You’ve finally hit Floor 16. The elevator dings, the doors slide open, and instead of the usual warehouse vibe, you’re staring at a fossil museum that looks suspiciously like a death trap.
Welcome to Shelly’s room. Or, as the veteran Dandy’s World players call it, the floor where runs go to die.
Honestly, it’s a bit ironic. Shelly Fossilian is basically the most ignored "Main" character in the game's lore, yet her map variant is arguably the most aggressive and claustrophobic experience you’ll face in a mid-to-late game run. If you aren’t prepared for the tight corridors and the lack of "islands" to hide behind, Dandy is going to fill that room and end your run before you can even say "Gallimimus."
Why Everyone Struggles with the Shelly Floor
Basically, the developers at BlushCrunch Studios decided to pull a fast one on us. Most maps in Dandy’s World give you decent sightlines or at least a few pillars (islands) to loop around when a Twisted starts chasing you.
Shelly’s room is different. It’s compact. It’s cluttered.
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The rework actually made things weirder. They added a cool dinosaur skeleton—which looks great, don’t get me wrong—but they stripped out a bunch of the essential hiding spots. If you’re playing a character with low stealth or mediocre speed, you’re going to feel like a sitting duck.
- The Sightline Issue: Because the map is so open in the middle but cramped on the edges, Twisteds like Twisted Shrimpo or Twisted Shelly herself can spot you from a mile away.
- No De-aggro Zones: Once they see you, breaking line of sight is a nightmare. There aren’t enough corners to duck behind, so you often end up dragging a Twisted across the entire map, accidentally aggroing every other monster in the process.
The Secret Red Room and the Lore
If you’ve spent any time staring at the ceiling (usually while hiding for your life), you might have noticed something creepy. There’s a red room located high up on the ceiling of Shelly’s map.
Hackers and curious players have managed to get a peek up there, and it turns out it's a sort of observation deck. In the lore, these are the "Handler Rooms" where the Gardenview staff used to watch the Toons. The red light is always on, but nobody is ever inside.
It adds to that eerie, "abandoned theme park" vibe. Shelly’s character is built around being forgotten—she’s the Toon that kids ignore because her dinosaur facts are too "boring" compared to Vee’s flashy game show. Seeing her "room" being this empty, clinical observation space really hammers home how lonely her character actually is.
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Surviving the Machines
There’s one machine in particular that is a total run-killer. It’s the one tucked behind the glass panes near the picnic table area.
Twisteds love to patrol this specific corridor. If you’re soloing this machine, you have to be frame-perfect with your skill checks. One fail, and the noise will pull a Twisted into that narrow space where you have zero room to maneuver.
Best Toons for Shelly’s Map
Since this floor starts appearing around Floor 16+, you’re usually already deep into a run. If you know you're likely to hit the Shelly variant, you need to pick your Toon wisely at the start.
- Shelly (The Toon): Using Shelly on her own map is actually a power move. Her Problem Solver passive gives her a 25% speed boost every time a machine is finished. On a map this small, that speed is the difference between reaching the elevator and becoming Ichor.
- Rodger: His research abilities are great, but more importantly, he’s solid for players who know how to navigate tight spaces.
- Brightney: You need the vision. Period. In the "Blackout" event on Shelly's floor, you're basically dead without a light source or a teammate who knows the layout by heart.
Real Tips for Your Next Run
Stop trying to "distract" in the middle of the room. It doesn't work here like it does in the Diner.
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The middle is a "dead zone." Instead, try to stay on the perimeter and only move to the center machines when you know the Twisted is occupied on the far side of the map. If you're playing with a team, one person must act as a dedicated distractor, leading the Twisteds into the loop near the fossil dig site while the extractors hammer out the machines.
Also, keep an ear out for the ambient sounds. Shelly’s room has unique environmental audio that can sometimes mask the heartbeat of an approaching Twisted.
What you should do next:
Go into a private lobby and practice the "Outer Loop" pathing on the Warehouse 3 and Shelly map variants. Mastering the corner-drifting movement will help you lose aggro even when the "islands" are missing. Also, make sure you've finished Tisha's Mastery quests so you can actually buy Shelly from Dandy’s shop—she’s a top-tier extractor for a reason.