Begin with the five-mushroom objective
The easiest way to get stuck in Underkeep's demo is to walk past an object you can interact with. Your opening mushroom errand includes a breakable crate and a blocked passage, so covering the visible map alone may leave you one or two mushrooms short. This Underkeep demo walkthrough follows the route reported by players and supported by narrated demo runs.
The official demo description limits the experience to a starting area, one dungeon, and a selection of classes. Treat the following route as demo-specific. It is not a complete walkthrough of the full game's opening.
Your quest asks you to collect five mushrooms for the cook. Move through the forest, right-click items to collect them, and check your inventory as you go. The route eventually branches into a choice about who receives the mushrooms; the final section contains that spoiler.
Collect the two forest mushrooms
In the Steam mushroom-location discussion, community member Edelweiss gives a five-location route. Two mushrooms are outside and three are in the cave or mine.
- Check the first fork near the start. The player report places the first mushroom to your left, south of the resurrection statue.
- Explore the trader's clearing. The second is reported in the northwestern corner of the glade where rats are harassing a merchant.
The trader encounter also introduces combat and a useful loot check. In Near Tragedy's narrated playthrough, the trader offers a key after being rescued, but the player still has to collect it from the ground before opening the associated chest. Pick up the key rather than assuming dialogue automatically placed it in your bag.
After fighting, check your health and food. The demo tutorial says resting restores health and requires food, while narrated runs show that nearby enemies can block resting. Recover when it is safe rather than waiting until the next fight has already begun.
Find the three dungeon mushrooms
Enter the cave or mine and use its first purple worm encounter as the landmark for the remaining locations. These directions follow the community route, so use your map to orient yourself rather than treating screen-left as north.
| Mushroom | Reported location | Action needed |
|---|---|---|
| Third | North from the fork near the first purple worm, in a chamber with a sunlit bush | Inspect the same square as the bush and collect the mushroom. |
| Fourth | East along the corridor from the sunlit-bush chamber, among crates and barrels | Attack the crates and check what they reveal. |
| Fifth | Beyond the rock pile south of the first purple worm area | Obtain the pickaxe, then left-click the blocking rubble. |
The fourth mushroom is a common miss. Another player in the same thread specifically points to the crate down the hall near the humanoid mushroom character. The tutorial and narrated runs also establish that fragile containers can be attacked, so do not leave a room simply because its doorway looks like a dead end.
For the fifth mushroom, first collect the pickaxe from the chamber containing the humanoid mushroom. Keep the pickaxe in your inventory and left-click the rock pile. The Steam reports distinguish this from attacking rubble with a weapon or trying to equip the tool. Once the blockage breaks, continue into the newly accessible area and collect the mushroom.
If your count is still short, retrace those five locations. Focus on the sunlit bush, the broken-container area, and the rubble passage before searching unrelated walls. One player's remark that none were hidden is qualified later in the thread: the crate and rock pile do conceal access to mushrooms.
Choose your hand-in before finishing
Ending spoilers follow. Once you have all five mushrooms, the demo offers more than the cook's original errand. The humanoid mushroom asks for the return of its missing family members, giving you another destination for the same collection.
Near Tragedy's narrated run returns all five to the mushroom character. The resulting sequence transforms the party into mushroom versions of themselves and reaches the demo completion message. Solo dungeoneer's narrated run instead completes the cook's hand-in after gathering the mushrooms and receives the quest reward before ending the demo recording.
Choose the recipient whose outcome you want to explore. Do not attack the mushroom character just because you assume it must drop the remaining quest items; the five-mushroom route already explains where to find them without doing that.
These are attributed demo outcomes, not evidence of an exact total of full-game endings. The recording and community directions also do not establish that every optional chest or secret must be cleared to finish the mushroom objective.
FAQ
How many mushrooms are outside the dungeon?
The community route reports two outside and three inside the cave or mine. Check the initial fork and the merchant's clearing for the outdoor pair.
Where is the mushroom I missed in a crate?
The reported location is east of the sunlit-bush chamber, among crates and barrels. Attack the crates, then inspect the revealed items.
How do I clear the rock pile?
Collect the pickaxe from the humanoid mushroom's chamber, keep it in your inventory, and left-click the blocking rock pile. Weapon attacks and equipping the tool are not the reported solution.
Can I finish by returning the mushrooms to someone else?
Yes. Narrated demo sources show a hand-in to the mushroom character as well as a return to the cook, with different outcomes. The mushroom-family branch includes the transformation ending described above.