Areas

Nuclear Throne takes you through a series of areas.

The way you progress through the areas is linear, you start in a normal world which is three levels long, at the last level the area boss will spawn.

Difficulty is the number of portals you entered, it determines the amount of enemies spawning in the area and what kind of weapon you get in that area. Entering a Crown Vault or the Sewers Secret Area also counts as entering a portal and increases the difficulty by one, so you get better weapons faster but there are more enemies.

Progression Areas

Area	Description
The Desert	Covers levels 1-1, 1-2 and 1-3. First area of the game. Open areas. Home to alot of bandits. Last level introduces big bandit.
The Sewers	Covers level 2-1. Transition level. Small corridors. Low visibility. Home to alot of rats.
The Scrapyard	Covers levels 3-1, 3-2 and 3-3. Small areas with corridors between. You can find alot of cars here. Usually full of fire traps. Home to alot of ravens. The last level is home to Big Dog.
The Crystal Caves	Covers levels 4-1. Low visibility. Transition level. Sticky webs on the ground.
The Frozen City	Covers levels 5-1, 5-2 and 5-3. Long, narrow pathways. Slippery ice on the ground. Houses alot of cars. 5-3 is home to lil Hunter.
The Labs	Covers level 6-1. Low visibility. Transition level. Home to alot of freaks.
The Volcano	Covers levels 7-1 and 7-2. Lava that hurts the player under destroyed walls. Has alot of fire traps and cars. Narrow hallways and rooms, full of enemies. Blue fire introduced here. 7-2 is home to the Purple Dragon.
The Wonderland	Covers levels 8-1, 8-2 and 8-3. Big rooms, with fair amounts of enemies. Direct reference to alice in wonderland. 8-3 is home to the Chesire Cat.

Secret areas

Area	Description
The Crown Vault	Entered by charging the proto statue and destroying it. Has a crown. On the secod visit and after, has a choice of a weapon modifier. Increases difficulty by one uponn entering.
Inverted Frozen City	Entered by a portal randomly appearing in the Frozen City, or after finishing the second Oasis level. Has a 50% chace to have a weapon mod. Has stronger variants of Frozen City enemies.
Inverted Desert	Entered by a portal randomly appearing in the Desert. Has a 50% chace to have a weapon mod. Has stronger variants of the Desert enemies. Transports to the Scrapyard upon completing.
The Oasis	Entered by collecting a weapon chest, an ammo chest and a rad can on a desert level without reaching the 2% enemies killed mark and killing the big bandit that spawns in under 10 seconds. Has two levels and a boss (Big Fish) on the second one. Transports to the Inverted Frozen City after completing.
Y.V's Mansion	Entered by using a golden car after hitting it with a screwdriver. Always has a golden weapon.
The Pizza Sewers	Entered by blowing up a round manhole cover. Always has four turtles and a rat. Reference to TMNT.
Inverted Scrapyard	Entered by a portal that appears randomly in the Scrapyard. Has a 50% chace to have a weapon mod. Has stronger variants of the Scrapyard enemies.
Y.V.'s Crib	Has no enemies. Has two Huge Golden Chests which drop massive amounts of weapons. Can  be entered by Y.V. or Y.C. when an ultra mutation is obtained. Can be left by using the golden car.
Inverted Volcano	Entered by a portal that appears randomly in the Volcano. Has a 50% chace to have a weapon mod. Has stronger variants of the Volcano enemies. Instead of burning the player, the space under destroyed walls freezes the player in place.
Inverted Sewers	Entered by a portal randomly appearing in the sewers. Has a 50% chace to have a weapon mod. Has stronger versions of the Sewers enemies. Transports you to Y.V's Mansion.
Inverted Wonderland	Entered by a portal randomly appearing in the Wonderland. Has a 50% chace to have a weapon mod. Has stronger versions of the Wonderlad enemies.
Inverted Crystal Caves	Entered by a portal randomly appearing in the Crystal Caves. Has a 50% chace to have a weapon mod. Has stronger versions of the  Crystal Caves enemies.
Inverted Labs	Entered by a portal randomly appearing in the  Labs. Has a 50% chace to have a weapon mod. Has stronger versions of the Labs enemies.