The Trenches

Welcome to The Trenches, inspired by Dust II, one of the most influential maps in FPS history. A reimagined battlefield built for tactical precision, relentless pace, and pure FPS instinct.

From street-level alleyways to the dimly lit corridors and compact interiors running beneath Nexus, every corner of The Trenches is built to push your awareness to its limit. This map leaves no room for hesitation. 

Art Direction

This is not the sleek and futuristic city style seen across many areas of Wiami. The Trenches reveals a very different side of Nexus. A run-down, neon-lit underdistrict shaped by the energy of Tokyo’s back alleys and Kowloon’s night markets.

Almost every building is constructed as an open-air shell, allowing players to move directly between exterior paths and interior rooms without slowing the flow of combat. It’s defined by tight streets, neon signage, and elevated walkways that look down into the areas below. Neon advertisements, vendor stalls, and general street signage fill the space, creating a compact district with a dense urban feel. No doors, no delays, just pure momentum.

Map & Gameplay

The Trenches is built as a compact, tightly arranged environment with three connected levels. A small underground section sits at the bottom of the map, accessed through a stairwell that drops down from a back alley. Above it is the ground floor, which serves as the main entry level for players. A second story sits above, made up of interior rooms, walkways, gantries, and balconies.

The close placement of rooms, alleys, and corridors creates a style of play that is fast and close-quarters. The vertical paths linking each level allow players to rotate quickly and attack from multiple angles, especially from the second-story walkways that look into the areas beneath. As a result, encounters happen often across all three floors.

Environment

The Trenches includes a small set of stores and vendors that appear throughout the level and help bring the backstreets of this worn district to life. The Shihiro Ramen Bar appears as a street-food stall. Tetramart, a 7-Eleven-style convenience store, is placed on all levels of the map. A weapons booth also sits as a hole-in-the-wall counter with a protective screen similar to a teller window, adding to the shady, underground feel of the district.

Additional signage is scattered across the area, including advertisements for fictional brands such as Boba Cabana and posters for mercenary services and fashion labels. Much of the signage is reused or adapted from a shared pack to support the rapid turnaround of the level, reinforcing the dense, urban character of the map.

NPCs

NPC behavior for The Trenches is in early development. Current tests include civilian characters with basic clothing variations and simple behavior loops placed inside the level. One of the first working interactions takes place at the Shihiro Ramen Bar, where NPCs can move to the counter, take a seat, and play an eating animation. A bowl and chopsticks appear during the animation and then disappear once it ends, after which the NPC resumes its path.

Item spawning, clothing setup, and initial flee behavior using EQS are also being explored. Although still in the early stages, these tests show how NPCs will begin to add atmosphere and background activity to The Trenches as development continues.

With its fast rotations, tight interiors, and vertical routes, The Trenches delivers one of the most intense combat experiences yet in Super Early Access. Beyond its pace and layout, this new map expands the playable area of Nexus and highlights how Wilder World continues to evolve, refine, and push toward the immersive open world experience that everyone has been waiting for.

With blessings,

The Wilders