Dungeon

The World Dungeon is an eighteen-level maze created underneath the Earth's surface after the transformation. It features on the current season of Dungeon Crawler World, which is produced by the Borant Corporation.

Description

The 18 Level World Dungeon is presented to survivors of the transformation as a means to reclaim Earth's remaining matter from the Borant Corporation: if a survivor successfully completes all eighteen levels and exits the final stairwell, they will win regency of the Earth.^[1] In reality, the Dungeon is the set of a long-running alien gameshow called Dungeon Crawler World, and only one participant in the show's history has made it as far as the Thirteenth Floor.^[2]

When a survivor enters the Dungeon, they become a "crawler" and a character in this gameshow. As a crawler, they can earn experience, level up, and increase their Player Stats by fighting mobs and bosses. They may learn spells, train skills, equip magical gear, store items in their inventory, join other crawlers in a party or guild, and participate in quests. Crawlers who receive higher audience ratings receive better items from sponsors and Loot Boxes, and may survive long enough to negotiate an Exit Deal. A crawler who dies inside the dungeon is permanently dead.^[2]

As the producer of Dungeon Crawler World: Earth, the Borant Corporation is responsible for the fantasy-themed Dungeon's overall design, storylines, and mechanics; but the Dungeon's creation and operation are overseen by the System AI. Borant generates income from advertising, licensing fees, merchandise, in-game purchases, royalties, sponsorships, and more for as long as the Dungeon is open, but cannot collect the proceeds until after the season finale.^[3]

The Dungeon will close after the later of (a) full crawler extinction or, more commonly, (b) the conclusion of the Twelfth Floor. Though no crawler has made it past the Thirteenth Floor, the corporation running the crawl is required to have a plan in place for all levels. ^[4]

Read More: Crawler Mechanics • Dungeon Crawler World

Layout

From the side, the subterranean Dungeon looks like an inverted triangle: each level grows progressively more difficult and (with the notable exception of the Ninth Floor) smaller as crawlers descend.^[1][5] The First Floor is the largest level and located directly below the Earth's surface, while the Eighteenth Floor is the smallest and closest to the Earth's core.

All eighteen floors were outlined in advance by the Borant Corporation and approved by the Crawl Council.^[6] The first two floors are "tutorial levels"; the Third Floor and every third floor after it are part of an over-arching, multi-season storyline; and the remaining levels introduce new themes and mechanics unique to the current season, and are created as needed. The floors are connected by Stairwells, which crawlers must find and access within a set time limit in order to "complete" a level.

Tutorial Levels

The First Floor and Second Floor are considered "tutorial levels" where crawlers can learn how the dungeon works, experiment with different types of play styles (e.g. melee, magic, range, etc.), and accumulate new skills and spells. While crawlers can gain experience and levels on these floors, they are unable to directly adjust their Player Stats until after choosing a race and class on the Third Floor.^[2]

New crawlers must find a Tutorial Guild Hall to complete the Tutorial and unlock their full Heads-Up Display (HUD) and Crawler Menus. The guildmaster who directed the tutorial becomes that crawler's Game Guide, and will appear in all Tutorial Guild Halls until the collapse of the Third Floor.^[7]

Scolopendra Levels (Volcano Levels)

The Third Floor, Sixth Floor, Ninth Floor, Twelfth Floor, Fifteenth Floor, and Eighteenth Floor are part of an interconnected storyline, and were created at the same time shortly before the collapse of the Second Floor.^[8][9] In Dungeon lore, these floors are part of a six-layered magical world located inside a dormant volcano and populated by all manner of gods and demons. One day, the monstrous Scolopendra living at the bottom of the volcano unleashed a cataclysmic nine-tier attack that killed or transformed most of the world's inhabitants.^[4][10][11]

The Third, Sixth, and Ninth Floors are Urban levels, featuring both cities and special NPCs who star in their own Syndicate programs (Elites). Syndicate citizens, corporations, and governments may send individuals to the Sixth Floor to kill crawlers for fame and gear, or to the Ninth Floor to fight each other and crawlers in the Faction Wars. The galaxy's wealthy elite battle each other in the Twelfth Floor "Celestial Ascendency" or party together in the Eighteenth Floor Scolopendra Club.

See Also: Scolopendra • Category:Dungeon Lore

Stairwells

Crawlers may only exit a level by entering a stairwell to the next level. Each floor has 1/2 (rounded up) the number of stairwells as the previous level.^[1] Beginning on the Third Floor, stairwells must be unlocked by completing quests, defeating powerful monsters, or gambling on benefits such as the Mysterious Bone Key Benefit.

Time Limits

To ensure game progression, each level is open to crawlers for a predetermined number of 24-hour days^[12]. The Countdown Timer for a given floor begins immediately after the previous floor collapses^[13], and can be viewed in the upper corner of a crawler's Heads-Up Display (HUD) or on most Safe Room televisions^[12][14]. If a crawler is unable to access a stairwell before the timer reaches zero, the crawler is killed and collected when the level collapses.^[13]

Crawlers may enter the stairwells early. If a crawler chooses to enter a stairwell with more than six (6) hours remaining on the countdown timer, the crawler will be placed in stasis until the countdown begins on the next floor; this means that the crawler loses valuable training time and viewers. Crawlers who descend with less than six hours remaining on the current floor will typically receive a head start on the next floor.^[5]

Floor Breakdown

#	FLOOR	NAME	DURATION	STAIRWELLS
0	Earth	Transformation	Instant	0
0		Earth Surface	1 hour	150,000
1	First Floor		5 days	75,000
2	Second Floor		6 days	37,500
3	Third Floor	The Over City	8 days	18,750
4	Fourth Floor	The Iron Tangle	10 days	9,375
5	Fifth Floor	The Bubbles	15 days	4,688
6	Sixth Floor	The Hunting Grounds	17 days	2,344
7	Seventh Floor	The Great Race	20 days	1,172
8	Eighth Floor	The Ghosts of Earth	21 days	586
9	Ninth Floor	Faction Wars		293
10	Tenth Floor			147
11	Eleventh Floor			74
12	Twelfth Floor	The Halls of Ascendancy / Celestial Ascendency		37
13	Thirteenth Floor			19
14	Fourteenth Floor			10
15	Fifteenth Floor	Sheol		5
16	Sixteenth Floor			3
17	Seventeenth Floor			2
18	Eighteenth Floor	Scolopendra's Lair		1

See Also: Category:Dungeon Floors

Mechanics

The Dungeon is, first and foremost, a game. A set of rules are codified in Syndicate law and enforced by the System AI, an artificial intelligence capable of altering physics and reshaping matter inside of set Enhancement Zones. These rules are intended to make the game "fair" for crawlers, but ensure that the game progresses and is entertaining to audiences.

System AI

The System AI maintains the operation of the World Dungeon, running everything from the physics systems to the item descriptions, awarding achievements and Loot Boxes to the crawlers, and generally acting as the main force keeping the dungeon deadly for the crawlers and interesting for the spectators watching the show.

Inhabitants

Each level of the Dungeon is inhabited by a predetermined number of mobs, bosses, and named NPCs.^[15] These creatures and characters may be unique to this specific Dungeon, recycled from previous Dungeons, or "acted" by former crawlers and/or indebted alien races.

Mobs

Mobs are common monsters who typically share common descriptive names (e.g. "Goblin Bomb Bard"), and whose primary purpose is to be killed for experience, loot, or to complete quests. Each level of the Dungeon has its own set of mobs, and a special type of "janitor mob" generated as needed to clean up the game area.^[15]

Read More: Mobs • Category:Mob Types

References