First Floor

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the First Floor.

The First Floor of the Dungeon is accessed from the surface-level staircases that populate the Earth after the Transformation, and is considered a tutorial floor. It is a sprawling grid of passages and tunnels that look like they were hewn out of rock, and is located below the Earth's surface. The level is split into unconnected sections, so (for example) crawlers originating in China cannot interact with crawlers from the USA.^[8]

This floor cannot be viewed by anyone except for Borant Corporation personnel and members of the press; instead, events are recapped and shown on Dungeon Crawler World: Earth.

Entering the Dungeon

After exiting the double doors and stepping onto the First Floor, any biological creature above a certain weight is assigned a Crawler Number and Crawler Name.^[9][7] New crawlers receive the below message, followed by any circumstantial achievements earned for entering the Dungeon:

You have been designated Crawler Number ___. You have been assigned the Crawler Name “___.”

You are assigned the race of Human. You are currently level 1. You may choose a new race and class as soon as you descend to the third floor. Your stat points have been assigned based on your current physical and mental profile. See the stat menu for more details.^[10]

Biologically female crawlers receive an additional notification stating that their menstrual cycles have stopped and they will not be able to conceive until after the crawl.^[11]

When pregnant women and children "under the age of maturity" attempt to enter the First Floor, they are instead teleported to the Kinder Facility on the Earth's surface.^[12] The System AI does not seem to explain this to anyone accompanying the pregnant woman or child; to these crawlers, it appears as though their loved ones have simply vanished.^[11]

See Also: New Crawler Mechanics • List of First Floor Achievements & Rewards

Introductory Announcement

Cascadia makes the introductory announcement after the stairwells from the surface close, one hour after the Dungeon opens (approximately 3:30 AM PST). Her general tone is similar to a manager opening a store for business:^[13][8]

"Hello, Crawlers! The dungeon is now sealed. We have a diverse group joining us this season, and we are very happy to have you here. We had just under 13 million human crawlers make it through the gates and into the dungeon. We are already down to under 10 million.

A quick note, the entrances to the second floor will not open up until the introductory episode of Dungeon Crawler World tunnels, which will be in approximately 30 of your hours. Once that happens, the entrances to the second level will populate. There will be no lag time for the appearance of additional levels.

On behalf of the Borant Corporation I wanted to thank you for volunteering, and I wish you all good luck and a happy crawl."^[14]

Layout

The First Floor is a network of halls and tunnels organized in a giant square grid. Each equally-sized square is bordered by wide passageways and intersected by twisty, maze-like halls, tunnels, and dead ends laid out like a condensed version of the city above. Each square contains four neighborhoods, and each neighborhood has its own area-specific mob and neighborhood boss.^[15][16]

The first main artery that Carl finds is dimly illuminated by torches and approximately 30' Wide x 30' High (9.14m x 9.14m), stretching as far as he can see. Alleyways of various widths and heights branch from its walls; some alleys are hewn from smooth stone, others have "green, lichen-like growths" glowing on dark red brick walls or are lit by bright torches, and others are shrouded in absolute darkness.^[9][17][15] The various halls are humid and stuffy.^[18]

Restrooms

Restrooms (with one complimentary roll of toilet paper) appear roughly every 0.25 mile (0.4 km). The doorways came from commercial buildings around the world and still bear men/women symbols or handwritten signs; however, the mismatched doors are portals that always open to the same bathroom stall assigned to the crawler. Carl's restroom is cramped and contains only a silver toilet and a roll of toilet paper; Princess Donut's contains a litterbox.^[15]

For the first thirty hours, if one crawler opens a restroom door but a second crawler enters the room, the second crawler explodes in a mess of gore.^[4] For the first sixty hours, there is an equally dangerous but unexplained "toilet suction" issue.^[19]

Safe Rooms

Safe Rooms appear every few miles. On the first floor, these take the form of fast food restaurants and rest areas teleported from Earth's surface: a Peruvian Taco Bell, a Waffle House from Alabama, a DMV waiting room, etc.

Some safe rooms are full-service dining areas staffed by Bopca Protector non-combatant NPCs, but smaller unstaffed safe rooms may instead offer once-per-day servings of Experience Cookies or +1 DEX candies.^[20][7] Safe Room bathrooms may include showers and amenities, or only toilet stalls. Some Safe Rooms have rooms to rent (for free), while others have a few cots to sleep on and maybe a curtain for privacy.

All safe rooms have three television screens: one screen shows countdown timers to level collapse and the next episode of Dungeon Crawler World: Earth above the number of remaining crawlers, which clicks each time it goes down; one screen that shows the recap episode when it airs, but otherwise shows the message Leaderboard will populate upon collapse of the third level; and one screen showing information specific to the safe room.^[20]

See Also: Safe Rooms

Stairwells

Roughly (32) hours after the Dungeon opens, 75,000 stairwells are "randomly" distributed across the First Floor.^[4] A stairwell is installed inside all Borough Boss and City Boss Chambers, but many stairwells are not guarded.^[7]

If a crawler descends the stairs with more than six hours to level collapse, they will be held in stasis until the collapse. If a crawler descends with six hours or less remaining on the countdown timer, they will have a head start on the Second Floor.^[7]

Tutorial Guild Halls

Tutorial Guild Halls liberally populate the first and second floors. Crawlers must complete the Tutorial to receive access to the full Heads-Up Display (HUD) and Crawler Menus, including Inventory and Loot Boxes. After completing the Tutorial, the guildmaster is designated as that crawler's Game Guide, and the crawler will automatically portal to that Game Guide's room every time they enter a Tutorial Guild Hall.

Read More: Crawler Mechanics • Heads-Up Display (HUD) • Tutorial

Important Events

• Upon Entry to the Floor: Crawlers enter the dungeon.
• Tutorial Guild: Crawlers are recommended (but not required) to locate a tutorial guild to gain access to HUD features.
• Stairwell: No limitations on time to enter Stairwells.

Mobs & Bosses

Mobs

On the First Floor, mobs range in level from 1 to 5, and stop spawning in a neighborhood after the local boss is killed.^[16] The first time a crawler kills a mob, they receive the You've Killed a Mob! Achievement and unlock the ability to earn experience points.^[21] A level 2 mob yields ~50 experience points.^[22]

Each neighborhood has a local mob, but Level 2 Rats seem to infest every neighborhood regardless of the mobs.^[16][19] Although the first floor mobs are low level, some intelligent mobs (like the Goblins) are aware that the Dungeon is a construct.

Mobs drop skins, organs, and other items that can be used in crafting later. They will not start dropping gold until the Second Floor.^[8]

Bosses

Bosses cannot exit Boss Chambers on this floor. There are four neighborhood bosses in each square; these range in level from 7 to 9, and are mostly caricatures of an Earth or Syndicate stereotype mashed together with the local mob.^[16] Generally, each boss only has one main attack.^[23]

Borough Bosses are fewer between, and their lairs may be identified by abnormal curves in the otherwise straight east- and west- arteries.^[24] All Borough Bosses and City Bosses on the level have a stairwell in their arena.^[7] While several Borough Bosses are defeated, no City Bosses are killed on the First Floor. The first group to defeat a Borough Boss receives Platinum Weapon Boxes in addition to Silver Boss Boxes.^[4]

Loot

The first two floors are designed to load crawlers up with a variety of loot so that they can experiment with possible builds. By the time a crawler arrives on the Third Floor, they should have a good idea of what class and race will work for them.^[25] On the first floor, low-tier Loot Boxes commonly contain torches and bandages, but no gold.

See Also: Looting Mechanics • Loot Boxes

Floor Timeline & Patch Notes

Speculation

References