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Overview
Floor 1 is the tutorial level. It's where survivors of the Transformation enter the dungeon and learn the rules of Dungeon Crawler World. The floor consists of interconnected tunnels, safe rooms, and tutorial guilds staffed by former crawlers turned NPCs. There's a countdown timer -- when it reaches zero, the floor collapses and anyone still on it dies.
The floor is massive (the dungeon circles the entire globe) but crawlers only need to find a stairwell to Floor 2. The challenge is surviving long enough to get there while gaining enough experience, gear, and knowledge to not die immediately on Floor 2.
Key mechanics introduced
- Crawler registration: Every biological creature above a certain weight entering the dungeon gets assigned a Crawler Number and Crawler Name
- Stats: Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Strength. Average human enters with 3-5 in each
- Achievements and loot boxes: The System AI distributes snarky notifications and gear rewards
- Party system: Crawlers who enter together are automatically grouped. Highest combined stats becomes party leader
- Tutorial guilds: Safe rooms staffed by NPC former crawlers who explain the rules
- Pet bonding: Creatures with Intelligence below 2 can be bonded as pets (this is how Donut starts, before the biscuit)
- The timer: Every floor has a countdown. Find the stairs or die.
Notable mobs
- Goblins: the first enemies most crawlers encounter. They operate Goblin Murder Dozers (steam-powered goblin tanks). Carl blows one up approximately five minutes in.
- Krakaren: neighborhood boss with tentacles. Killing a clone causes Krakaren Prime to spit out two more. Carl wraps around Donut and somehow survives.
- Bad Llamas: "If he were human, he'd be covered in prison tattoos and would be hanging out in front of the Circle K hitting on 14-year-old girls." They sell drugs. Carl accidentally starts a meth war between the goblins and the llamas.
What Carl does here
Carl enters in his boxers, his leather jacket, and his ex-girlfriend's too-small pink Crocs. He kills his first goblin by stomping on it with his bare foot, earning the Podophilia! achievement. The AI is delighted. Carl is not.
He meets Mordecai at the tutorial guild. Mordecai explains the reality TV show situation. Carl's reaction to learning that quintillions of aliens are watching him stumble around in his underwear is approximately what you'd expect.
Donut eats the Enhanced Pet Biscuit, melts into goo, and re-emerges as a talking cat. She immediately renames the party, makes Carl her bodyguard, and begins her career as the most dramatic crawler in dungeon history.
Key characters introduced
- Carl: the protagonist, now a registered crawler
- Princess Donut: the cat, now sentient and in charge
- Mordecai: game guide, already regretting his assignment
- Zev -- Borant PR agent, fish-like, astronaut suit
- Frank Q and Maggie My -- player killers. The dungeon's first PvP threat.
- The Meadow Lark group -- elderly care center residents Carl tries to protect
Floor 1: questions readers ask
What is Krakaren Prime in Dungeon Crawler Carl?
In Dungeon Crawler Carl, Krakaren is a tentacled alien collective mind, and every Krakaren clone in the dungeon is birthed by the original, Krakaren Prime. The System AI's own description warns that this is not the Krakaren but a Krakaren, and that for every clone killed, Prime births two more.
The clones are a second-floor problem, though: one runs the Rev-Up moonshine scheme late in Book 1. Meet it in the Floor 2 guide.
What is a tutorial guild in Dungeon Crawler Carl?
In Dungeon Crawler Carl, a tutorial guild hall is a safe room on the first floors where a new crawler takes the tutorial, which is what unlocks their inventory, display and menus. The very first dungeon announcement tells crawlers to find one immediately, and its signs are hard to see, blending into the dungeon walls.
The guildmaster who runs the tutorial becomes that crawler's game guide, which is how Carl and Donut end up with Mordecai.
Quiz Would you have made it off Floor 1? Eight decisions across Floors 1-4, spoiler-safe through Book 3. How long would you last?
Community discussion
From the crawlers
2 messages left on this page, published as sent. Typos and all; we do not tidy anyone's voice.
Glitch
All I'm saying is that I'm using this whole thing as a bare bones template for a home-brew DND campaign. Me and some of my friends want to do a campaign, so Session 0 will be just as confusing to them as it was for all the survivors of the book.
Remember this floor differently? Tell us
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