bosses, your own timer.
- Clear Enemy Forces and kill the mandatory bosses before the timer runs out. See Enemy Forces and Objectives & Boss Encounters.
- Finish on time for the full reward, or finish late for a reduced one. Either way your Keystone’s level goes up or down by exactly one. See Completion & Rewards.
- Collect Ichor currency and roll for a Minor Artifact. Ichor is guaranteed (scaled by your Keystone level); the artifact roll is independent and not guaranteed. See What Minor Artifacts Are and Upgrade Resources: Ichor.
- Spend Ichor to upgrade an artifact’s power, then run again at your new Keystone level.
- Separately, everything you kill — in the dungeon or in the open world — earns PvM experience toward your character’s talent levels (1–50). See Character XP & Levels 1–50.
Why “separately” matters
The Keystone/Ichor/Artifact loop (steps 1–6) and the talent leveling system (step 7) run on independent tracks. You don’t need a high talent level to run the dungeon, and dungeon runs aren’t the only way to gain talent levels — though they’re an efficient one, since dungeon kills grant a Keystone-scaled XP bonus on top of the normal amount.
What’s shared across every system here
Two rules apply everywhere in this loop, no exceptions:
- Everything is disabled in PvP. Talent bonuses, and anything derived from them, switch off automatically if you’ve recently been in a PvP fight. This loop exists for PvM only.
- Itemization stays tradable; progression doesn’t. Minor Artifacts can be bought, sold, and traded like any other item. Ichor and talent levels are bound to your character and can’t be transferred.